Chapter Seventy-Five
Bakugo charged the creature, flying through the air as he was propelled by a blast, both hands swinging forward, even as Koda tried to beg it not to attack them, the rock-headed boy's actions telling me that his Quirk had no feedback, unable to tell that it wasn't a creature he could communicate with.
Ignoring our resident Doolittle, the Bombing King slammed into the creature's skull-plate shoving hand into the dirt-golem's eye socket and setting off a blast that blew apart the back of its skull, propelling the blond boy back to avoid the puppet's grasping claws, as the entire thing destabilized, falling to pieces.
"It's, it's not real?" Deku, sparking with the emerald crackles of his One for All, questioned.
More creatures started emerging, including a dirt dragon, which could somehow fly, the others looking around in fear.
"Sparky, what do we do?" Mina asked, looking to me, and I considered the issue, a four-legged creature charging us, only to be stopped cold by Todoroki freezing its feet to the ground, and Midoriya leaping up, then off a tree, coming down in a spinning kick that snapped its head completely off its body.
I knew that, whatever the original plan was, it didn't work at all, but we hadn't seen why. Just a hard cut from fighting to arriving, at sunset, and several hours late. The thing was, if I wanted to avoid that happening, I needed to know what, in the first place, had gone wrong.
"If we don't make it to the camp fast enough," Sato exclaimed, the sugar-fueled brawler looking around, "then we won't get anything to eat!" Which might've seemed a bit silly of a complaint on the surface, but given his Quirk was literally food-powered, that was more of an issue than it seemed.
Momo nodded, the fellow calorie-fueled student declaring, "He's right. We have no choice but to cut through these woods using the shortest possible route!"
Which was. . . not right, even as the others nodded. Maybe it was my foreknowledge that we'd be lucky to make it there by sundown, but even then. . . that kind of planning, or lack thereof, didn't work. Even from what little we'd seen of them, the Pussycats weren't teachers, that much was clear, Aizawa, Midnight, or Cementoss never trying the kind of shit they'd just pulled, which meant their assessments of difficulty were in question, not having done this a hundred times like the UA staff had.
"All right," Ida nodded, once again trying to take control of a situation he didn't have the authority to command, nor the skill to succeed in doing so. "Let's go, Class A!"
The others moved forward with a collective energetic cry, splitting off into their own subgroups and doing their own thing, Shoji and Jiro playing recon, while other people formed ad-hoc teams, everyone except for Mina and I fighting their hardest. Their hardest.
"Sparky?" my lover asked, and I thought about it, directing her to, "Go, but pace yourself."
She nodded, quickly kicking off her shoes and holding them out for me, which I accepted with an indulgent smile, as she took off on streams of acid from her feet, using concentrated spurts to dissolve the ankles of the dirt constructs.
I, meanwhile, slowly walked forward.
The monsters were fearsome, yes, and imposing, growling and charging in ways that made them seem alive, but, watching them, none of them came for me. Looking around, I could spot issues here and there, moments of weakness where a student was safely away from the dirt-golem that they were fighting, but open to attack from another that was currently engaging someone else. But the creations didn't take the opportunity, merely continuing to fight their targets, as the students fought back as hard as they could.
. . . They're playing with us, I realized, as not a single monster went for Shoji or Jiro, despite them just standing there, occasionally scurrying forward to take another position, but with no real defensive rhyme or reason. Yes, the two self-appointed scouts could probably see the monsters better than I could, but as one charged past them to go after Sato, who, still on his sugar-high, caught the twenty-foot-tall construct and tried to suplex it, to limited success, the monsters weren't going after them at all.
The first one had gone for us, and, without people fighting, I doubted the blonde Pussycat would leave us alone, but she was practically humoring us, letting everyone play to their strengths, which isn't how combat actually worked.
Once again, I felt annoyance about this entire thing. I wasn't a Pro Hero, but I was a teacher, or had been before, and this. . . this was indulging us in all of the worst ways. Maybe this was something that would be addressed later on in the camp, if it hadn't gone so wrong, but it set a bad precedence. However, if the 'enemy' would make the mistake of letting us have time to think, and plan, I was going to take full advantage of it.
Seeing Momo start to create something, I put my hand on her shoulder. "Don't," I warned, and she shot me a confused look. "Tell me, what's wrong with this?" I questioned, only getting the edges of the issue myself, as I observed the fighting in nearly every direction. Nearly every direction.
Not letting go of her, I started to drag the girl, just a little, but I was moving so slowly that she easily turned and started moving with me, on our slow, ambling walk through the forest-cum-battlefield. She looked around, letting the bit of metal she'd been extruding fall to the ground, focusing on the task I'd given her. "I, maybe we could coordinate a little better?" she questioned, unsure.
