Chapter 23: First Real Raid
In the end, Koji ended up just barely coming out on top. Had the fight continued for longer, it was doubtful that Izuku would have lost. He was just stronger and faster than Koji in every way, and if he dodged enough his natural regeneration from his skills was usually enough to heal him. However, there was a strict time limit on this battle, and Koji was able to keep Izuku focused on him just long enough to keep Izuku from shredding the tough vines around the bomb with his claws, and trying to force his way through them would guarantee his capture as Koji had impressive control over them.
That wasn't to say Koji was weak. He was the worst gamer in a one-on-one fight yes, but that still put him above the rest of his classmates and many of their upper classmen and even some pro heroes. And he wasn't that far behind. Not close enough to consistently win, but more than enough to put up a good fight and always have a chance at victory if he played his cards right.
At a certain point, they had drawn their weapons, and that would raise some questions, as they had come from nowhere. Izuku with his sword and Koji with his staff each displayed incredible skill and even more power. Sometime during the fight, Kaminari had woken up from his stupor and watched the fight. He clapped his hands the best he could with his hands restrained by the capture tape. He had only caught the last few minutes of the fight as he had to make it up to the top floor and still didn't know the way, but he got permission from All Might to do it, so he was going to do it damn it!
For some reason, Bakugo did not attempt the same thing. As they were exiting the building, they saw why. Bakugo was on the ground, holding his groin and somehow cursing more than usual. "How hard did you kick him?" Izuku asked, honestly impressed.
"I used a bit of my quirk on him too. Electricity to the balls doesn't feel good. Trust me on that and don't ask why I know. By the way, where did those weapons come from? Or go? You don't have them on you, and I know you didn't when we started."
Both Gamers there cringed. They hadn't thought up a lie just yet. "Um, magic?"
"Fine then, keep your secrets." Kaminari somehow accepted that answer. They returned to the observation room, dragging Bakugo with them because he still hadn't gotten up, even after Koji healed him. The blond bomber was just staring up at the sky not speaking anymore. That honestly scared Izuku more than the constant cursing did. Bakugo was never silent.
Once they returned to the room, Izuku and Koji were immediately blasted with questions from the rest of the class. The ones that stuck out were "How did you get those weapons?", "How did you get so strong?", "Can you help me with my own training?", and most importantly from Ochako and Melissa "What the hell were you thinking?!"
The two female gamers pushed their way to the front of the crowd and started berating the two who had just fought. "We agreed to take it easy! No weapons! Only Melissa was supposed to use hers because her quirk revolves around it!"
Both Izuku and Koji flinched. They were in trouble. "What reason did you have to take things that far? This wasn't a serious situation!"
"We were just having fun fighting each other." Izuku tried to defend. That was the wrong answer though.
Melissa smacked him upside the head, doing very little actual damage but getting the message across. "Fun? You nearly killed each other and revealed our weapons to the class because you were having fun?!" Ochako smacked him as well.
During the entire fight, Melissa, Ochako, and Shoji were keeping a close eye on Izuku's and Koji's health. Because they could survive any injury as long as they had health left but die to any injury as well if they had low enough health, they had to keep a close eye on them. Had either one dipped below 10% health at any time, they would have told All Might to end the fight. They didn't get quite that low, only reaching just below 30% each, but Koji was drained of mana and couldn't heal any serious injuries anymore, and Izuku was similarly exhausted. They would be fine in just a few hours, but once again, how do they explain their rapid recovery to everyone?
Shoji finalized it by saying "You two need to be more careful in the future. Especially you Little Dragon. For all your strength, you get caught up in battle to easily and lose focus. That will cost you one of these days."
Then the pink girl, Ashido, asked "Wait, you all have weapons like that? Where did you get them?"
Rolling her eyes, Melissa summoned her arm cannon, which was now significantly larger, going up to her elbow instead of just her wrist, and had much more power behind it, prompting the other two to do the same. Ochako and Shoji had each undergone changes to their weapons thanks to Melissa, now both sporting full gauntlets instead of a staff and brass knuckles respectively. Ochako's were black with a white star design on each one, contrasting from her largely white costume, while Shoji's matched his costume better, being similarly grey, even if being made of metal didn't fit with his fully cloth costume. Even Koji and Izuku had gotten upgrades. Koji's staff was more intricate, with multiple gemstones being imbedded into the wood, and Izuku's swords, as he now had two of them, were still curved scimitars with green hilts and blades stronger than steel, with the added option to coat them in either fire or poison mist.
