Chapter 18: Stage 3: Coalescence Battle of Seven Realms Part 2 - Underwater Golden Goalpost
- One week before the USJ -
"Midoriya-san, I have a question about your development track recommendations Kero?" She truly was awed and baffled. Midoriya hasn't been wrong yet, but... there was a first time for everything.
The wide eyed teaching assistant looked up from his notebook (not that he stopped writing) and tilted his head, "Yes? Did I write anything in shorthand? I sometimes do that and forgetthatit'shardfor..."
Tsuyu waved her hands to stop him from rambling, "No no Kero, just, I understand most of the quirk ideas, even though the toxin creation and resistance is a little scary. But in the teamwork section, you put me down for leader?"
"Of course, that's your optimal position based on your quirk, which is close-to-mid range offensive and supportive, and of course your behavioral patterns, looking at trends of successful team ups, both long term and improvised-" At this point Tsuyu started phasing out whatever Midoriya was saying. She always had trouble expressing herself, it caused her no amount of grief growing up, and still made her very self conscious and proactive about making friends. Having everyone call her by a nickname was supposed to offset her off-putting emotionless face. "-Is everything okay?"
"Kero... Yes, why?" As she answered, Midoriya scrutinized her. A long pause preceded his answer.
He almost hesitated... "Well, you started looking sadder and sadder the more I was talking, I was worried I said something wrong?"
That really took her aback, "You could tell, Kero?"
Now he just looked confused "Well yeah, it's pretty obvious if you know what to look for, but the great thing for you is that it's hard to know what to look for!"
Her blank stare met his. For once the complete lack of expression on her face reflected the complete lack of coherent thoughts in her head. "Kero?"
"Ummm... You know? Because you emote differently, you always appear really calm and cool! So that could really help rally your team around you... In a crisis and stuff? And keep villains unnerved? It's a really subtle and cool part of how your quirk changed your physiology! Oh! Asu- Tsu, are you okay? I'm really sorry if I said something wrong!"
Tsuyu noticed she was crying a little, her emotions were all jumbled, could it really be a good thing? Midoriya hasn't been wrong yet. And maybe he still wasn't.
- USJ -
Asui Tsuyu was barely a couple of weeks into her heroics studies, and already she learned so much about her own weaknesses, and how to turn them into strengths - Not her quirk's, her own. She looked around at the nervous faces of her classmates and acquaintances from 1-B, and decided to use her weakness to her advantage. She also ignored the fact the Hagakure was probably more excited than nervous, made all the easier by not seeing the girl's facial expressions. "Kero, we have to stay calm. We shouldn't dive into the water before we understand everything better." A sheepish chuckle came from the watery hole, and an empty school uniform slowly distanced itself from there. "I know Sero's and Hagakure's quirks," She turned to the three students from 1-B, "but what are yours?"
The spiky haired one, Tsuburaba, spoke first. "My quirk is Solid Air, I can solidify air I breathe out. Usually only to platforms or barriers," He seemed to hesitate before adding, "but, ummm, Midoriya gave me exercises to control the shapes. Ummm, but, I'm still bad at that!" Tsuyu nodded. She knew how that felt, and she needed to act fast to maintain group cohesion!
"It's okay, kero." Tsuburaba looked confused, and she placed a hand on his shoulder while keeping a completely straight face. "Did you know that Aizawa-sensei keeps a secret folder on his computer, with videos of all the pro heroes who wanted to quit after getting Midoriya's analysis?" His eyes widened, as did Nirengeki's. Kodai maintained her poker face, causing Tsuyu to wonder if they were alike in that manner? "Don't be embarrassed that you didn't think of it beforehand, I haven't met one person who didn't... learn something new from Midoriya. We all came out stronger and happier for it though."
In the central plaza, Aizawa Shota realized had to practice his evasive maneuvers against environmental hazards more. No matter how hard he tried, how fast he dodged, he kept getting hit by Midoriya's tears. And figure out how his students got access to the secret folder on his computer.
"I know Midoriya," Splash to the face.
"That is such a nice thing to say," That sweater was a gift from Hizashi.
"She really appreciates you," I should have kept a spare pair of socks on me.
"There there." Please let the barrier down so they could fight already.
At the edge of his refined, highly trained, quirk empowered field of vision, Shota could see the villains holding back their laughs. This is what it's come to, he sighed internally, a man-baby who thinks hands is a good villain theme is laughing at me. Retirement had never felt so far away.
Tsuyu felt a little bad for embellishing the truth. She didn't know for sure if Aizawa kept videos like that, but she definitely saw her teacher's phone when he received a video from Present Mic titled midoriya_hero_breakdowns_comp3. Her guilt evaporated when she saw Tsuburaba calm down and steel his nerves. Midoriya was right, she smiled internally, I thought that not being able to express emotions was only a weakness, but not being able to show my fear can help keep others calm.
"Let's check if our quirks still work the same, Kero, Midoriya's can do stuff like that sometimes." She flexed her muscles and performed a set of stretches, "Kero, I'm all the same." She saw the others testing out their quirks, Hagakure and Sero seemed to be unchanged, but she didn't know what the 1-B baseline was.
"Mine is mostly the same, but I can also do this" Tsuburaba said while exhaling slowly. As he did, a bubble of air formed around his head. He breathed deeply and exhaled again, near his classmate, and another bubble formed around Nirengeki's head.
As Tsuyu came closer and examined the bubbles, she realized they were slowly shrinking. She peeked back at the watery entrance. "Kero, that will be useful. Nirengeki-san, Yui-san," The other two looked at her, "What are your quirks and are they the same now?"
Nirengeki looked a little nervous still, while Yui still didn't show any emotion on her face, "M-my quirk is Double Impact, whatever I hit, I can trigger a second blow that's ummm, stronger than the first, on it. It didn't really change, except that I grew these small spikes on my knuckles, and maybe it's a little stronger if I hit with the spikes first?" Tsuyu nodded in what she hoped was an affirming manner, and turned to Yui. The girl still hadn't really said anything, but Tsuyu tried not to let that get to her. She picked up two pieces of debris to show Tsuyu, and one of them shrunk while the other enlarged. After that she pressed her fingers together like Ochako does, and the pieces of scrap metal reverted to their original size.
When the stoic hero student locked eyes with Tsuyu and gave her a thumbs up, somehow Tsuyu knewthat she conveyed silent determination through that. When Tsuyu returned that thumbs up, she knew Yui got the same feeling back.
