บท 76: Chapter 76: The Attack (I)
"Something is burning?"
Smoke started to appear all around them and the moment Shido took a whiff of it, his head immediately felt lighter.
"Eri! Don't breathe in the smoke and hide in my shadow!" Shido wasted no time and ordered Eri.
Eri heard how serious Shido was and did not resist when creepy, white elongated hands started to pull her down into Shido's shadows.
"Shido!"
He turned to look at Eri who had a worried expression plastered on her face.
"Stay safe and don't die..."
Shido gave a reassuring smile and joked,"I won't. If I die, who would tease you?"
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Eri's face broke into a small smile when she heard Shido.
"Baka..."
Immediately after, she was totally submerged into the shadows.
"Now that Eri is gone, I need to find the rest of the students."
"Zafkiel! Het."
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
"Split up and find all the students and rescue them in the case of a villain attack. Don't kill them, capture them and take them back for questioning."
""""Yes!""""
The four clones replied at the same time before promptly pairing up and dashing towards both directions, one towards where the teachers were and the other deeper into the forest.
[A/N: The path is a circle.]
After instructing his clones, Shido immediately went towards the nearest class B students who were hiding within the bushes.
"Yo! Are you guys fine?"
Seeing that they were holding their breaths, he immediately realised that they couldn't speak and smacked his own head.
"Right, I'm going to bring you to my shadow realm first, alright?" Not waiting for them to respond, Shido immediately dragged the three students down to his shadow realm.
'Now, to the next students. But before that, the smoke is getting annoying...'
"Rapahel!"
His attire immediately changed to one with a small bluish-purple cape behind him, and a tight fitting purple shirt and jeans. There was a pair of metallic wings behind him and wrapped around his four limbs were chains.
On his right hand was a purple lance while on his left was a bluish-purple pendulum.
"Hoo...this attire is comfortable. Feels airy..." Shido muttered as he flew towards the centre of the forest,"Feels faster as well..."
"First, let's create a tornado to blow this annoying smoke away..."
As soon as he said that, he waved his hands up and the air gradually started to move, creating wind currents.
In this form, Shido's manipulation of the wind was very strong.
Swoosh!
Swoosh!
Within seconds, a mid-size tornado was already formed within the centre of the test-your-courage area. The smoke, which was escaping towards the students, was suddenly lured towards the tornado.
"Now that the tornado is formed, let's act as a beacon for the students, Yoshinon."
"Hell yeah!"
"Zadkiel!"
Suddenly, a giant rabbit the height of a ten metre building appeared.
RAWR!!
Although Yoshinon roared, it sounded a little cute to Shido and he couldn't help but pat it on his head.
Amplifying his voice, he shouted,"All students, evacuate towards the rabbit or the teachers' cabin, whichever one is closer to you! Make sure that you find your way as fast as possible. Reinforcements will be coming soon. And villains!"
Shido smirked and grinned wildly,"I hope you have prepared your will. I'm not a hero. I'm a vigilante."
The forest was suddenly filled with cold mist, and the trees nearby were frozen into ice popsicles.
"Now the guy producing the smoke is frozen..."
To release the smoke all around the training camp in a uniform manner, one must be in the centre of everyone, and that was where Shido currently was.
He walked towards the north and within five minutes, he found his culprit.
"Now, now, what a fine gas mask. Maybe I should take it for myself." Shido commented as he stared at the popsicle containing a boy who looked to be in his teens wearing a very elaborate gas mask and what seems to be a school uniform.
"Even a high schooler can become a villain nowadays, tsk tsk tsk..." Shido shook his head before smiling wryly,"Not that I can say that since a twelve year old became the hero at the top of the leaderboard..."
*****************
West side of the forest
"Kendo!"
"Tetsutetsu! Ibara!! What's with the masks?!" Kendo was holding her breath as she tried her best to navigate her way through the forest while holding on to her friends who have fainted.
Tetsutetsu hurriedly replied before passing her the gas masks when suddenly, she felt a strong wind. She looked towards where the wind was blowing towards and found a tornado forming in the centre of the forest.
"Huh?"
Just as she was wondering about where the tornado came from, an announcement arrived. However, unlike before with Mandalay's silent telepathy, Shido's voice rang about everywhere.
"All students, evacuate towards the rabbit or the teachers' cabin, whichever one is closer to you! Make sure that you find your way as fast as possible. Reinforcements will be coming soon. And villains! I hope you have prepared your will. I'm not a hero. I'm a vigilante."
Kendo's lip twitched at the attitude of the teacher, but she breathed a sigh of relief. With the tornado 'pulling' all the smoke towards it, they were safe even without the masks.
Tetsutetsu heard the announcement as well before pulling off his mask.
"Phew...this mask was hard to breathe in."
"Let's get back to camp. No telling where the villains could be out here..." Kendo suggested as she looked towards where the giant rabbit was.
"No!" Tetsutetsu disagreed,"I'm gonna fight. You take care of Shiozaki and Kodai."
?Huh?! But we were told not to engage..."
Tetsutetsu's eyes narrowed as he argued,"You're always giving Monoma flak, but you feel it too, deep down, right?! The difference between us and Class A..."
