Here's the third chapter! But before you all begin, some of you may wonder how Neo utilized her Quirk in the Quirk Apprehension Test.
Here's how: She creates a second layer around the object or part of her body, manipulates the layer in a way that would benefit her, increases strength and levitation, and freely uses it at her whim.
Overactive Imagination is seriously OP when made into a Creative Quirk.
That is all and enjoy the chapter!
U.A. High
After yesterday, today's lessons and activities were fairly normal despite that the teachers are Pro Heroes. Whenever they had lunch, they ate at the main cafeteria with food served by Lunch Rush at reasonable prices.
Neo would sit next to Toru and eat until her tray was empty, and the latter giggled at how fast she was eating...
"Slow down, Neo. It isn't going anywhere," Toru sheepishly remarked, then again, she enjoyed Lunch Rush's food as well,
Once lunch was over, everyone returned to their respective classrooms, and the next period was something everyone in Class 1-A wanted: Hero Basic Training...
"I am here...!" A familiar voice loudly declared, then came the top hero of Japan, "Coming through the door like a hero!"
His very presence puts everyone in awe as All Might is made a member of U.A. High's Faculty and the costume he wore was that of Silver Age. Even though Neo has read about the Silver Age of Heroes, seeing it person gives off a couple of chills in her body as a smile crawls up to her lips.
"I teach Hero Basic Training. It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero," All Might explained, "You'll take the most units of this subject!"
All Might then his back to all of them, "Let's get right into it! This is what we'll do today-"
Then he brought up a card with the word 'Battle' on it, "Combat Training!"
"Combat!" Katsuki fiercely parroted,
"Training..." Izuku finished,
"And to go with that are these!" All Might added and pointed at the wall, where tall compartments opened before them, "Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started,"
Once again, everyone was in awe and Neo couldn't help but feel excited for today's training. After everyone had grabbed their costumes, it was time to change into them...
Ground Beta
"They say the clothes make the man, young men, and ladies," All Might said, "Be fully aware... From now on... you are heroes!"
Everyone now wore a variety of clothes that made them look the part of heroes. Neo's hero costume consists of a white dress with four diamond-shaped buttons, white gloves, black knee-high socks, and white knee-high shoes. (For a simple reference, Trucy Wright's clothes but without the cape)
"That's great, everyone. You all look cool!" All Might praised, "Now, shall we begin, you zygotes?"
Everyone silently agreed to All Might's words and Toru turned to Neo, "Wow, Neo. That almost looks like your costume from your magic show in Middle School,"
Neo smiled and gestured, "It is, but I had its sizes adjusted and lost the cape I normally wear. But if I wanted the cape, I'd just make it out of my Quirk,"
"That seems reasonable," Toru said, "Unlike a certain someone in class,"
Neo knew who she was referring to, a classmate wearing a suit of armor and a flashy purple cape. But as he was strutting his shining armor, Jun just raised her eyebrow in confusion while her costume mainly consisted of a crop top with an open rectangular front, thin black fingerless gloves, and long spandex pants (Simple Reference: Barbara Ann's Cheetah minus the cheetah spots of the spandex)
"Now, it's time for combat training!" All Might declared,
"Sensei!" Iida called with a raised hand, "This is a battle center from the entrance exam, so will we be conducting urban battles again?"
"No, we're going to move ahead two steps!" All Might responded while raising two fingers, "Most of the time, fighting villains takes place outside, but if you look at the total numbers, atrocious villains appear indoors at a higher rate. Imprisonment, house arrest, backroom deals. In this society filled with heroes, truly intelligent villains hide in the shadows!"
"For this class, you'll be split into villains and heroes and fight 2-on-2 indoor battles," All Might revealed,
"Without basic training?" Tsuyu inquired,
"This is a real battle to understand those basics!" All Might said, "However, the key this time is that there's no robot you can just beat up,"
What soon followed were various questions from Class 1-A. After some time, All Might had a couple of sweats down his face as hee was downplayed by his students, "I'll answer all your questions!"