The slowly lengthening silence was broken by Hagakure's enthusiasm, "Oooookaaaaay... Let's get started? Tsuburaba-kun, bubble us up!" the 1-B student acquiesced, and one by one wrapped their heads with air bubbles. Before Tsuyu could say anything, she heard the splash of water caused by Hagakure jumping in.
The remaining students looked between the entrance and her. She sighed softly and nodded, leading them into the water. They were still in the ship, that was clear by the hallway like nature of the structure, but there were all sorts of holes in the floor and jutting platforms on the walls. She saw trails of spinning golden rings spread out ahead of them. "Kero, be carefu-" They looked at her, she looked at them. All of them were moving their mouths. Crap, no communicating, If she couldn't talk she would need to find a workaround. A solution to her most pressing issue.
Kero, She thought, That's better.
Villains that were... patrolling in small circles? The villains saw them and glared murderously, but for some reason didn't make any moves towards her and her companions. She felt a tug at her sleeve, Sero was pointing at his air bubble that was slowly shrinking, and then to a pocket of air near the ceiling. Tsuyu nodded, and (after tapping everyone with her tongue to get their attention) They all swam up to the air.
"Kero, Tsuburaba-san, can you renew our bubbles?" The boy concentrated, and after a moment blew new air bubbles around them all. "I think this is pretty straightforward, we just need to reach the end, agreed?"
Most of them nodded, but Nirengeki hummed and looked at his newly spiked knuckles. "What about the ring things? And the fact that the villains seem sort of stuck?"
The sound of a raspberry being blown from beside them made them all jump "We'll figure that out as we go along! I'll scout!" And with that Hagakure splashed back down, the rest of the hero students after her.
Seeing Hagakure in the water was surprisingly easy, since she displaced it wherever she went, and had a giant air bubble over her head. The invisible heroine reached out and grabbed a ring, only for it to glow a soft purple, shrink, and start rotating around her. A quick glance at Yui revealed that she too was softly glowing - Midoriya's quirk really did attach a lot of different moving parts together. Hagakure turned back and gave them a thumbs up, then began swimming towards two villains that were swimming in a circle between two platforms.
The villains weren't blind to her, yet it seemed that they were struggling to attack - A shark headed man strained his neck in an attempt to bite, and a crab-claw-handed woman snapped her claw-hands in place angrily. Hagakure ducked to uppercut Shark-head, but just as it all seemed to be going their way, the moment her fist made contact with the villain, she was flung backwards and the single ring she collected ricocheted away from her. Tsuyu felt helpless, especially since she had no way of recalling her impulsive classmate - While said classmate simply charged back with another punch!
This time when she made contact with a villain (a flying kick toward Shark-Head's stomach), she once again froze, except this time instead of being flung back, she flashed in a deep purple and vanished.
Tsuyu wasted no time, immediately wrapping her tongue around her team and swimming back up to the air pocket. "Okay Kero, we need to stay calm-" She, of course, was panicking completely, "-and figure out what to do. Hagakure will be fine, based on what I know of Midoriya's quirk. We, on the other hand, are still in the thick of it. Kero." Midoriya wasright again, her straight face was keeping everyone centered, even if she only really just hoped that Hagakure would be fine. The truth was that neither Tsuyu, nor any single person she ever spoke to, actually understood Midoriya's quirk.
Sero raised his hand "Maybe we need to avoid the enemies and reach the end? The rings are like some shield or buffer?" They nodded slowly as they took in his words.
"Kero, we don't have anything to lose by trying, and avoiding the enemies means we'll be safe even if we're still missing something about whatever's happening here. Agreed Kero?" She looked around at her team, and after they all nodded, she gestured back down, "Sero-san, try using your tape to maneuver above them, and everyone, pick up at least on ring before Sero goes ahead". Four heads nodded at her and followed her descent.
"Hagakure, you need to work on your impulsiveness. Expect extra training after this". Those were the first words she heard after she... died? The invisible girl lifted her head and slowly looked around, she saw her teacher (the strict tired one, not the fun nervous one), glare at her.
"Oh no... Homework... I... I'm dead... Homework... I went to hell? I'm sorry I cheated on that test in elementary school! I didn't mean it! Send me away!" She fell to her knees, water splashing around from her soaked uniform and hair.
Some weirdo with hands on his face snickered from the other side of the central plaza, which is a totally weird design for a circle of hell, but technically it's still a circle, while Midoriya jogged toward her. She grabbed his hand to stand up, and he immediately reassured her, "Don't worry Hagakure-san, you were only ejected from your stage, look", he pointed at one of the six large portal-screens floating above. The five remaining students were proceeding cautiously: Sero reached the ledge above the villains that took her out (unfairly!) and sent his elbow-tape to a platform above them.
"Ummm, Midoriya, if we touch the villains without any rings, is that instant disqualification?" At her question, Midoriya bit his lower lip in thought...
"I'm not sure, I think there's more to it than that... For now we can only wait for them to finish, and then a different zone's challenge will start".
They observed the screen with breath held, and saw how Sero swung (slowly, but he was underwater) above the villains. It seemed like he was out of their reach, when out of nowhere Shark-head jumped! Sero flailed his legs, trying to bring them out of reach, and the hand faced villain began cackling madly.
He pointed at the screen while glaring at Midoriya mockingly, "Looks like no matter how much your weird-not-cool-at-all-dumb quirk tilts things in your favor, the league of villains is still superior! We're going to win in all these gam-ummm, challenges, and then-" He was interrupted by his silver haired underling, as she tapped his shoulder and pointed him back to the screen. They all turned and saw Sero's foot tap the villain on the head, and the villain simply... vanished, only to reappear with a splash on their side of the force-field. Immediately after that Sero's tape slipped, and he fell on the crab-clawed villain's head. She too splashed into the arena.
It was so silent that they could hear the villain leader seething.
"Kero... any thoughts?" Tsuyu and the rest of the students gathered in an air pocket above where the villains previously circled. Sero was still trying to calm down, and the others were deep in thought.
Nirengeki spoke first, "I think our quirks are all suited, or maybe made to suit, this maze? Challenge? Obstacle course?" He paused to see if anyone had a better suggestion, and continued. "Kodai-san can help shrink the rings from afar", he gestured at the dozen or so rings floating around them, "Tsuburaba can make us breathable bubbles, you can swim... and we mostly sink, without your tongue I'm not sure how we'd get to the air bubbles". Everyone nodded along, it made sense, "My... knuckles... well, look".