We slowly passed a tree, Sero wrapping together the wings of a dirt-pterodactyl, riding it down with a holler of excitement, running it right into a hardened Kirishima, who, with a yell of his own, punched through its beak and nearly split the construct in half in an impressive display, the rest of its body falling apart into clods of earth, another monster forming in the far-distance, barely seen through the dense screen of trees, this one a minotaur-esque creation.
In the other direction, Tokoyami and Ida were double-teaming a dirt-snake, the raven headed boy using Dark Shadow to hold it still while Ida, with a cry of "Recipro Burst!" flew forward on blue-flaming legs, delivering a devastating kick that broke its serpentine skull, doing enough damage to 'kill' it. It was all very impressive, but what was actually going on here?
"We're, what, fifteen klicks from the camp, right?" I questioned the girl, and she nodded. "And we've been moving for about a minute. How far have we gotten?"
My friend, presented with a much more straightforward problem, solved it in seconds, her eyes widening. "At this rate, it'll be one or two in the afternoon before we reach our destination!" she gasped, which wasn't quite right, which in turn meant that I was still missing something.
Elsewhere, Deku and Todoroki were working in tandem to lock down and eliminate golems at a rate I'd be hard pressed to match without draining my reserves. Draining my reserves.
It wasn't the last piece of the puzzle, but it was the last anchor I needed, along with my foreknowledge that the red Pussycat had either been lying to us, or had been hilariously off in her estimation, neither of which was something the girl I was still holding would've likely considered, what with her belief in authority figures, the rest of the picture snapping into place in rapid succession. "Oh, it's worse than that," I informed her slowly, almost hissing the words as understanding dawned. "Remember our finals, which were limited to a mere half an hour, instead of three hours of this."
I waved all around us, to the chaotic mess of combat going on in every direction. "And, except for maybe Deku and Bakugo, none of us were fighting this hard, for even that long."
She nodded. "It's because of our non-human foes," she said, more to herself than me, but I nodded back, not having considered that aspect, which she correctly took that as a prompt for her to keep going. "Against the teachers, even against Mr. Power Loader, we were fighting like we would against Villains. We were trying to capture them. Here," she motioned as Midoriya, with a yell of "Detroit Smash!" blew through a turtle-monster's shell, "we need to hit harder to stop them, harder than we would our teachers, but we aren't thinking. Even I-" she hesitated, flushing.
"Yes?" I asked her, not sure where she was going.
"I was going to make a cannon," she admitted. "Which would be able to take out our current foes, but would be draining."
I stopped, still holding onto the girl's shoulder, realizing I was and letting her go as I motioned to the uneven, root-covered ground around us. "And how were you going to transport it?" I questioned, the girl flushing even darker. "But it's not just you. Momo, what's our mission?"
"To defeat our foes, and reach the camp?" she questioned, once more hesitating as I gave her a deadpan look. "Isn't it?"
"I don't recall either the red or blue one saying a single word about defeating anything," I reminded her. "And be honest, doesn't this read exactly like one of Aizawa's 'Rational Deceptions'?"
My friend paled. "Oh my goodness, it does, doesn't it? How could I have missed it?"
Because you don't know the future? Because you're used to modern academia, where the answers are all provided in a straightforward manner? Because you're still thinking like a civilian? Because of all three? I thought, but didn't say, instead smiling, and reaching over to the girl, moving to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder, only for her to turn, head lowered, and I ended up doing so to her cheek instead, causing her to freeze, blushing scarlet.
Sure, let's go with this. "You and everyone else in class," I reminded her, leaving my hand there for a moment, running a thumb over her high, aristocratic cheekbone, as the fighting continued unabated, ever so slowly leaving us behind. "Mina might've noticed, or she might've just noticed that I'd noticed," I shrugged, pulling my hand away. "Now, I need you to go warn the others to pull it back a little, as we're in this for the long haul."
"And you?" she questioned, standing straighter, regaining her confident demeanor, though still with a dusting of red on her cheeks.
I smiled, "I need to see a man about a bird."
MHA
Koda had been vastly misusing his talents, the boy trying to use the forest fauna as distractions, and it was only the golem's slowness, and maybe the Pussycat's desire to maintain ecological stability, that hadn't turned his fight into a bloodbath. Inside my closed hand, I'd Created a bit of metal, stepping up beside the boy and warning him, "Call them off and cover your ears," as I'd lifted a crackling arm.
He'd done so, and the golem had charged us, while I'd just flicked the iron sphere up into the air, so that it'd fall between my extended pointer and pinkie fingers, spinning up the appropriate charges. With a Crack I'd blasted its head to pieces, turning to the Beast Speaker and motioning for him to pull his hands away from his head.
Less than three minutes later, I'd had our destination, and with a call of, "Everyone, follow me!" I'd started jogging towards it.