"Seriously, where did you get them?" Ashido asked again. She sounded like she wanted them.
Already having an excuse for them, at least how they got them, Melissa said "My quirk. I already explained what it can do to the girls, but basically, I can make a blueprint, and instantly create whatever's on said blueprint as long as I have the materials on hand, and the object isn't too advanced. I also have a small pocket dimension to store things in. Here, let me show you." She pulled up a blueprint and showed everyone what was on it. It looked like a small computer chip.
She pulled some materials, a regular computer chip, a few batteries, a small energy source from a dungeon (Which looked similar to the batteries but was clear and glowing blue), and some yellow dye. She them placed all of them on top of the blueprint and activated it. After a few seconds, a yellow computer chip stood in the place of the components. She inserted it into her arm cannon and aimed it outside the open door, where a bolt of electricity shot out and scorched the wall of the building across the street. "I also made the others their weapons." The upgrade she made was one she was going to make eventually anyways, so she just sped up the timetable on it.
The next question was obviously, "Can I get one too?" It seemed like they were ignoring the question of where they appeared from, at least for now.
All Might stepped in and said "Absolutely not! Not right now at least. It seems you're all interested, so I will set up a lesson for weapons training later on. I know Snipe is handy with guns, and Midnight is quite skilled with other weapons as well, not just her whip. I shall speak to them about which weapons they know how to use, and who I can contact for other weapons. Until then, none of you will get any weapons with your costumes. And only once you prove you can safely wield them without risking seriously injuring yourself or others by accident will I approve the addition. Now, onto the summary of the match. Who would you say is the MVP?" Needless to say, after getting advice from some of the other teachers in this school as well as Nighteye, All Might had become a much better teacher than when he first started out.
With the matter settled for now, everyone started thinking of the match again. "I would say Koda. It was him that won the match by stalling out Midoriya long enough to win. It was super manly of him to last so long against somebody so strong!" The red haired boy, Kirishima answered.
"A good suggestion, and certainly not an incorrect one. But does anybody have any other opinions?"
Melissa said "I would say Izuku is a good candidate as well. He got a bit too caught up in the fight, and lost in the end because of the time limit, but he had a very real chance at victory, and unlike Koji he actually worked with his partner. While Koji did win, he was unable to work with his partner and got very close to a loss because he led Izuku to the bomb unintentionally."
"Another accurate analysis. How about we get one more. Ah yes, Yaoyorozu?"
The Recommended Student said "I agree with both possibilities. While I would not say being unable to work with his partner is his fault, as he did try, Koda was working alone for the most part. He successfully captured Kaminari on his own with no injury to himself and fought Midoriya to a standstill that worked out in his favor. However, Midoriya made what I assume to be a solid plan, worked with his partner and even potentially strengthened him, and easily captured Bakugo, who based on his physical scores that we saw, is in far better shape with a far stronger quirk than Kaminari that he uses far better. In terms of the exercise, I would say that due to his victory in the end, Koda would be the MVP."
Nobody else had any opinions, so Koda was named the MVP. The next match was going to be Asui and Kirishima verses Aoyama and Hagakure, but even as they left nobody was paying attention to that match except All Might. Everyone was too busy bombarding The Gamers with more questions. Eventually, Izuku clapped his hands together loudly, silencing everyone. "I'll give everyone one question. If your question is a repeat, don't bother asking it. Ashido, you already got one. So did Kirishima and Kaminari. Who's next?"
Yaoyorozu was the next to ask a question. "All Might said you had more power, skill and experience in combat than some pro heroes. How is this possible?"
Melissa answered that one. "Not every pro hero is constantly fighting villains. A lot of rescue heroes rarely see battle. Thirteen or the Wild Wild Pussycats are a good example of that. Most celebrity heroes have very little skill in combat. Think of Mount Lady or Uwabami. Flashy heroes that are constantly in the media and are only as high up in the rankings as they are because of that. And there are a lot of heroes that rely far more on skill or a gimmick quirk than they do on raw power. Think the likes of Midnight, Snipe, Best Jeanist, though all three of them are still stronger than us as well. There are very few pros that we outclass in every category. And the ones we do outclass in every way are mostly newer heroes that just started out and come from lesser hero schools. Or your small-town heroes that never have to deal with tough opponents. They certainly have their place stopping your average criminals and weaker villains, but only because we need the higher ranked heroes to deal with the actual threats."
Ochako continued by saying "In our case, our quirks are all unique and powerful even if they aren't offensive, require skill to use or aren't directly helpful in combat, and we've constantly encountered villains that want to kill us. Like that Yakuza family. What were their name again?"