With that, he approached the wall and jabbed his fist forward. The spikes on his knuckles sunk in, and he used them proficiently to climb up and down, as well as to the sides, of the walls. "So, yeah. Sero-san is like you, his quirk is already kind of suited to this. I think... the enemies' heads are their weak points, and we just have to tap them".
Tsuyu was impressed, "That's a really solid analysis, Kero", she tried sounding a little more professional, to better fall into her role as a leader. "So going forward Kodai-san, and Tsuburaba-kun should hang back, while Sero will take the lead with you. I'll stay in the middle so I can support you both or help grab you for a retreat. The only question left is whether we need to stomp on the villains' heads, or any touch will do. We have rings as a buffer, but I'm not sure we should frivolously test that".
Sero slapped his face and focused himself. "Nirengeki-san, right?" He waited for the shorter boy to nod, "Let's do this! we've got to keep our friends safe from the front!" They descended carefully, and proceeded in formation.
The rest of the hallway was... almost laughably easy. There were only a few close calls, but the moment they were discovered, they weren't a problem anymore. The first was when Nirengeki carefully stepped on a more jagged and spiky piece of ground, and was immediately flung back, losing his ring buffer. The second was when, all of a sudden, giant bubbles started floating out of their air bubbles, forming a big number 5, then 4, then 3... It was only Tsuyu's quick thinking that made her grab everyone and swim back to an air pocket in the nick of time.
Finally, they reached what had to be the end. A poll with a red ball on top, with a little pink lotus in its center. Tsuyu locked eyes with everyone to get their confirmation, and touched it. Her rings flew rapidly toward the poll, and a counter appeared: 57/100. She was about to turn back to the others, but with a flash and a splash she appeared behind Midoriya, looking up at the others panicking through a screen.
"Kero".
One by one, the rest of her teammates splashed next to her, becoming immediately relieved. After Sero, the last of them (who stayed to watch their backs), appeared, the screen shrunk into a ball and glowed blue. Big letters appeared in the air:
FLOOD ZONE - HEROES WIN!
Needle Hair was seriously rethinking her decision to join the league. It was bad enough that the boss seemed unstable, she couldn't even commiserate with her fellow henchmen since most of them were too busy cosplaying as minions. But seeing her friends and colleagues reduced to jokes, obstacles that children could get through, was a breaking point. She had to say something. "Boss", she flinched as a hand covered face whipped around to glare at her, "Maybe we should cut our losses? Retreat?"
She could see his neck reddening in anger, "What are you TALKING ABOUT? Not all of these challenges", he spat, "can be so rigged. I will not have a traitrix in my ranks! So you shoul-"
"A what?" Some goon asked, saving Needle Hair the need.
The frothing leader paused, "A... traitrix? You know, like a woman traitor?"
"I'm pretty sure that's not a word, Kero" One of the hero students chimed in, and Needle Hair found herself nodding along.
Shigaraki scoffed, "Of course it is, like gladiator and gladiatrix, or dominator and dominatrix!"
Needle Hair surprised herself by speaking, "Well, what about nonbinary traitors"?
Her leader paused, but the answer came from the green haired dweeb, of all people.
"-tren? Like, gladiator, gladiatrix, gladiatren? It would pattern well, and... I guess I thought it would work?"
That actually got Shigaraki thinking, he started to nod, but then shook his head and glared at the heroes. "NO! Stop it with your psychological warfare! I don't need stupid cheating player one heroes to butt in"!
"So villains only accept binary people?" One of the heroes asked.
"I was planning on recruiting my cousin, guess that's out then..." Shigaraki was vibrating with anger when his villains seemed to be joining in.
"Batooay minions kaylay gender mor"? "Hey, how'd you do that"? "I got Minionese Duolingo man, I'm hoping for a promotion". "Nice"! Two of the overall-wearing henchmen high-fived, completely uninterested in any answer that may or may not have been coming.
"FINE! TRAITREN! I WILL NOT HAVE TRAITREN AMONGST MY RANKS!"
"Oh, ummm, traitrix is fine for me, I was just curious". Needle Hair stepped back, knowing that her unhinged leader had a penchant for disintegrating things that annoyed him.
Before Shigaraki could reach out though, another of the screens shrunk, this time glowing red. Big words appeared above them all:
CONFLAGRATION ZONE - VILLAINS WIN!
Chapter 19: Stage 3: Coalescence Battle of Seven Realms Part 3 - Flaming Tournament of Explosion
A circular arena, a bench for all of them, a small round platform between them and the stage. Oh, and a burning ring of fire between them, the arena, and the bench where all the loser villains were sitting. It was obvious what was meant to happen. The purpose of the challenge the staff of U.A. set up for them (obviously the nerd couldn't have done it, everyone was probably giving him credit out of pity).
Someone had to bypass the trapped circle, get to the villains' bench, and beat them all up!
"So we need to decide in what order we'll go up. We can't be sure if it'll be a winner stays format, or, errrr, regular matches? fights?" Abs was saying something to the extras, it was kinda cute how unsure and worried he sounded. Katsuki smirked and made sure to calm them all down, and remind them of their place.
"Heh, don't worry, I've got this. Just sit down and don't get in my way!" He knew he looked so cool, with his back to them all, facing the fiery walls. Good thing they were all probably taking pictures of his silhouette. It would make a great poster for his first batch of hero merch.
He heard the sounds of shuffling behind him, obviously they were squirming in their seats in excitement. Just then a blue light flashed from the center plaza, something about the hero team winning. Good thing even this stupid game knows whats up. A similar light appeared above the flaming arena in front of them, and a countdown started going down from ten. What no one else knew, was that waiting for countdowns is for chumps.
He could barely hear the cheers of the extras behind him over the explosions propelling him over the arena, but he figured out what they were saying: "Way to go beat their ass!"
"Wait you complete utter ass!" Rumi was flabbergasted at what she was seeing. They finally decided on the order they would go up in, and she convinced Kirishima from 1-A that she should go first. That was her chance to shine, and even try out some of the support gear and techniques Midoriya gave her to practice! All that went out the window when the guy who barely spoke just decided to cut in line.
Wait. No... No fucking way. He wasn't cutting in line, he was just... jumping toward the villains' staging area. Even after Kirishima convinced them that Midoriya's quirk gave them a specific, advantageous, framework for a reason. The villains were defending themselves from the unhinged explosive student, and obviously the repercussions came seconds later. In the heroes' staging area, the very ground she and her classmates were standing on started flashing red. The glowing black energy started counting down from five...