"What? Wait!" Ida had called in response, but with Koda, Mina, and Momo already following me, the others had been dragged along, turning our pell mell pugilism into a running combat until we'd broken from the tree-line into a decent sized glade a good couple hundred feet across, a few monsters already waiting for us inside it. I'd let off two more shots, still well within my Creation Quirk tolerances, before Bakugo and Deku had blurred by me, taking on the rest.
"Todoroki, Ice walls," I'd commanded, motioning to our sides, and he'd nodded, setting out to make them. "Everyone else, we need to secure the perimeter. Bakugo, Ida, Tokoyami, Mina, you're team 1, hold off any dirt golems that show up, but don't overstress yourself. Sero, Mineta, you're team 2, set up some tape and balls that way," I waved in the direction of the camp, where several more golems were trudging for us, "but remember your Quirks are limited in quantity, and we'll need more of them later. Shoji, Koda, Jiro, team 3, coordinate with the others to warn them before we get hit. Asui, Uraraka, Aoyama, 4, handle airborne issues, same as the others. Sato, Kirishima, you guys obviously haven't learned from Cementoss. Take 5. Minutes, not team, you're beat," I rattled off, trying to make sure I hadn't forgotten anyone, my eyes pausing on the empty uniform, the girl not really having any skills I could leverage, but screw it, better include her anyways. "Deku, Hagakure, Momo, on me."
"What do you think you're doing!?" Ida demanded, running up to me, the others hesitating, except for Bakugo, who looked around, frowning, before his head snapped over to me. He nodded, and blasted off, to fight the golems, while Todoroki, who ignored the speedster, still formed and reinforced his ice walls, turning for a moment and blasting out a bit of flame straight up into the air to defrost himself.
"I'm getting us there by lunch," I replied, turning my back on him as Deku leapt over, giving me a questioning look.
"By stopping!? I know you think you need to be in charge-" Tenya started to chastise me, so I turned back around.
"Oh shut the fuck up, Iida!" I snapped, the boy having learned nothing, apparently, the rest of the class watching us, focused on the drama instead of securing the area, and would continue gawking until this was dealt with.
Fine, then I'd deal with it.
"Your 'plan' amounts to 'fight in the vague direction of where we're going', and, if we can keep up the pace, we'll get there hours after our deadline," I informed him, Momo, clearly uncomfortable with this, nevertheless nodding in agreement beside me. "Get your projection issues under control, or go ahead and try and make it yourself. Nothing about what we've been told to do said we had to all do it together, which is what I'm trying to do, and I can make this work without you quite easily. If we're going to work together, we need to work together, not this half-assed, 'everyone do whatever' bullshit, where you're too busy fighting to help, you know, lead."
"I'm not projecting," the boy stiffly replied. "And you did this very same thing on I-Island!"
I opened my hands, "And what do you know, so did you. Held us up because you had an issue, but yelled and cried instead of presenting your points like an adult. Only, then, my plan let us reset the security system so thousands of innocents didn't die, and yours would've left Black Tech and David Shield in the hands of murderous mercenaries, along with who knows what else they'd've done to cover their escape. So, just like then, either put up or shut up, as you've got us, what, five percent of the way there in ten percent of the time we had to do it, and already some people are starting to flag. Unless you've got some grand plan, that you were waiting for everyone to tire themselves out for before you'd reveal it, and it wasn't just the same thing, but harder, in which case I'd really like to hear it!"
From the boy's expression, he'd given zero thought as to our progress, or had a plan other than 'fight a lot', and while 'hot blooded fighting spirit' was all well and good, unless we were in Gurren Lagann, that didn't mean shit against reality. "Your attitude is unbecoming of a hero," the petulant teen finally accused.
"Ah, personal attacks," I almost sneered, my patience for the boy long since spent. "How heroic."
"Denki?" Momo asked, and I realized I was being a bit more heated than the situation really warranted, but. . .
"His leading style gets people killed," I stated flatly, putting my finger on it. "If this wasn't training, it'd get us killed today."
And I'd seen it happen before. Lost people, like. . . like. . .
Shaking my head, I pushed that half-formed thought from my mind, refocusing on the boy. "And I don't get where this arrogance of yours comes from, Ida. What, because you're from a Hero Family that makes you better than the rest of us?" I questioned, pausing at the teen's flinch. "Wait, are you fucking serious? By that logic, we should all be listening to Todoroki, because his dad's the Number Two Hero!"
"I'd rather you didn't," said boy noted, re-forming a bit of the wall that cracked, the golems on the other side trying to break through.
"Fine. Okay. Whatever, you fucking moron," I shook my head, the thermokinetic looking a little hurt. "I meant him," I added, jerking a thumb at the fuming speedster, causing Shoto to nod in understanding, as I turned to face Ida.
