Chương 28: Battle Trials (5)
'Well, that was easy.' Izuku mused as he let go of Shoto's wrists. The half-colored teen slumped to the ground; eyes wide as he stared at him with his mouth agape. He turned around and went to check the flamboyant blond, who was cowering on the floor like trembling dog.
Ojiro, meanwhile, was literally conked out after a bad fall. Izuku sympathized with that. He didn't know how many times that happened to him in Lordran, but all he knew was that if that happened, it was an express way to go the last bonfire.
All in all, nothing too damaging happened. Maybe some bruised prides and egos, but they'll recover. At least, Izuku hoped they would, otherwise he had to beat them again just to let them know losing is a way of life.
Maybe even get beaten as well since he knew he ain't invincible. Who knows, maybe one of his classmates could pull a fast one on him.
"You good?" Izuku approached Yuga and held out his arm. Frenchie accepted it and he was hauled over to his feet with a graceful flourish.
"My thanks, mon amie." Yuga bowed and twirled, his glittery cape fluttering like stars in the night sky. "Monsieur, you truly are devious and unfathomable."
Izuku didn't know whether the blond was praising him or teasing him, so he settled on both and gave the blond a pat on the back.
"Good fight. Little bit of advice, don't rely on your quirk to fight." With his words, Izuku parted with Yuga and then headed back to check up on Ojiro. A closer look and he noticed that Ojiro was starting to stir, eyelids twitching rapidly.
It wasn't long after that the plain looking teen in a gi opened his eyes and stared at the menacing helmet looking at him with its expressionless mask.
Ojiro yelped and scrambled to his feet, arms raised, and legs posed. He blinked.
Izuku blinked.
Ojiro blinked once more. He looked around and saw that the building covered in frost with a giant hole on the roof providing them light, was punctured with holes in the walls.
"… What'd I miss?" Izuku laughed at the question and gestured towards both Yuga and Shoto. More specifically, the tape around their wrists. "… Damn… I missed out."
Izuku chortled once more and approached the downed Shoto, who was still looking at him with wide eyes.
"You good?" The same question and the same gesture given to Yuga was also given to the half-colored teen. But unlike the immediate acceptance of the blond, Shoto just stared for a few seconds, before standing up on his own.
Izuku shrugged at the decision and put his hand down. "All right. Anyway, we should probably go, All Might's probably waiting for us back in the observation room."
Yuga and Ojiro wordlessly nodded, but Shoto was already one step ahead of them. Following him, Yuga balked as they descended the building via the sloped-out steps, some of the giant boulders of debris pushed away by Izuku whenever they came near them.
The same could be said for the other traps Izuku had laid within the building in reference to Sen's Funhouse. Let it be known that Izuku was a sharing type of person, and he wasn't afraid to share his grievances of that damned funhouse to those he considered friends and enemies.
It took a long, few minutes of silent walking before they were finally out of the dark and frosty building. Once out, they immediately headed back to the observation room, with Izuku and Ojiro taking the lead, and Yuga and Shoto trailing back.
Izuku didn't hear anything from the two, so they were both silent, unlike Ojiro, who kept on looking at him while trying to open his mouth, then closing it again.
"You know, if you want to talk, you can." Izuku's side-handed comment caused Ojiro to wince, before he resolved himself and took in a gulp of air.
"I was completely useless, wasn't I?" Ojiro's question didn't cause Izuku to hesitate.
"Yes, you were." Ojiro's tail visibly slumped when Izuku bluntly said what was on his mind. Even Yuga, who was trailing from behind, had to wince at the bluntness of Izuku.
"I… I see…" Ojiro then looked at Izuku with a frown. "How'd you get so strong? Is it your quirk?"
"Experience and lots and lots of failure." Izuku didn't mince his words. He didn't become strong overnight. It took countless blood, sweat, and tears to get to the level where he was at right now. Plus a few thousand souls strengthening him along with the souls of those strong enough they could level a mountain, but semantics.
What was important was for people to get over their failures and continue onward. They may fail again, even die if the situation was dire enough, but if you survived, you come out of it stronger than before.
Izuku glanced at Ojiro, his eyes hidden underneath his helmet. "I have a saying; strength is useless without proper experience. Nobody cares if you're the strongest person if you're always led around the nose like an idiot."
The words Izuku said didn't lift the frown Ojiro had on his face and it persisted right until they reached the observation room.
"BEFORE WE HEAD OVER TO OUR LAST GROUP FOR THE DAY, ALLOW ME TO SHARE WITH YOU MY OBSERVATIONS ON THIS PARTICULAR FIGHT." All Might's voice boomed across the room once again like a megaphone going full throttle in a tiny cave. "FIRST OFF, THE HERO TEAM. YOUNG TODOROKI, WE HEROES ARE PLACED INTO TEAMS FOR A REASON. WHAT YOU DID DURING THE EXERCISE WAS GROUNDS FOR SUSPENSION FOR A PRO HERO AFTER A SITUATION WAS RESOLVED, AND IN DIRE CASES, A PRO HERO'S LICENSE WOULD'VE BEEN REVOKED."
Apparently, most of the students didn't know about this particular tidbit about the hero life, as evident by their hanging jaws nearly touching the ground. However, Izuku didn't care about this happening to him. He's had a lot of practice with teamwork back in Lordran in the form of mute summons.
He'd dare any hero to top that kind of hair-pulling teamwork.
"PLEASE, MAKE SURE THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN, AM I UNDERSTOOD, YOUNG TODOROKI?" All Might's sudden glare at the half-colored teen caused him to shiver. He may have looked indifferent most of the time, but something about the number one hero made even those with muted emotions uneasy when under the influence of All Might's glare.