"The Shie Hassaikai." Izuku answered. "Not very many dangerous villains among them, but the few that are, are extremely so. Even the two we fought against, we only beat so easily because they were underprepared and outnumbered by us. At the time, at least one of them was stronger than us by a not insignificant margin." Because they would need to be able to identify the members of the Yakuza organization they royally pissed off, each member of the Gamer was given a briefing by Nighteye on the important members they knew of, their quirks, and how to recognize them.
"I'm sorry, you got involved with the Yakuza? Why are you not in protective custody?" Yaoyorozu asked again. Her parents had a full plan mapped out to go into hiding in the event that specific Yakuza group even glanced their organization's way.
All Might answered "Because we fear that with how far the Shie Hassaikai's influence has spread to the police force. Protective custody would do little to help. Better to have them here, surrounded by powerful heroes, training to become strong heroes of their own. They are even getting special lessons in order to help strengthen them further. Both in the event they have to fight the Yakuza, and because they want to become the best heroes they can be."
The next question was a fairly obvious one. Though it came from Jirou, which was slightly surprising considering she was already initiated. "Can I join in on those special lessons?"
"We can discuss that later. We only have a limited amount of people we can bring. Since you're the first that asked, you're first in line to fill our one open slot, but if you're not a good fit, we'll talk to someone else." Melissa said.
Izuku clarified "That means, don't bother asking us about joining in. When we have another opening, we'll come to you."
That seemed to be the end of the questions for the most part, and the match ended with the hero team's victory, their physical prowess easily overpowering the less physically fit Hagakure, and the ranged based Aoyama. Honestly, the rest of the matches were fairly boring. None of them could match the intensity of that first match, and the other gamers ended up winning with one sided beatdowns in their matches. The only upset was that Todoroki won his the match without Shoji's intervention. He was the closest in power to the gamer's, possibly being able to overpower Koji at the moment if he stopped holding back his true potential like he refused to do, but it would be a very uphill battle and Koji had the far better shot at winning.
That led them to afterschool, where once again the gamer's met up on the roof with Jirou, and their other allies. It was also the first time Jiro had seen All Might's smaller form, so that was a fun little freak out for her to go through. Once she got over that, mostly, they got down to business. "We've found another raid entrance. Also, something called a super boss. But we're recommended to be at least level 100 before we take that on, so we're not ready for it."
It seemed that the beach that Izuku cleaned was going to become the major hub for all new events. There was now a dungeon, that was closed to them, a raid, that was now open and different than before, and a super boss gate. Which led to something likely classified as end-game content. "The one on the beach? I thought that was too high level for you right now?" It was true. That raid was recommended to be faced at level 50. No, this was something else.
"It is. But the one here isn't. That one is a level 15 raid. Still high level, but all of us are strong. We can handle it." Melissa said. "We also got a quest to clear it without any help. It's a bit strange, the rewards aren't clear. Let us show you."
[Quest Alert!]
[Quest: The Hidden Truth.]
[Objectives: Clear the Raid (U.A High School).]
[Something has been hidden from you all. Discover what it is through this Raid.]
[Bonus Objective: Clear with No Allys in the Raid Party]
[Rewards: ???]
[Bonus Rewards: ???]
[Quest has Already been Accepted]
"We want to see if we can do this without the raid. What is it you aren't telling us?" Izuku asked, his arms crossed. "It has to be important if we got a quest for it. So tell us."
Nezu said "I do not believe it is us that has hid anything from you in regard to this quest. But very well. The strongest student currently at this school is Mirio Togata. And he is the candidate for One For All that Nighteye trained before he accepted you as All Might's successor. All Might's arch nemesis is only believed to be dead; this was never confirmed. And Tsukauchi was investigating you for vigilantism before he learned of your quirkless status and dropped the case."
Jaws dropped at the casual reveal of such information, but there was no chance to the quest. "Is that all?"
"That is everything I can think of at this moment. I suppose there is also the fact that I plan on turning you into heroes using my own terms of the word and career path, but I was under the assumption that you were already aware of that fact."
"We were." Izuku answered. "I guess we're going into the Raid. And we're going after that bonus reward. Is everyone ready?"
Once Izuku got the confirmation, he prepared to start the raid, but there were some complaints. Mainly from Nighteye, and All Might. "This is incredibly foolish! You are risking your lives for an ambiguous reward, in a Raid that is higher level that you are! Yes, the difference is only three levels, but all of us working together had an incredibly difficult time with the previous raid!"