"You're not in charge here, not any more than I am, you have contributed nothing except for acting like you are, and some basic fighting skills. I'm going to fulfil our mission, with however many people want to follow me," I declared, "and I'm literally not stopping anyone that wants to try it on their own. Now, 'Ingenium', are you actually gonna do the bare minimum of what you keep on threatening to do, and give it a shot on your own, or are you gonna do the same exact fucking thing as before, and hold us up, wasting our precious time, because you decided to have another useless hissy fit in the middle of a combat zone?"
With the gauntlet well and truly thrown, I glared at the boy, who turned to look at the others for support. "He's telling us to stop! I'm the saying we should keep moving!" the engine-legged teen called out to them, "Well?"
No one said a word. I mean, Bakugo yelled "Fucking Die!" in the distance, single-handedly holding off the enemy, but that didn't really count.
Holy shit, I couldn't help but think, as the Legacy Hero student wilted a little under the combined stares of most of the class. Is this what it's like to wield social power?
"I can see I am alone in understanding that we cannot reach our destination by hiding away," he announced, back straight, and nose up in the air. "I will endeavor to see if I can convince out teachers to save some food for the rest of you."
And with that, the boy took off, leaving us behind, something that surprised the others, by their expressions, Sero commenting, "Dude, what a dick."
"Let's not waste time talking about him," I directed. "Teams, spread out and do what you need to do, as soon as we can get a moment of peace, we can start making this work. Hopefully, him running off will split the blonde's focus."
"Pixie-Bob," Deku stated, and I looked at him in confusion for a second before I realized he was giving me the woman's name. "And, Kaminari, shouldn't I be on the fighting team?"
Sighing, not having expected that blowup, I shook my head. "In a sec, but you've got needed intel I need to plan around. And, sorry, I know you're friends, but he just reminds of someone I knew. Someone who got people hurt." Who that person was escaped me, but that wasn't important now.
"It's, it's fine," the green-haired boy deferred. "Tenya, he means well." My eye twitched at the phrasing. "But, he didn't have a plan, did he?"
"Given, if he had had one, it would've defanged my entire point to throw it in my face, no, I don't think he did," I agreed.
Momo spoke up from beside me. "In point of fact, as this class's President and Vice-President, we are actually vested with an authority that he does not possess. I am surprised you did not bring that up, Denki, given your. . . vehemence."
"I, uh, didn't even think of that," I winced, getting surprised looks from the other two, and maybe Toru as well, from her body language. "Sorry, not used to the entire 'institutional power' thing. But, that doesn't matter. Izuku, you're our resident cape geek. What can you tell me about the Pussycat's Quirks?"
"Cape. . . " he echoed, his turn to be confused. "Oh, because Heroes wear capes. And the Pussycat's? They're, um, not my favorites, but. . ."
Despite his protestations, the boy's information was more than sufficient. 'Tiger' was a muscular man who was a low-level Mr. Fantastic, focusing on fighting capabilities instead of pure elongation and extreme 'I'm a ball now!' shapeshifting. 'Mandalay' was the one in red, with a one-way telepathic ability, which she used to be a living speaker that could be used to pass messages to trapped people buried in rubble, and which also gave her a vague sense of the minds around her, but nothing specific enough to fight by. 'Ragdall', the one who'd gotten, might get, grabbed by AfO, had a Quirk that could monitor up to 100 people. And finally was 'Pixie-Bob', who was an extremely powerful terrakinetic, and who was the source of the monsters.
Our opponent could extend her senses, to a limited degree, through the creations, even giving them an animal intelligence of their own, which is why they growled, yelped in distress when thrown, and all of the other weirdly-realistic behaviors they were exhibiting.
Which was. . . well, it was very obvious why the others put up with the blonde's antics, because she was carrying the whole damn team.
And, as I'd feared and suspected, she could keep this up literally all fucking day.
"Fuuuuuuck," I groaned, "Which means that if we turn this into an endurance match. . ."
"You were correct, at the very least," Yaoyorozu smiled encouragingly. "You said you had a plan?"
I smiled, "Momo, I've got three. And, with a defended space to work in this big, we can go with the best of the three."
"And that is?" Toru questioned excitedly.
My smile extended out into a mischievous grin, as I looked forward to our 'trainer's' reactions when we showed up on time. "If the enemy controls the earth, we take to the skies."
AN: Next Four Chapters are up on , as usual!
Music
Bakugo Charged Forward - Boku No Hero Academia [Original Soundtrack] - "Ara rara!" (U.A Reporting For Duty! )
What do you think you're doing!? - 06 Tomodachigokko ja Irarenai - MY HERO ACADEMIA 2nd OST 1