Chương 43: Episode 12. Part IV.
After the match between them was announced, the blond and the green-haired boy exchanged glances. At first, the latter nervously looked away, but then he pulled himself together and firmly met Bakugo's gaze, which both impressed and angered him. That guy really needed therapy, as any irritation triggered the same reaction from him.
No worries though. We're treating Toga, Iida will get therapy, Setsuna's already cured, and you'll be next, dear…
Their fight promised to be entertaining, and I regretted not bringing some popcorn or another snack.
Speaking of food…
"Himiko," I stepped into the corner, into the shadows, and quietly called the sulking blonde. With a sour expression, Toga sat against the wall, showing no interest in her classmates or the earlier match, doodling something in the dust. Hearts, it seemed.
"Huh?"
"It's time to start preparing for our turn…"
It took her a few seconds to make the connection, and then her indifferent eyes slowly widened with excitement.
"I'm so happy! It's so romantic…"
Sigh, how am I ever going to cure her of this kind of mania?
But for now, that didn't matter. If the school administration had allowed her to attend after a psychological consultation, they must have concluded that her condition wasn't critical and that frequent quirk usage wouldn't worsen it. I shouldn't doubt their competence too much.
At the moment, I just wanted to win our match. I had my suspicions that the opponent assignment wasn't entirely random. If things went as expected, Toga would play a key role in my victory.
I unfastened my bracer and took off the glove from my left hand.
"Dinner is served, milady."
*Bite*
I winced involuntarily as Toga's eager fangs pierced my skin.
After this match, I was dragging Himiko to the support department by the scruff of her neck if necessary. They needed to find a way for her costume to collect blood samples more easily! This was a matter of survival—it hurt, dammit!
***
After we switched locations—seems like they'll change buildings for each match if the participants don't hold back their strength—Midoriya and Jiro were labeled as heroes and sent to wait by the doors. Meanwhile, the villains, Bakugo and a thoroughly embarrassed by her villainous role, Uraraka, went to study their defense zones.
The brunette desperately and unsuccessfully tried to make contact with Katsuki (I think she made it worse by mentioning Deku). On the other hand, things weren't going much better for the heroes—Jiro wasn't really paying attention to the secret chosen one of All Might and clearly aimed to take the lead.
Let's see how this goes.
As soon as the fifteen-minute countdown began, Katsuki, ignoring Uraraka, charged straight at Midoriya's team. That was expected.
What wasn't expected were the surprises that followed.
First, Jiro, after signaling Midoriya to stop, plugged her earphone jack into the wall. She tracked both Uraraka, who was stuck in defense, setting up traps alone, and Bakugo, rushing to share his discontent.
Team "A" wisely decided not to confront Katsuki head-on and went around.
Every building had several paths leading up, so it was entirely possible for them to reach their destination while avoiding conflict. The blond, quickly descending and not finding Deku (he seriously shouted that nickname across the building, causing Midoriya, running up, to shudder and nearly cross himself), immediately realized what was happening and practically flew upstairs.
The cameras followed the participants. This gave me a chance to study Katsuki's movements in detail: with his arms spread and creating explosions from his palms, the guy not only sped up but could also fly for short distances. It looked pretty similar to what I do… except he was better. I couldn't bypass the need to first create markers, which would waste extra movements and time. On the other hand, my running and jumping method, thanks to almost automatic marker creation, could theoretically make me faster… though it didn't change the fact that he could fly, and I couldn't.
Fortunately, I had long since developed an idea to address that.
Jiro tracked Katsuki several times, allowing the team to change their route and successfully avoid confrontation. And since he hadn't coordinated with Ochako, the heroes had an advantage.
But he still caught up to them on the second-to-last floor, apparently guessing the right flight.
And that's when Midoriya stepped up. It seemed like the ten minutes of preparation and the five minutes of fleeing gave him enough time to formulate a plan because, instead of getting knocked out in a direct confrontation, he executed a clever strategy that led to their victory.
But let's take it step by step.
When Katsuki, somehow anticipating their location, jumped out at them with an explosion ready, Midoriya reacted in time while Jiro didn't.
So, he pushed her back, slightly scorching his embarrassing costume in the process but remaining mostly unscathed. He stood over her protectively.