A few seconds of silence passed before Shoto nodded. All Might then directed his sights towards the blond attention whore. "AS FOR YOU, YOUNG AOYAMA, KNOWING WHEN TO DEFER TO A MORE EXPERIENCED HERO WHEN ON THE FIELD IS A NICE ABILITY TO HAVE, BUT IF YOU KNOW THAT WHAT THEY ARE DECIDING IS NOT WORTH THE RISK, PLEASE SPEAK UP AND LET YOUR CONCERN BE KNOWN."
Yuga, for all his flamboyance and show-stealing movements, chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the end of his glittering cape.
"Oui, monsieur All Might." All Might then turned to Ojiro, who was looking down and glum the whole time they came back from the wrecked and frosty building.
"NOW, YOUNG MASHIRAO, CARE TO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FAULTS DURING THE EXERCISE?" All Might's deep voice caused Ojiro to jolt up slightly. He then sighed as he made his gripes about his ability known.
"I was useless during the whole fight." Ojiro gestured towards Izuku with a self-depreciating smile. "Midoriya did all of the work. Set up the traps, fought the two of them alone, while all I did was fumble around when Todoroki froze the building."
"AND THAT IS WHY YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GO FAR IN YOUR CAREER AS A HERO." All Might's approval made Ojiro let out a sound that Izuku didn't know whether to categorize as confused or insulted. "KNOWING TO ADMIT YOUR FLAWS AND ACKNOWLEDGING THEM IS THE FIRST STEP TO IMPROVEMENT. NEVER FORGET THAT YOUNG MASHIRAO AND STRIVE TO BE THE BEST YOU COULD BE. PLUS ULTRA."
Ojiro didn't know whether to be relieved or happy that THE All Might complemented him even in the face of failure. It made butterflies hover around his stomach.
"NOW THEN, YOUNG MIDORIYA… PLEASE DON'T BE ANOTHER NEZU." All Might's next words made the class tilt their head in confusion, save for the student in question, who was just grinning ear to ear. "THE STAFF ALREADY HAS THEIR HANDS FULL WITH THE PRINCIPAL AND HIS ANTICS, WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER ONE."
Suddenly, the PA system came to life and radio static filled the room, before it buffered out and was replaced by the joyful tune of their very own principal.
"All Might, please meet me in my office after your exercise has concluded. Thank you." The speakers fizzled out and the room was once more bathed in silence. Until All Might broke through the veil with a defiant tune.
"I REGRET NOTHING." Now the class was really confused about the story and lore of the principal of U.A. Sadly, there was nothing they could do about it now, and some of the more intellectual ones knew that doing so would risk the rat's ire, which they didn't want over their shoulders. "ANYWAY, YOUNG MIDORIYA, YOU PERFORMED SPECTACULARLY WELL, AND THOSE TRAPS YOU MADE WERE… WELL… QUITE LETHAL, SO PLEASE, IF YOU MUST CREATE THEM DURING FUTURE EXERCISES, TONE THEM DOWN. AS FOR YOUR ACTIONS, I HAVE A SMALL RECOMMENDATION THAT YOU COULD USE IN YOUR CAREER."
"Oh?" Izuku raised an eyebrow. He was curious. What did the Symbol of Peace see in him that could be further improved?
"YOUR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS IS IMPECCABLE, HOWEVER, FROM WHAT I'VE SEEN, THAT DOESN'T APPLY TO THOSE IN YOUR TEAM." Izuku blinked, and it dawned on him.
"… Oh…" Izuku knew what All Might was talking about. It was already getting annoying to keep on saying this, but back on Lordran, he was always used to being alone, save for the time when he summoned some help to fight some harder monster. But most of the time, he was alone.
And that translated to how he fights. Enemy coming at him? No problem. Giant boulder getting hurled towards him? Easy to notice.
His summoned companion getting mauled to death by a dog? He had no idea. He would just notice it when the summons was already fading into motes of light, and here in Japan, where most of the heroes form teams and groups to better combat crime and evil, that was a huge problem.
"I SEE THAT YOU'RE CONSIDERING IT." All Might nodded and patted the shoulder of the armored teen. "I ASSUME YOU KNOW WHAT TO IMPROVE ON DURING YOUR LESSONS HERE."
Izuku nodded and All Might's grin grew a tad bigger.
"GOOD! NOW THEN, ANY IDEA WHO'S THE MVP FOR THIS ROUND?" It was a no-brainer. Most of the students either pointed at Izuku or just said his name. "ALL RIGHT THEN, NEXT GROUP, IT'S YOUR TURN."
Sato and Shoji raised their blue slip of paper, while Katsuki and Momo raised their red. On the sidelines, Minoru was crying tears of blood as he growled at Katsuki and continued chanting that the world wasn't fair.
It was high time Izuku saw the full capabilities of Katsuki, now that he thought of it. All he could remember in the past were glimpses of him being burned by Katsuki's explosion. After that, he didn't know. But what he did know was that as arrogant as the teen was before, that arrogance was warranted because of how doggedly he pursued being number one.
He would've benefited from anger management and a better school, now that he thought of it, but that didn't take away his skills and talent.
This was going to be a fun watch.
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A/N: Tiny announcement, I'm starting to create my own game via RPG Maker. I already have a direction of how I want the game to play like, but story is still in the void. I'll let y'all know when I get a working demo.
Shameless Plugs:
patreon.com/IAmGuavaFruitFictionHub (If you want to read 5 chaps ahead, head on over.)
discord.gg/v9f5kjsfVv (Darius, eat your heart out.)
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