Then All Might pulled out a small script in hand and read the scenario, " Now listen here. The situation is that the villains have hidden a nuclear weapon somewhere in their hideout. The heroes are trying to dispose of that. The heroes need to catch the villains or get the nuclear weapon back in the allotted time. The villains need to protect the nuclear weapon for the whole time or catch the heroes,"
After explaining the scenario, All Might then brought out a lots box to them, "Teams and opponents will be determined by drawing lots!"
"They're being decided so haphazardly?" Iida exclaimed,
"Pro often have to create makeshift teams with heroes from other agencies, so maybe that's why?" Izuku presumed,
"I see. The discernment to look ahead..." Iida understood, then bowed his head, "Please excuse my rudeness!"
"It's fine!" All Might assured, "Any more questions?"
"I have one," Jun said as she raised her hand, "What of the extra team?
"Thought you'd never ask! Fear not, for I have that part covered as we go by!" All Might assured, "Now, let's do this quickly!"
After everyone had drawn their lots, these were the following pairs for today's training: Team A is Izuku and Uraraka, Team B is Shoji and Shoto, Team C is Mineta and Momo, Team D is Katsuki and Iida, Team E is Mina and Aoyama, Team F is Koda and Sato, Team G is Denki and Jiro, Team H is Fumikage and Asui, Team I is Ojiro and Toru, Team J is Sero and Kirishima, and Team K is Jun and Neo.
"The first teams to fight will be..." All Might dramatically started as he dug his hands into two respective boxes for roles and pulled out Team A and D, "These two! Team A will be the heroes, and Team D will be the villains. Everyone else, move towards the monitor room,"
Several Minutes Later...
The overall instruction for both teams is that Villains have five minutes to prepare and the Heroes will break in after the allotted time. The rest of the team watched Team A and D's progress in this exercise, and that's when they learned Katsuki's strategy was a surprise attack against Izuku and Uraraka.
Additionally, he was alone in his assault and Iida remained by the weapon at all times. This was expected on Katsuki's part, but what everyone didn't expect was for Izuku to throw Katsukiover on his shoulder through martial arts. Even with the audio muted in the monitor room, they could tell that this was a rivalry between Izuku and KatsukiAfterer a brief recap of the exercise, Izuku remains to face Katsukiwhile Uraraka goes ahead to find the weapon. Izuku showed great reaction and incredible foresight to predict Katsuki's actions what follows is the latter chasing after the former when Izuku chooses to run.
At this point, Katsukiwas blowing a fuse especially when small explosions were popping from the palms of his hands. While he's searching for Izuku, Uraraka has located the weapon as well as Iida. But the latter has discovered her as well and played the role of a villain.
Speaking of being found, Katsuki had found Izuku as well. Instead of resorting to a close-up fight, Katsuki pulled out a hidden compartment from one of his grenade gauntlets and revealed a pin. After he pulled it, the barrel unleashed a massive powerful explosion that rumbled the entire building as well as the monitor room.
When the smoke clears, they see Izuku has his costume damaged but is dumbfounded by the firepower behind Katsuki's grenade gauntlets. But while everyone was eyeing Katsuki and Izuku, Neo was watching Uraraka attempting to secure the weapon on her own.
Though she made herself float towards the weapon with her Quirk, Iida outclassed her in terms of speed as he kept it out of her reach. Even though the latter didn't look the part he was playing his role well than Katsuki.
"Bakugo-shonen, the next time you use that, I will stop the fight and your team will lose," All Might warned, "To attack on such a large scale inside is inviting the destruction of the stronghold you should be protecting. That is a foolish plan for heroes and villains. You will lose points for it!"
Neo could tell that he was fuming with frustration, but Katsuki relented and went for a full-on assault. Izuku goes for stance but part of the floor broke and attempted a counterattack against direct attack. But Katsuki outmaneuvered him and struck the blow against Izuku's back with an explosion.
From what she assessed from this footage, Bakugo used the first explosion to change his course while it doubled as a smokescreen, the second to stop in a certain direction, and the third for a clean hit against Izuku's back. This kind of attack requires some adjustments to his explosions, and Katsuki proved to be quite an adversary against Izuku.