Four...She heard maniacal laughter interspersed with the explosions.
Three... She saw Kirishima sit with his head in his hands, already having given up.
Two... She felt the ground rumbling beneath her feet, and she grit her teeth in anger and frustration.
One... She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she heard cackling.
"You see! The first win was only a fluke! The League of Villains will prevail!" It looked like the leader of the villains, the weirdo with hands on his face, was raving about something.
She opened her eyes, seeing her fellow students from the conflagration zone around her. Well, all of them except Bakugou, who was being restrained by their teacher in the bizarre capture weapon the dude kept around his neck. Kirishima was already on his way to Midoriya, next to a group of soaking students, and a blond student from 1-A stepped up to the barrier between them and the league.
He stood tall and tried looking regal (Rumi would rather hop about and eat a carrot before she would admit that he could actually pull it off a little), and when he opened his mouth he literally sparkled. "Non, you underestimate our camaraderie, our teamwork, our drive!" His blue eyes were more sparkles than sclera at this point, "Our Joie de Vivre burns bright in the face of evil and darkness! Just look!"
He pointed at some floating circles made of purple smoke above them, which Rumi only now recognized as screen-portal-things (She grimaced when she saw that one of them was glowing blue and one of them red). Sparkles flew out of Frenchie's outstretched finger, and one of the portal-screen-whatevers expanded to reveal a darkened city. The screen showed a panoramic shot of the city, focusing on seedy alleys and high-rise skyscrapers.
"Woah, Aoyama-kun! How did you do that?" Midoriya was near his blond classmate in seconds.
Frenchie smirked "Is it not Magnifique? If there is one thing we French know, it is l'art du cinema"! Rumi didn't think that was really an answer, but Midoriya was already writing in one of his notebooks.
A collective gasp brought her focus back to the screen, where a bunch of villains were surrounding Thirteen! Their teacher was bound to a chair by ropes that in all honesty they should have been able to break. One of the villains stood tall with his back to the hero, and spoke in a deep, gravelly, voice. "It is only a matter of time. We have captured the most competent of them-"
"-I got a weird energy message that mentioned not complying would result in failure of the scenario" Thirteen interjected.
"Captured the most competent of them", the villain doubled down without missing a step, "and now we can lead the others into a trap. They need to learn that this is our city, and everyone from the lowest cop to the mayor himself-"
"It's an empty simulation city, all the civilians are preprogrammed droids..."
"THE MAYOR HIMSELF! Are in our pocket. Some newbie heroes with wide eyes and ideals won't be able to do a thing..."
The screen faded to black, and faded back in, in black and white, on an office door.
The moment she came through the shadowy door, I knew she would be trouble.
"Is that Kuroiro kero? How come we can hear him?"
An answer came, surprisingly, from the villain's side of the barrier. But not a helpful one "Hey shut up! Some of us don't want to miss the exposition"!
The door opened, and A different voice continued the voice over. Once she went through the temporary shadow of the door that would fade away quickly, she entered the welcoming darkness of our office. A girl from 1-A, the tall pale spooky one, entered through the door, and for some reason she was displayed in full color. In the office were three students from 1-A, and Intelli from her own class. The two boys were glaring at each other (One completely black except his hair which was white, and the other with a birds head), Intelli was clutching her fists in obvious annoyance, and another girl with dangling earphone jacks from her earlobes was snacking on popcorn.
Rumi noticed that the plaza around her was silent, so she decided to just kick back and enjoy the show.
Chapter 20: Stage 3: Coalescence Battle of Seven Realms Part 4 - Black Shadow City of Shadowy Blackness
Reiko had a script. A very elaborate one. She really hoped she wouldn't fumble it, since there were so many conditions and prompts. At least Midoriya (or however his quirk organized this challenge) was very meticulous in his indexing and organization. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door (labeled BlackShade PI Agency).
"Come in, please", a gruff voice called. She opened the door slowly, as instructed by the script, and looked at her classmates (and the single girl from class 1-B). Kuroiro and Tokoyami were sharing a desk, while Jiro was sitting on a desk in the back with Intelli, whispering furiously between them. Showtime.
"Hiya boys, I have a problem, and I heard you were the best there are for gals like me". Reiko felt really silly, she was twirling a finger in her hair, which was too short for that but she only had three strikes before she would fail the challenge!
Intelli jumped before the others "Wait what do you mean, who did you hear that from?" damn, a hardball already.
A quick scan through the index directed her to Personal Questions - Information Sources, Detectives on page 346. "You really won't allow a woman to keep her secrets? I guess I should come clean... I heard it in a speakeasy, but don't think I'll tell you which, I know your types, always have a give-and-take with the coppers, and I won't be giving you anything they can take". Nailed it.
Tokoyami cleared his throat, "Ah, I see you're appreciative of the more shadowed sides of our culture, I too frequent seakeasies-" "-speakeasies-" Jiro corrected, "speakeasies, and I know that folk like us that have so much in common need to keep some stuff in the shadows".
Damn that was a hard one, Tokoyami was really getting into character. She browsed through the script, but wasn't sure if it was Divulging Information - Leak, Accidental; Personal Outreach - Flirt, Ingratiating; or Personal Outreach - Build Common Ground. At least she could cross out Personal Outreach - Flirt, Genuine, she could only wish.
Lucky for her she didn't need to come to a decision, since Kuroiro added his own input, "Don't worry ma'am, we'd never ask a dame like you for her secrets, mystery suits you. I would be honored to help you of course". She browsed the index quickly, thankfully this was much more on track, and Jiro was covering Intelli's mouth for some reason, not allowing her to interject.
"Someone important to me vanished, I think they were taken by the League of Villains... And I can't get help from the coppers, since any of them can be dirty".
"Obviously, we know how to keep our business in the shadows".
"Obviously, we know how to keep our business in the dark".
The boys exchanged a charged look that Reiko had trouble deciphering, and Intelli took the chance "Alright, I'll bite, what can you tell us about this so called League of Villains".
"Wait why is it fading away? This is important"! Kirishima nearly yelled at the screen.
Next to him Aoyama chuckled "Mon Ami, you do not understand the art of mystery, do you"?
Daigoro Banjo was not pouting. He just felt... betrayed. Of all people, he assumed that Bruce would understand the feeling of having your quirk butchered for some, some game more than anyone. He sure as hell complained about it enough. But now he was huddled around with Nana, Yoichi, En, and Hikage, watching them bicker about dramatic tension.