Which was rather amusing, considering that Jiro, with her whips, was far more dangerous in close combat than Izuku. At the moment, anyway.
Katsuki screamed something about "stop making a fool out of me!" and lunged forward, raising his right fist…
Izuku stepped back, turned sideways…
Grabbed his arm…
And slammed Bakugo into the ground with a rather clean over-the-shoulder throw.
Hmm, I had suspected he'd been going somewhere. Jiu-jitsu, huh?
Well, for a scrawny quirkless teen, it was a good choice—solid self-defense, using the opponent's strength, weight, and momentum against them, and more practical, in my opinion, than judo. Clearly, he knew a thing or two, and the throw was pretty good.
Except now that he had One-For-All, designed for direct, overwhelming confrontations, jiu-jitsu had become nearly useless for him.
"Yui, Yui, did you see that? I know what that's called! It's Ippon Seoi Nage, an over-the-shoulder throw with an arm grab!" Setsuna whispered excitedly and proudly.
"That's jiu-jitsu, Tsuna, not judo."
"Uh… oops."
The rest of the class started buzzing. No one had expected much from Midoriya until now, and that was a mistake.
Things changed again when Bakugo exploded off the floor, scattering them in all directions. He blinded Midoriya with an explosion to the face, using it as a smoke screen, simultaneously launching himself upward to attack Izuku from behind.
Then, accelerating with one hand, he grabbed poor nerd-boy with the other and slammed him into the tiles—just like the jiu-jitsu throw but adjusted for superhuman strength.
I snorted. Sure, he could create explosions, had a body resistant to them, and his physical strength was enhanced.
Even Shoto Todoroki deigned to speak:
"I didn't think he was the thinking type, but he's more thoughtful than I thought."
I wondered how long he had to think to come up with that line.
Kirishima didn't get it, so Shoto explained what Bakugo had done. Then Momo chimed in with her own pseudo-intellectual thoughts on inertia and explosion force—clearly not missing any opportunity to show off.
Maybe I was wrong about her after all—perhaps she did design her own costume.
Meanwhile, instead of lying down and listening to Bakugo's childish accusations—like "you had a quirk all along?!" and "stop looking down on me!" and "stop ignoring me!"—Midoriya shouted:
"Do it!"
And Jiro did.
Instead of running or hiding, the two had set a trap!
Jiro wrapped her earphone jacks around Bakugo's legs, tripping him and making him fall again. She probably passed sound through them too because he suddenly choked on his own yelling and cringed.
Then Midoriya placed his hand on the floor beneath Bakugo, pulled back his ring finger… it glowed… there was a boom, and a dumbfounded Bakugo fell through the hole.
"Run!" the boy commanded, dashing down the corridor, cradling his injured hand to his chest.
The brunette hesitated, clearly thinking they'd won—and nearly got blown away, as the enraged blond rocketed back up through the hole.
"Jiro, let's go!" Midoriya yelled again, and they did. They collapsed the hallway behind them, dattebayo!
This happened two more times—the building shook, debris piled up behind the "heroes," Bakugo blew it up but lost speed and fell behind. And the collapses triggered by Jiro's vibrations cost the kids only two of Midoriya's fingers, one of which he used to destroy the staircase behind them.
Once, the blonde psycho used his gauntlets—they turned out to be useful, apparently storing his energy or whatever he uses for his explosions. As a close-range fighter, Katsuki compensated for his weakness at a distance with his gauntlets—he triggered one, and it blew a massive hole through the building…
But he didn't catch the "heroes," could have collapsed the structure without it, and even got scolded by All Might for damaging the building he was supposed to be defending.
"Aaaargh!!!" was his reaction to that, before he kept running.
In the end, a sweating Midoriya and a dusty Jiro made it to the floor with Uraraka first.
And then it almost ended—a pile of debris that Ochako had suspended above each entrance fell on them.
Once again, Izuku reacted in time and struck upward—this time using his entire arm.
The rubble was blown aside by a gust of wind, sending Ochako, who had been floating toward them, flying, blowing off the roof completely, and leaving Midoriya staggering, powerless, and without the use of his arms…
But Kiyoka Jiro, after looking around in shock, shrugged, extended her earphone jacks, and reached up to grab the rocket hanging from the ceiling, winning the match.