"I agree with Mirai. This is too risky. We don't even know if this reward is going to be worth it. What if one of you dies? What if you all die? I insist you take us with you." All Might was on the verge of transforming into his hero form again, not wanting to risk children getting killed by their own foolishness.
However, Izuku argued back. "That raid wasn't normal! It had no recommended level! And we were forced to bring two people who couldn't fight! We're all far stronger with way better gear and abilities this time! Even if we did bring you all this time, that still leaves Nezu, All Might, and Jirou. Nezu isn't a fighter! He's terrifyingly intelligent and with time to prepare and set the stage, nearly impossible to beat! But he won't be able to do that there. All Might is out of time for the day! Without the ability to use his quirk and in the condition he's in, he's closer to a level five character than a level 127 character! And even with boosting her stats a bit and giving her new skills, Jirou isn't nearly as strong as us. Her life will be in danger that we might not be able to protect her from here. What's better, five people with a good chance of survival taking it on alone? Or taking ten, with three being close to deadweight in a dungeon like this?"
They hated it, but it made sense. Nezu sided with the gamers by saying "Ultimately, this is their power, and their choice. As outsiders that they have allowed the barest glimpse of what their world is now like, we have no right or authority to make decisions for them. As their principal, I do not like this. But as an outsider from their perspective, I have no choice but to accept their verdict."
All Might and Nighteye continued to try and argue on why they should be allowed to join, but Nezu held up his paw. "That is enough. We will respect their choice. Besides, we get no real say in the matter. We cannot access the raid portal on our own. They are the only ones who can activate and start the raid. They do not have to bring us, no matter what they say."
"I could arrest them for vigilante charges if they do it alone." Tsukauchi offered. The glares he got caused him to wilt, knowing he messed up.
Shooting the detective with a glare of his own, Nezu said "Such charges would never stick. The only time Midoriya could possibly have been charged with such crimes, his quirkless status protected him. Now, you would argue that five students went into a world best described as imaginary, facing foes that are also best described with that term, and the only reason you are charging them with such crimes is they didn't bring you with them? You would be laughed out of the courtroom and possibly lose your badge due to reason of insanity!"
While Nezu continued to berate the detective, the gamers decided to sneak off and go to the raid. "Wait, where did they go?" All Might asked.
"They left like a minute ago. Just straight up vanished." Jirou said. "Like ghosts or some shit!"
The raid entrance was fittingly at U.A's entrance. And they exited the other side of the portal to see the exact same sight. U.A's entrance. "Did it not work?"
"No, we're in the raid. Look."
[Analyze: Raid (U.A)]
[Enemies: 0/0]
[Mini-Boss: 200/200]
[Boss: 5/5]
[Secrets: 5/5 (???)]
The screen made little sense. No regular enemies, two hundred mini bosses, and five regular bosses. Plus, five secrets that they had no information about. "So many. Can we really handle that many mini bosses?" Koji asked, slightly scared. Sure, there were more enemies in the last raid, but they skipped most of them and would have had time to recover in between the waves. There was no telling if that was the case here.
"We have to. The raid has already started, and the portal closed. We can't escape." Izuku said. They had tested it in dungeons, and there was no way to leave except by finishing the dungeon. They assumed it was the same way with raids.
Because they weren't currently under attack, they decided to make a plan. "If this is U.A, we can assume the raid map is the entire school. With waves of mini bosses scattered around and possibly roaming. Probably in the form of students here. They're all mini bosses because U.A only accepts the elite. We need to find a good wide-open space with only one entrance to act as a home base. From there, we can either let the waves come to us or go out hunting before retreating to that base whenever we need to recover."
"Sounds like one of the gyms would work best then." Shoji said. He pointed to one of them on the map that Melissa had brought. "Gym Gamma. From what I remember, this specific gym is a large open concrete warehouse. Plenty of space. Depending on how big the groups are."
They had toured the campus and learned where everything was, so they had a lot of knowledge when combined with the map Melissa had. With a plan set, they began making their way to Gym Gamma and found the first group of enemies on the way. It was class 1-A, but a bit different than they remembered. First of all, they had no eyes. Just empty black voids. Second of all, a couple of the students were different. Instead of Melissa, there was a short girl with black hair, and instead of Ojiro, there was a boy with spikey red hair and strange eyebrows. And finally, they were all dressed in black robes and carried swords of varying sizes.