"I'm telling you, the only thing I did in that vault was watch movies. We need to cut now so we can set up a dramatic triple cross"! Yoichi raised his voice.
Hikage's response was equally heated "Yeah but cutting to the villains so fast lowers the sense of danger, and besides, you're forgetting about the romance subplot".
"Well what other options are there? It's too early for a flashback, and he already cut away" Nana said and En nodded emphatically.
"Wait", said The Traitor Bruce, "We can show some goons, and prompt them to talk about how violent and scary the boss is, that way we have mystery and a sense of danger".
The self-titled producer group grinned at each other and nodded.
maybe Daigoro Banjo was pouting.
"Are you sure that if we don't go in here the boss will get mad"? Yamada, one of the newer LoV minions asked his colleague, Shimada.
Shimada glared at him "I got a text from... him... we need to collect protection from this hidden bar place, and then drop some money off at the police station. Here look", he took out his phone, and showed Yamada the message.
Yo noob. Get a team8 and go to the speakeasy bonus level, get the Bribe Bundle quest item and drop it off to a police NPC, make sure it's one of the bribable ones, check their affinity rating if you need to. Super important quest. BTW, This is Shigaraki, listen 2 me cuz I'm a pro and ur a noob.
"Fuck Greenhair how'd your quirk get my texting style down exactly?!"
The two villains entered the hidden bar, and saw a bunch of droids sitting with whiskey or martini glasses, full of oil or grease. Some of them were having muted conversations, while some were just reading the papers suspiciously. "Woah, some of these droids are cutting edge, check out the humanoid ones in the back" Shimada pointed at a group in the back of the bar. Yamada had to admit, they were extremely human-looking compared to the other droids, that were all clearly made of metal. These looked like humans, even with elaborate quirks - Long jacks from the earlobes, ink-black skin, even an entire bird head mutation!
Still, Yamada couldn't act impressed. "C'mon, don't get distracted by the backdrop, we need to talk to the bartender" he headed toward the droid cleaning a cup with a rag, and sat down threateningly.
"What can I get you boys? We gots oils and greases, all moonshined from the crude stuff down south".
Shimada growled "You can get us what you owe the League, and you can get it fast".
Raising its hands, the bartender droid backed away. A lot of the clamor and background noise ceased "I don't want no trouble, I gots what that I owe for this month. Just keep me safe, I hear that there are new players making their move". It took a small briefcase from under the counter and Shimada quickly grabbed it. They got up to leave, and the clamor resumed behind them.
"You know, a dame like you is too classy for a joint like this" Kuroiro said while swirling around his glass of OilWhiskey.
Reiko didn't want to admit it, but she was panicking. Kuroiro was a cute boy, and he wasn't even intimidated by her grandmaster status in Epoch Duel Battles. He made her heart flutter and shiver like she was seeing the most heinous of horror movies, like she was four years old again, seeing Saw LVIX for the first time. It was even worse that next to him was Tokoyami, whose sleek black feathers made her pale face redden with flowing blood (that flowed within her body, but it was still spooky!) Thank whatever darkened gods were watching she had a script, and she quickly browsed to the very ruffled pages of the Personal Outreach - Flirt, section.
Now Reiko was getting seriously spooked! The words on the page were flickering and constantly changing, she thought she read romance route actually serious, before it flickered back to Answer how your heart tells you and then to but also don't spoil the plot. They were all interrupted by Intelli knocking roughly on the table. "Look! Those are the crooks!" The exasperated girl pointed to two humans that entered the bar, and seemed to be threatening the bartender.
The two mooks took a briefcase and left. Naturally the heroics students left too, trailing the bickering pair. Not two minutes later they both turned back and directly approached the group of teens. They all took a combat ready stance, but the villains just looked at them for a moment before one of them let out an impressed whistle "Damn you were right Shimada, these droids are hyper realistic. We still need to stay focused though".
The other villain, Shimada apparently, rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, I get it. So hey, ummm, you guys know where the police station is at"?
The aspiring heroes spent a few seconds stunned, before Jiro stepped forward and Reiko saw the mischievous glint in her eyes. "Well, I think it's right behind your headquarters, isn't it?"
The villains looked at each other, Intelli's palm met her face, and Reiko had to applaud her classmate's gall. "Oh yeah, thanks". The villains started walking away, before the one that wasn't Shimada froze. "Wait a minute, Shimada, aren't these droids tooimpressive"?
Before panic engulfed them, Jiro's quick(?) thinking came in clutch again. "Beep Boop. Whirrrr".
"No". Intelli muttered silently, "Please. I'd rather lose than have that work". her eyes were tearing up.
Instead of having her prayers answered, Shimada turned towards his ally "See Yamada, nothing to worry about, you were just paranoid".
"Ummm mister Shigaraki-" Izuku tried saying.
"Shut up".
"-I think you need-"
"Shut up"!
"-to raise your hiring standards"?
"SHUT UP! I KNOW! DO YOU THINK THAT THE CREAM OF THE CROP SIGN UP TO BE VILLAINS? I'M STILL TRYING TO CONVINCE HALF OF THEM OUR UNIFORM ISN'T OVERALLS"!
Silence settled over the plaza, until a villain broke it by silently asked the one next to him "Wait, our uniform isn't overalls"?
The growing hope on Shigaraki's face was crushed when the other villain answered.
"No dummy, we obviously also need goggles".
"Hahahahahahaha! Who's getting their dreams crushed now"?! Daigoro Banjo wasn't gloating. He was dispensing justice. The group of producers was in a panic, arguing about what could be saved and what couldn't.
Yoichi slammed his fist down "Look we obviously won't get our triple-cross reveal where the femme fatale was actually part of the League before she broke away, we just need to make it a straight double crass and have her betray them"!
En, the most soft spoken of them, actually raised his voice, "Are you insane? That would totally shoot the romance subplot that was actually hinted and teased at! Do you even know how movies work"?!
With a grunt Bruce interjected "It won't work anyways, she has three strikes and she could just use one to not betray them, they'd save Thirteen, and win the scenario. I would usually advocate for the double-cross tragic romance bittersweet win, but I think we're stuck with an actual happy ending here".
"Wow Bruce, you don't have to sound so bitter that the heroes are winning". Nana glowered half jokingly, but that did make them all calm down... "So, we need to find a way to shoehorn a romantic resolution in".
Maybe Daigoro Banjo was gloating.