"Team 'A' wins!" All Might shouted, his voice choked with emotion.
From the last pile of debris came Bakugo's enraged roar...
***
The match results were rather ambiguous.
Ochako, peeling herself off the wall, ran to apologize to the nearly unconscious Izuku, who was being taken away by the medical robots. Kiyoka was named the MVP, though she tried to deny it, insisting the whole plan was Midoriya's. And what plan? Katsuki was barely pacified…
Bakugo behaved very childishly throughout the match. He got angry when Midoriya ran and communicated with his teammate (we were all given compact earpieces for communication). And when Izuku didn't run, he yelled accusations about being underestimated and claimed that Midoriya had deceived him all his life.
It seemed that this spoiled kid was another genius, but an immature country overachiever. A more severe case than Setsuna's… mainly because, unlike her, his combat potential was genuinely immense, and I probably wouldn't be able to showcase the gulf between him and…
Well, maybe that's not my responsibility?
I glanced at the unconscious Midoriya on the stretcher, being followed by the camera like a fallen hero. Perhaps it's more his cross to bear. It's one thing if a talented jerk faces off against me or Todoroki, who are already branded as geniuses. It's another if his self-esteem slammed into the ground by a former nerd he used to bully.
The latter would be much more effective.
When the two girls and… I'm not sure what word to use to describe him. Defeated? Shattered? Lost? Well, when the girls and the psychologically traumatized Bakugo returned to the arena, All Might announced the third battle.
***
Setsuna's team got to face off against Iida's team.
Oh, this was a battle of titans!
Togake was lucky to be on the hero side, and because of this, Momo and Tenya spent all fifteen minutes of the match running in circles around the rocket, fending off endless waves of Setsuna's parts, which kept swarming onto their floor from all directions. I congratulated myself for emphasizing stamina and flight duration in Tsuna's training.
In theory, the barbed wire that Yaoyorozu created could have stopped our Everywhere Girl, but Hanta proved his worth by casually pulling the coils apart with his tape, creating large enough gaps.
In the end, the heroes won.
First, Momo was knocked out of the game, taking a blow to the stomach and deciding to take a little nap by the wall.
Then, a panting Iida tripped over Hanta's crafty tape (Hunter, indeed!) and, with an approving kick from a delighted Setsuna, flew into the tangle of wire, where he got hopelessly entangled due to his armor.
Flawless victory—just the way I like it.
After this match, Setsuna might have gained a reputation as an even bigger monster than Bakugo, considering he didn't win his match despite all the collateral destruction.
However, the next match showcased an even scarier opponent.
***
Remember how I expected that Aoyama's laser and Denki's electricity would dominate the battlefield with their long-range attacks? And if they were placed in the villain role, especially in defense, hardly anyone could do much against them!
Well…
Leaving the surprised Invisible Girl outside, damn Kiyotaka Shinya entered the building alone, with a respirator mask on his face. A few minutes later, purple smoke, or rather fog, started pouring out of the windows. Five minutes after that, he kicked open the door and dragged out two unconscious bodies.
"I can sense what's in my fog and where," he rasped when questioned by an allegedly impressed All Might. Then, he silently moved to the opposite corner of the room from Toga and me.
And that was it.
Now that was a Flawless victory! Everyone present was filled with awe and terror. Looking at it this way, Kiyotaka was almost the ideal hero when it came to dealing with ordinary criminals without specialized defenses or formidable quirks.
Perhaps the only drawback I can see with Shinya's foggy, in every sense, abilities is that he needs the respirator himself. That means he has no immunity to his own quirk. And that's a huge weakness.
Plus, there's his enhanced physical strength, which allowed him to carry two bodies down six floors… When Aizawa asked about Kiyotaka's physical strength enhancement during the quirk test on the first day, the guy just calmly responded with something about "good genetics and a healthy diet."
It turned out to be a joke (which was surprising by itself), and apparently, Shinya had learned to alter the composition of his fog to induce a short-lived doping effect. At least, according to his own words.
He also reminded everyone that he mentioned this in his quirk registration form, to which Eraserhead just nodded and glanced at me.
Paranoid bastard.