"If all the groups are like this, it looks like we're fighting strange versions of our class. How strong are they?" The Games used analyze and discovered that the only real threats were Izuku, Melissa, the girl with black hair, and the boy with red hair and strange eyebrows. The rest were just far weaker than those four and the gamers. The false Izuku drew his sword and charged, so the real Izuku drew his own swords and met the charge. The two locked swords and attempted to push the other back but were mostly evenly matched in strength. Even when Izuku activated OFA, his clone did the same, keeping up the stalemate. It only ended when Izuku opened his mouth and breathed fire directly into the false Izuku's face.
That caused the false Izuku to stumble back and allow the real Izuku to deliver two sword slashes across his clone's chest, the explosion of flames that followed sending the clone flying back into the group, who picked him up. A few members began healing him, and the clone got back up mostly good as new, his health only slightly below full.
"Shit. They have healers, we're outnumbered, and a few are just as strong as we are. What do we do?" Ochako asked. Normally she wasn't one to swear (in the company of others), but the situation definitely called for it.
Making the situation worse, the false Izuku put his hand on the sword and called out a name. "Z̴̖̗̣̞̖͎̻͇̍͆̈̑̏̈͝͝a̷̢͙̯̣͍͍̺͉͉̠̞̰͒̃͂͒̎̐̏̓̂͌̐̂̑͝n̷͕̬̱͈̪̣̩̫̬̍̑͗̿̆̋͜ͅg̴͕̣̤̪͕̝̬̪̦̦̝̞͉̝̹̈́́̐ę̷̫̠̹̱͌̓̓̐̓͂́t̷̜̲̬̃̂̔̽́̄͒̒͋̽̾̈́̈̌͜ͅs̸͇͖̯̪̱̑̑̾̑̿̀̓̍́̋͘͠u̴̡̺̜͔̩̣̍̎͌́͋̎̉͑̽̅̅͊̌̒͠"
His voice was distorted, so they didn't actually hear the name, but his sword changed shape. It no longer had a guard, and was wrapped in cloth, which quickly unfurled. "He's stronger now! What do we do?"
"We fight! We made the choice to do this alone, we can't give up just because one of our enemies is powerful!" All five gamers attacked, taking on the whole class at once. The girl with black hair and boy with red hair also transformed their swords, but they were nowhere near as powerful as the false Izuku.
When fighting the false Izuku, the real Izuku realized that he was now slightly weaker after his clone's sword transformed. He increased his OFA output by a few percent. It hurt, but it was the edge he needed. Another attack practically cleaved his clone in half, winning the fight. That changed the tide of the whole battle, along with Shoji defeating the red-haired boy and Melissa and Ochako obliterating the black-haired girl together. Without their heavy hitters, even when the rest of the class began transforming their swords, it didn't matter much. The false Todoroki proved to be a bit of a challenge once his sword transformed into two, one made of fire and the other of ice, but even he fell quickly under the Gamer's power.
The rest just didn't stand a chance at all. But it did drain the Gamers' mana and health a decent amount, so they would need to recover. Luckily, they made it to the gym without being attacked again. Unfortunately, the gym was already occupied by another class 1-A version. This version had everyone dressed in strange clothes, wearing masks of all different shapes. Once again, there were a few different members of Class 1-A, this time having a small purple haired boy instead of Melissa.
The masked version of Izuku ripped off his mask and shouted out a strange word they didn't understand, and fire exploded out of his hand, flying at Izuku. Unfortunately, Izuku was completely fireproof and just swatted the attack away. "My turn." He had just recovered his mana to 100% and was able to use his ultimate skill. He shouted out "ERUPTION!" and aimed his hand at the alternate version of class 1-A. They were all turned to ash as a ridiculous amount of fire blasted from Izuku's hand and slammed into them. A few tried to tank the attack, bracing themselves and pushing smaller classmates behind them, but to no avail. None of them were strong enough to withstand the attack.
When the flames faded, Izuku collapsed to the ground, exhausted. "I really hope we can use this as a safe room. I need some time to recover." He said, slowly sitting up. There wasn't anything they could do to help him either. The only thing to do was to wait for Izuku's mana to regenerate enough for him to use his skills again. Thankfully, he had a decent amount of mana, so it regenerated quickly. After just half an hour, he was back to 50% mana. Not enough to use his ultimate skill again, but more than enough to fight. "Maybe I shouldn't have wasted that. But we don't know what else they could do."
Melissa helped Izuku to his feet and said "We can wait for longer if you think you need it."
"No. I can fight again. Let's go hunting."