Jiro was unenthused. The challenge started off well enough, but then she had to open her big mouth and cut to the end. She was ninety percent sure that Reiko was supposed to end up with one of the boys at the end, but now, looking at the downed villains, at Intelli untying thirteen, she was simply... underwhelmed.
Still, something was off. Why was the scenario not ending? They stood around awkwardly, as Reiko was looking through that big book she was carrying around and squirming in place. The pale girl was squirming, and her face was reddening. "I... I must thank you, dashing detectives, without you, I couldn't have saved my mentor! But I need to... to... to ask for help another crime"!
Okay maybe there's a part two, maybe there's still some time to make things interesting Jiro thought, but her expectations were soon blown out of the water. "I want to report a theft. One... One of you... Oneofyoustolemyheart"!
Intelli did a literal spit-take, and Jiro couldn't help her slight squeal. Both Kuroiro and Tokoyami looked elated. Jiro of course had to stir the pot. "Well, which one of them was it"?
The book was hiding her face as Reiko frantically flipped through it. "No... no..." she muttered "There has to be another option. Stupid spooky haunted script". everyone jumped when she slammed the book with uncharacteristic aggression. "AHHH I won't go along with the script! I'm taking my strike! I can't choose between the Shadowy sleek poetry of Tokoyami or the dark black mystery of Kuroiro! They're both soooo ghastly and charming"!
Both boys gaped in shock, Reiko was so red it looked like she was going to faint, and Intelli... took out her phone and opened a chess app. Jiro didn't even notice herself mumbling into the silent room until everyone turned to her.
"What did you say Jiro"? Reiko asked.
"... Duel ..." She muttered quietly, not believing herself.
Tokoyami and Kuroiro simultaneously asked "You're not suggesting... possibly..."
"Epoch Duel Battles for her heart"! Jiro instantly took back every bad thing she thought, this was the best scenario ever.
"What a mad banquet of darkness".
Chapter 21: Stage 3: Coalescence Battle of Seven Realms Part 5 - Race Down the Mountain Race Up The Mountain
Iida Tenya knew he was risking a lot, he knew that he was probably making the wrong(-ish) choice, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. To so blatantly violate the school guidelines, protocols, and rules. They had around twenty pro heroes on school grounds at any given moment for crying out loud! Sure, he trusted in Midoriya, and knew that this was obviously some...thing designed by his classmate's quirk, but every single rule stated that unless they were in immediate danger they should stay put.
And when he explained that all reasonably, he saw the understanding dawning in Ashido's eyes. "Ooooooh! Sorry, I see. I didn't know"...
Tenya felt silly, doubting his classmate just because of her generally energetic and almost frivolous demeanor "That's quite alright Ashi-"
"-I didn't know you were chicken! Bwak Bwak Bwak"! She started laughing, literally bent over holding her stomach.
"ASHIDO, YOU NEED TO RESPECT IIDA-SAN'S UNREASONABLE PASSION FOR FOLLOWING THE RULES! JUST BECAUSE YOU, I, AND EVERYONE ELSE" he gestured to the two 1-B students with them "COMPLETELY DISAGREE WITH HIM AND REALIZE THAT, WHILE THERE IS VALUE IN FOLLOWING THE RULES, A HERO MUST KNOW HOW TO ADAPT TO ANY SITUATION AND STICK WITH THEIR GUT... DOESN'T MEAN THAT HIS FEELINGS ARE INVALID"!
Everyone winced at Yoarashi's loud voice, and Hatsume from their sister class interjected "Look, there are five of us and five of them, and we all kick serious butt. I can whip up some babies from all the junk here, and even if Legs doesn't participate we can still win"!
Ashido placed a pondering finger on her chin, "Alright, that sounds like a plan". She looked towards the villain group and nodded. She would have liked to do the Midori thing and scout them out, but for the life of her they all just had overalls and goggles, masking any features that could give her information. She raised her hand to gesture that they were ready In response one of the villains nodded, and stepped up to the starting line.
Shigaraki was on his knees looking at the portal-screen in despair. "No fair! Your quirk cheated! None of my team have racing quirks but all of yours do! What, are you afraid of facing the League of Villains in a fair fight? Is that it"?!
Izuku meanwhile, looked hard at the screen, and an inexplicable shiver went through him at Ashido's grin. He had a feeling this wouldn't be as easy as he hoped.
Inasa stepped up in response to the villain, he knew Ashido probably wanted to go first, but he couldn't help himself! This looked so fun! "I'LL GO FIRST! SORRY ASHIDO-SAN, I CAN'T IGNORE MY PASSIONATE HEART POUNDING IN MY CHEST"!
Ashido in response blew a raspberry good naturedly, and patted his back when she stepped back for him. "You better win though! I can't have Hatsume's plan fail, otherwise I'll have to beg Iida to violate his precious rules"!
As both racers stepped up to the starting line, it flashed red, then yellow, then... green.
Inasa shot ahead, blowing a tornado of wind behind him. In less than ten seconds, he was across the finish line. He turned back to see the villain running down, panting. The obstacle course on the racetrack was really difficult for the poor villain, and he almost felt guilty for simply flying over it all. He heard a cry from the mountaintop and looked up.
Surprisingly, back at the top of the mountain, everyone was cheering. Not only his team, who were all clapping for him, the villains were cheering on their friend, even though they already lost. Inasa couldn't help it, he started tearing up and cheering on the villain as well! How could he not? How could he ignore such passion and camaraderie!
"YOU CAN DO IT! DON'T GIVE UP"! His loud voice carried up the mountainous racetrack, and the villain picked up their pace in response. Almost ten minutes later, the gasping-for-air villain crossed the finish line as well, and in a flash of light, both contestants vanished.
As they reappeared in the central plaza, Inasa looked around in confusion. His eyes met Midoriya's, and the boy, with a grim face, pointed up to some floating screenlike things. One of them, he noticed, was enlarged, and displayed the racetrack. Seeing the glowing black words written on the bottom of that screen, all of the color drained from his face.
"Aha! That's already a win for us! Will any of you need babies? It might take me a few more minutes so if you feel confident you should go before me"! Hatsume asked/yelled, and Mina grinned in return to her enthusiasm.
Raising her arm to flex a bicep, she smirked, "I can make myself go really fast with my acid, and it only got stronger since I've been working on it with Midori, what about you Wings"?
The remaining girl from 1-B, a short girl with shoulder length powder blue hair and wings made of icicles grinned back widely. (Mina tried to remember what she was named, at this point it was too late to ask). They all ignored Iida's mutter of how are there three of them, and the icy short girl returned Mina's bicep flex "I can do the next one, I'm the strongest for sure! But... Maybe you can go before me"?