Still, the fact that Shinya's strength didn't impress anyone wasn't surprising. These days, peak muscle contractions are enhanced in nearly half of all quirk users. For some, it's a side effect of their quirk, like Kirishima. For others, it's a logical consequence of their body adapting to their quirk, like Bakugo. Some even inherit it genetically from their parents, like Koji Koda from Class B.
So yeah, it's cool, useful, but not a full-fledged enhancement quirk like, say, Mirko's, which allows her to rise in the hero rankings like climbing a regular staircase.
On that quirk understanding test, by the way, half our class showed superhuman results. Even Mina, for example.
So neither I nor Shinya stood out. Only Midoriya did, because the enhancements on him were… well, a lot.
Suspicious, I'd say… if it were up to me.
But I wasn't the only one who noticed something: I happened to catch the long, not particularly friendly look All Might gave to Kiyotaka's back as he left. Believe me—when someone like All Might looks at you like that, it's not just a red flag. It's a massive f***ing warning bell, like a death knell.
So, I spent those few minutes frantically analyzing everything that might have caused All Might's displeasure or suspicion. Too brutal? No, there's Bakugo, who's far more brutal. Too powerful? Todoroki is way more impressive. Too technical? Hmm…
Finding no answers, I turned back to the screen.
Alright, who's left in the teams? Ah…
Looks like they've saved us for dessert.
"Well… only you guys are left!" the cheerful Symbol of Peace announced, addressing the two remaining teams—mine and Todoroki's.
"Finally!" Kirishima exclaimed. "I'm fired up!"
His partner didn't even spare us a glance, silently heading toward the building. The redheaded Terminator gave an apologetic shrug.
I should mention that Shoto Todoroki didn't come across as just arrogant to me; in Japanese, a lot of attention is paid to specific speech patterns that convey tone. There's polite, rude, formal, neutral, and warm language for family situations—each has its own pronouns, honorifics, and forms of address.
Todoroki, however, used neutral constructions with everyone, consciously choosing an ice-cold, detached manner of speaking. You would say he spoke "through clenched teeth" or "with disdain." Simply put, he acted condescendingly.
Well then, let's see if he has a reason to look down on me as an opponent, especially if he only plans to use fifty percent of his quirk. That's what my memories suggest, and what I saw during Aizawa's test, and finally, his hero costume, which looked like an icy suit—but only on one side of his body. The hot side, I assume.
"Well," I said quietly, not addressing anyone in particular, "the student who ranked first in the recommendation exam versus the one who ranked first in the regular entrance exam. Quite the coincidence, huh?"
No one answered, except for Bakugo's gritting teeth.
Before Kirishima left, I smiled at him and offered my hand for a handshake:
"May the best one win :)"
The straightforward guy beamed in response and dashed off to catch up with his Dalmatian teammate.
Taking with him a marker I'd placed on his palm.
Unfair?
Maybe.
I started walking slowly behind them.
"Come on, Toga! Time to show them who the real arrogant jerk is."
"Yes! It'll be fun!"
The girl, suddenly brimming with energy, ran ahead of me, spreading her arms like an airplane. Such a child sometimes…
Really, how can she be a villain?
***
We were called "villains," which carried plenty of symbolism, and we began setting up our defense in a new building, the fifth one we'd used so far.
We had ten minutes to prepare.
I had a rough idea of what to expect from the enemy. He'd try to freeze us. Maybe he'd freeze floor by floor, maybe the entire building if his power allowed it. And, of course, he'd do it alone because he was a proud bird, all talent and eugenic genius.
Kirishima, however, made a good teammate for him, which meant they'd likely come together. His Hardening would allow him to ignore the extreme cold, something neither Toga nor I could do…
Although I had a few ideas.
Once my predatory blonde found a sharp metal pipe in the debris, I began quietly explaining the situation and my plan to her.
She liked it. As I'd come to realize, she enjoyed trickery and leading people by the nose.
The plan was based on a few curious observations I'd made about her quirk over the past week while serving as her primary… food source. Literally. Toga's quirk had clearly altered her metabolism and digestive tract, allowing her to gulp down blood by the liter (we haven't tested her limits yet, but we will). However, after drinking blood, she lost her appetite for regular food and could go days without eating.
The plan? Simple—Toga, despite her superhuman reflexes (believe me, she's even faster than me), would not react to the freezing.
Cool plan, huh?
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