Especially when Katsuki swung his right grenade gauntlet hard on Izuku's back, grabbed him by the arm, used a burst of explosions to spin, and threw Izuku on the ground. But despite this, Izuku had some energy to run in a certain direction and Neo pondered about his intentions.
But that would be revealed when the two were about to clash with Izuku finally using his Quirk to face him. Before the two could trade their final blows, Izuku had instead used his Quirk on the ceiling even though he took the brunt of Katsuki's explosion.
Neo then turned to the monitor where Uraraka was standing and saw her use her Quirk on a large pillar and strike the rubble like baseballs. With Iida focused on shielding himself, he didn't notice Uraraka floating overhead and securing the weapon.
Thus, Team A won but everyone didn't have the nerve to cheer from the aftermath of their battle. If it were summarized, The Heroes lost the battle but won the war as Fumikage described.
What follows is Izuku being taken to the infirmary for Recovery Girl again...
A Few Minutes Later...
"Well, even if I say that the MVP for this battle was Young Iida!" All Might announced even though the Villains lost the exercise,
The reason is Iida is more adapted to his role. Bakugo acted on his own due to a personal grudge, the same goes for Izuku after he blew the ceiling despite the damage he sustained, and Uraraka let herself be discovered and her final attack was reckless towards the weapon.
Though Momo explained it in detail after All Might asked how and why...
As for Neo, she playfully clapped her hands and gave a thumbs-up when Momo turned to her. The latter's response was a prideful smile and everyone moved to another location for the next match. But as the rest went, Neo turned to Katsuki and saw the sheer anguish after Izuku's victory had wounded his pride.
For that, she walked over to him and tugged his arm. This caused Katsuki to snap out of his trance as he glanced at her and Neo nudged her head towards the others. His response was a tongue click but doesn't say anything as he marched along with the rest of the class.
The next match for today's exercise was Team B as the Heroes and Team I as the Villains. Despite Toru's plan to ambush them, Shoto proved this match to be overwhelmingly one-sided as he froze the entire building and retrieved the weapon alone.
Most of the class and All Might were shivering from the cold, while few observed the outcome of the battle. Neo turned to a devastated Katsuki as Shoto's overall Quirk struck another blow to his pride. It also worsened when Shoto melted all the ice with his left hand.
After that match, every other team had their respective matches in various locations on Ground Beta and it's no surprise that everyone has their approach and strategy in playing the heroes and villains. Save for Team K as they were the extra team of Class 1-A...
"Alright, everyone! It's time for Team K to have its chance on today's exercise!" All Might declared and brought out another ballot box, "Step forward and grab a ball! If it's white, you'll play the heroes. If not, you'll play the villains!"
Jun would walk over as Neo insisted, dig her hand into the ballot box, and pull out the black ball, "It's settled! Team K will be the Villains! As for the heroes you'll go against..."
All Mightdugg his hand onto another box and pulled a single ball with the letter B, "Will be this team! The rest of you will remain in the monitor room as usual!"
This caught everyone's interest as Shoto Todoroki, one of the three students accepted from recommendations, is up against Neo Valentina, another student from recommendations. Toru, who had faced Shoto before, placed her hand on Neo's shoulder and pumped her fist, "Good luck, Neo-chan!"
Neo nodded, and Toru went with the other students. But as they left with All Might, Shoto walked over and set his reserved heterochromia eyes directly on Neo's heterochromia eyes.
The former had heard Yaoyorozu's remarks on Neo being the top of Shikaku Academy's top students. Neo may not read his thoughts with her Quirk, she noticed his intentions from his eyes alone...
"I won't lose against you," Shoto nonchalantly declared,
Neo's response was a nod of affirmation and a look of determination.
With that done, she and Jun enter the building where their match will occur while Neo looks back at Shoto for the last time. Once Team K had positioned themselves near their weapon, they got five minutes of preparation.
And that was all the time she needed for this exercise...
That's right! I'm ending it here and having the match occur in the next chapter! Which may come in February because I'll be focusing on my Original Stories in January!
But hey, at least you guys got three chapters of the story instead of two!
That is all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!