Hatsume leaned in and whispered in Mina's ear "Cirno sometimes gets unconfident, but she's good, just show her how it's done first"? Mina nodded and smiled, winking at the icy girl.
She hopped to the starting line and stuck her tongue out at the villains. Their nefarious competitors, on their side, were having a group hug, each of them patting the next racer on the shoulder, squeezing tightly and exchanging warm smiles.
Red faced in some sort of embarrassment at her childishness, Mina turned and waited for the starting line to turn green, slowly concentrating the acid at her feet. The second she could start the race, she slid her feet forward, secreting her acid liberally and moving like an ice skater. She had worked hard with Midori to improve production speed, and the acid's viscosity and strength.
Unfortunately, what Mina didn't realize, was that the strength of the acid didn't translate to speed in this particular case (she would later stand her ground that there had to be some cases in which it would! Stronger is better, right???).
Zooming down the mountain, Mina barely noticed the ground beneath her feet start to sink. At first it wasn't a problem dodging the various obstacles, but as the race continued and Mina's acid grew in strength from continuous production, which in turn caused the ground to melt at an increasing pace. Around midway through the race, the pink haired heroine made to veer to the right, trying to avoid an inconveniently placed boulder. That was when the problem was revealed... her foot got stuck in the rut she accidentally created, she fell flat on her face, and in the process twisted her ankle.
Mina bit her lips in frustration, and turned on her back to stare despondently at the ceiling. Some example she was setting. At least she wasn't crying... It was the bright ceiling lights that were hurting her eyes!
A short moment after she realized that that was definitely the single only reason her eyes were tearing up, a shadow from above blocked the light. Mina blinked, and saw a goggled face smiling at her, reaching out a scaled hand to help her up. Too baffled to think critically, she took the proffered hand, and stood with a wobble and a gasp of pain.
"Hey, slow down, I'll help you down the mountain! Looks like you sprained something". The villain said, and his voice sounded a little younger than Mina expected. Mina observed him closely, he had a reptilian appearance, covered in deep green scales and an elongated face. Her gaze rose to his long pink hair, almost the same shade as hers.
She tried leaning on him as little as possible, but the obstacle course/race track curved and twisted on stony uneven ground. The silence between them eventually broke (Mina couldn't decide if it was awkward or not, so she broke it just in case), when Mina asked "So... This is kinda a race, why are you helping me"?
The look he gave her, as if to say wow that is a really dumb question, made her blush in embarrassment. However, he still answered "I feel like, since this is a sports-like event, the right thing to do is show some sportsmanship"...
"But... But... You're a villain"!
The lizard-like man scoffed "Tch, as expected... Of course the heroes would teach you immediately to judge. Just because I'm a villain I can't behave in a sportsmanlike manner? You really are all fake"...
Something wasn't computing. Mine just knew that there was something that wasn't adding up, but the genuine hurt in the villain's voice, and the lancing pain from her ankle, made Mina just accept it all at face value. "Oh.. Yeah I guess you're right. Sorry about that hehe"! After a few more moments of silence, she spoke again "Oh, sorry, I'm Ashido Mina, but my friends call me Mina! I didn't thank you for helping me out yet, so thanks, and nice to meetcha"!
The villain faltered a little, and cleared his throat, "Ummm, I'm Iguchi Shuichi, but my villain name is Spinner. Nice to meet you Ashido-san-"
"-Nope~! If you decided to help me instead of taking the win, you gotta call me Mina"!
"... Didn't you say that only your friends call you Mina"?
Mina tilted her head and smiled cheekily "Yeah I think I did".
"So I should call you Ashido, right"?
"Nope! I know what I said, no takebacks! Besides, if we're friends I can ask you for haircare tips, sometimes I wanna straighten out my hair and I can't find a good curling iron. We're hair-buddies so you gotta help me out"!
Iguchi hesitated, but eventually answered "Tch... Of course you'd use this to get information from me... Typical hero. Anyways, there's this shampoo that I use"...
Eijiro looked between the floating screen and the seething leader of the villains. He was impressed by the lizard villain, helping his enemy was super manly of him! Besides, it looked like Mina was having fun talking to him, so he had to be alright. Well, not if you asked Shigaraki apparently.
"I can't believe it! Spinner you fool! You had it! You were so much more skilled than that scrub"! He ranted at the screen angrily, but insulting Mina prompted Izuku to interrupt.
"Hey! Don't say that about her! Her strategy was solid, she just needs more fine-grained control over her acid, and even now she could have won if the track had more stepth"! Izuku marched towards the translucent barrier separating the heroes from the villains, and Eijiro found himself following.
Shigaraki in turn marched right up to their faces, followed by his own gaggle of villains, and smirked, "Well, I guess we'll never know... Since there was barely any stepth to it, we only have your word against mine. Well, that and the cold, hard, FACTS"!
Silence lingered in the plaza, until he heard Hagakure softly ask "What's stepth"?
As one, Izuku and Shigaraki turned to her and answered "It's like depth but for something steep".
Somehow, the silence became silent-er.
"Oh god, the heroes have one too". A dumbfounded villain uttered.
Eijiro knew it was a little cowardly, but he had to defend himself- nay, defend all the hero students of U.A.! "Hey"! He objected, "Ours wasn't like that until he started talking to yours"!
"Look Legs, hat's a win and a loss, so the moment I get done with my baby here I'll nab another win, and so will Cirno, then you won't have to do a thing"! Mei smiled at the boy with engine-legs, and Cirno decided to help.
She puffed up her chest, hands on her hips, nose upturned, and laughed loudly to the sky "I, the greatest and strongest of them all, shall win this! If someone else is the greatest, I am the greatestest! If someone else is the strongest, I am the strongestest"! Cirno rubbed her nose, Engine-Legs was looking at her in wide-eyed awe, so she took that as her cue to ready herself on the starting line.
The glowing red line pulsed, and the moment it changed to green, Cirno spread ice beneath her and skated down with incredible speed. She used her wings to maneuver with impeccable elegance, with grace suited for a professional dancer. The chill of the air at her back, the wind rushing in her face... She felt the thrill! With a beautiful, immaculate even, pirouette, she crossed the finish line.
Tomura was getting a little angry. At least Spinner eked out a win, even if he foolishly helped that pink heroics student. So he defaulted to the only coping mechanism he knew. Griefing. "Tch, so you got a win... so what. honestly, I'm glad you got that pitiful charity win, that way at least you won't cry like a little bab-" He paused when he turned to Player Onethe green haired weirdo.