Not waiting for any reply, he continued,"I know I felt it, anyway...! We passed the same test to get into UA. We have the same curriculum. So what's the difference? It's obvious! What they've had and we didn't...crisis!! They take every crisis and turn it into an opportunity!! Get it? Heroes shouldn't be running from bad guys like this!!"
Letting out a determined look, he declared,"So don't try to stop me, Kendo! I'm in class 1-B of the hero course! If I don't stand up here, what's the point?! I'm gonna find these jerks and beat the snot out of them!!"
Just as he finished his declaration, a childish voice was suddenly heard,"That's a reckless but good mindset to have, but for now, please cooperate with the teachers. Even they are having a hard time stopping the villains, much less you guys."
They turned around only to find Shido come out of the shadows.
"So please, enter my shadows."
Tetsutetsu didn't look pleased,"No! Like I sa-"
"Like I said, even the teachers are having a hard time dealing with the villains. What makes you think you are better than the teachers now?" Shido didn't wait for them to finish before dragging all three unconscious students into his shadows.
"So? Are you going to enter yourself or am I going to have to drag you inside?"
Kendo didn't move and asked cautiously,"And how do we know that you're not one of the villains? You might just be shape-shifting into a Itsuka-sensei and baiting us..."
The clone heard her words and became speechless before laughing.
"Hahaha..."
"W-What?" Kendo felt embarrassed by his laughter and turned a little red.
"My dear students, if I wanted to capture you, I wouldn't need to go through all this trouble. I could have just instantly kidnapped you before you can even react."
Kendo thought about his words for a bit before realising that it was true.
"Er....fine then." Kendo sighed and eventually gave in,"Let's go Tetsutetsu, we can't help them even if we wanted to."
Tetsutetsu didn't look resigned but entered the shadow as well.
"Please take care of the rest of the class as well."
Shido smiled at him,"That's what I planned to do from the beginning."
*****************
East side of the forest
"Kya!!"
Ragdoll found herself face to face with a stranger, no, a being with an exposed brain.
"What is this?!" She wasn't a combat type hero, so being face to face with a being as strange as this freaked her out slightly. Still, she wasn't a pro hero for twelve years for nothing. Immediately analysing the situation, she realised that he had four quirks in one body - the extra arms over it's upper torso, regeneration, chainsaw limbs and a storage space.
"Storage space?!" Seeing Shido have a time-related quirk was surprising enough, but now a being has a space-related quirk as well? She was shocked out of her wits.
'Escape!' was the only thing in her mind now.
However, she soon found herself slowly turning into a marble before eventually losing her consciousness.
"???" A huge hand was trying to pick up the marble on the floor but it suddenly fell onto the floor.
"Argh? Argh!!" The nomu became confused for a while before it began making angry nomu noises.
"Shut up, you're noisy." Shido's voice rang out. He picked up the marble which was containing Ragdoll before smashing it onto the ground.
The marble disappeared and smoke appeared. In its place, Ragdoll was there lying unconscious on the ground. He quickly brought her into the shadow realm and asked the people inside to take care of her before closing his shadows.
"Now, what should I do with you? You can't die, you can't beat me and you can't escape. You are one annoying being, you know?" Shido scratched his head in frustration before eventually deciding to do the easiest thing.
"Ain soph aur."
In place of his attire, a white, long-sleeved shirt and pants appeared, with accompanying white leaves at the edge of his sleeves. The parts below his thighs were slightly translucent, and his legs were easily seen. His hair was adorned with two white flowers on each side of his hair, parting and revealing his left eye which shone brightly in the darkness.
A translucent white cape that was separated into three different sections fluttered gently behind him, forming three pairs of illusionary wings that seemed to embrace Shido himself - one pair behind his head, one pair near his shoulder blades and the last pair near his waist.
A huge circle also appeared behind Shido like how Zafkiel would, but instead of a clock, a ring, containing five different smaller circles each appeared at a 72 degree, appeared instead.
Each of the smaller circles also contained the roman numeral of one to five, with the roman numeral 'I' lit up in a bright light while the other four roman numerals remained dull. Another pair of wings was also present behind the roman numeral 'I'.
A huge flower containing a silhouette of Shido at the center of the petals appeared in his hands.
"What is this ring behind me...?" Shido himself didn't understand what this meant, but it wasn't the time to admire his own appearance.
"Now that nobody is nearby, I can finally use this..."
"Bloom, Ain soph aur."
As the white flower bloomed beautifully, white light also started to float around the surroundings.
"Argh?" The nomu wasn't the most intelligent creature on Earth, so it didn't even hesitate to charge towards the human who ruined it's orders.
"Argh!!!!" As he yelled out a battle cry while dashing towards Shido, a floating bright light accidentally touched his skin and instantly, the nomu fell to the ground and stopped moving.
"Sigh, this is really too strong. My energy is draining at an amazing speed..." He quickly deactivated Ain soph aur and his attire returned to normal.
"Phew..." Just as he was about to leave, a sudden telepathic message suddenly appeared in his mind and he smiled,"Not that it matters whether or not the students use their quirk. The other clones would be going to their directions either way."
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