The up-and-coming hero was on his knees in despair, something Tomura really didn't get. "Yo broccoli-head" Ha, gottem, "If you cry when you win, I'm kinda scared to hear you wail when you lose". The silence was starting to get to him, his minio- his villain lackies should recognize the cue. He took advantage of the heroes distraction, and quickly spun around "Dipshits! Di you already forget everything? Remember your training! When I own someone, you gotta laugh"!
One of the banana eating minions VILLAINS was about to say something, and Tomura pre-clenched his jaw. He could smell the stupid on their breath. He never knew that stupid smelled like bananas. Luckily the loser hero said something before the villain could.
"...Her quirk". The boy turned to the screen as the racing villain finally reached the finish line.
"Are you mocking me? Yeah she won thanks to her quirk, but I already said you rigged it so your team would be minmaxed"!
The kid shook his head, "No... she has a dual quirk. The first part is called Ice Fairy. It's the second half I'm worried about. It's called-"
Mei gave Legs a confident thumbs up. Sure, she didn't field test her baby, but the math definitely checked out! Besides, what are the chances that a turbo-flight ultra jetpack booster will explode? Practically zero!
"Hatsume-san", Legs stuttered, clearly impressed by her newest baby, "Is it supposed to be smoking like that?"
Wow, for something she put together on the spot from scraps, she definitely didn't think it was stylish. But to each their own... "Well, if you like the steampunk vibes, I guess it's smoking, I prefer a more techno-future vibe with a touch of atompunk. Not to knock your personal taste of course"! She would never judge someone for liking her babies.
He spluttered denials, the poor guy, and before he could say anything more, Mei and her competitor were off! Huh, she thought, This might be closer than I thought. The other racer had some armadillo or roly-poly mutation quirk, and he was rolling faster and faster. Alright, time to shift it up a gear!
Mei felt the heat! Surely this was the adrenaline of an invention well made. Hmmm, that might be a littletoo hot. Mei braced herself for what was coming, she was, of course, already experienced with it. She unlatched the safety straps on her jetpack, jumped forward...
And let the explosion send her flying.
At least I'm getting flung ahe- Her eyes widened and her overly optimistic train of thought was interrupted. She rapidly flew towards the villain rolling ahead of her. Already in her head she could calculate the trajectory of her flight (some might call it falling with style, which she would argue against). She knew shew would hit the villain from behind, giving them a great big heap of momentum, enough to push them over the finish line.
However Mei was not discouraged. Not even a little. Some might look at the calm expression on her face and believe she had some ace in the sleeve, a way to pull a win out of nowhere. They would be wrong. Mei, like all great inventors, was simply used to failing five times for each success.
Win some lose some, I suppose. She thought with a shrug as she tumbled after her rival over the finish line.
Everyone in the plaza stared at the screen. Izuku had already given up.
"Wow..." He heard the leader of the League of Villains mutter, "I almost feel bad taking that win".
Tenya looked on in horror as Hatsume's invention exploded on her back. The pinkette seemed remarkably unbothered as she was soaring at what must be unhealthy speeds for an unaccustomed body. The horror soon turned to despair as she pushed the competition ahead, almost forcing the villain to come in first place.
That was it. Two wins, thanks to Cirno and Inasa, and two loses, Hatsume and Ashido. Tenya froze, trembling. It was... all up to him, wasn't it? He needed to prioritize his friends over his values.
What would Tensei do? Tenya thought of his older brother even though he immediately knew the answer. His older brother. The hero, Ingenium. Famous for having many sidekicks, for impeccable teamwork.
Slowly, Tenya walked towards the starting line. Crossing his gaze with the final villain on the opposite side. "Even though I don't agree with this, I won't let my friends down"!
The starting line pulsed green, and Tenya didn't spare his competition a single glance. They didn't matter. He only felt the rising gears on his engines, the acceleration, the absolute high of pushing his quirk to the limit, mixed with a sense of camaraderie (and perhaps some expectations of praise), and a little dash of adrenaline from breaking the rules.
The feeling was so intoxicating that Tenya barely noticed when he crossed the finish line and flashed away.
It cannot be said, though, that Iida Tenya was an unobservant person. When he looked around and saw everyone around him, he knew something was wrong. Cirno and Inasa were crouching on the ground, twirling their fingers in the sand, a heaviness in the air looming over them. Ashido was unrepentant, taking selfies with the villain she raced from across the barrier. He looked at Midoriya, and the erstwhile teen shook his head with averted eyes. Tenya saw the glowing scoreboard, and felt something in his heart shatter.
A little while before...
Izuku saw how Yoarashi Inasa flew at high speed, and his heart sank. The challenge wasn't only a race... It was an obstacle course. His quirk definitely rigged the teams in the heroes' favor, but they still needed to play by the rules. When the passionate boy appeared in the plaza, Izuku's fears came to pass. He and Inasa made eye contact, and Izuku pointed to the hovering scoreboard. Inasa looked at the bleak words:
Race 1/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - Disqualified.
Immediately after that came Ashido's race. With a grimace, Izuku jotted down a note to give Ashido some reading materials about the various properties of acid. At least it looks like she made a friend. Izuku was very much intentionally ignoring the fact that said friend was a villain.
Race 1/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - Disqualified.
Race 2/5: League of Villains - 1st Place. Hero team - 2nd Place.
Cirno's turn was looking much, much, better. There was still a chance to turn it around! She showed impressive control of her... quirk... Izuku froze, remembering the amount of pain analyzing that quirk brought him. Shigaraki was ranting about team optimization or something, and Izuku felt no need to let his misconception drag on. He slowly explained her quirk.
"The first part is called Ice Fairy. It's the second half I'm worried about. It's called... Ninth". A dramatic silence hung over the plaza, broken only when Aoyama gulped and asked what most of them were thinking.
"Monsieur Midoriya, quesque c'est Ninth?"
Izuku shrugged and tried to explain. "It's a break in the pattern. One of the most extreme I've ever seen". He started massaging his eyebrows, that god-forsaken quirk still gave him headaches. "Todoroki has a dual-quirk, but there are similarities between both halves. For Cirno... Well, Ice Fairy allows her to create and manipulate ice, and icicle wings. Ninth... well, it means that she's always ninth place".
The lizard villain, Ashido's new friend, piped up, "Waddya mean? There're only two racers though"?
"I KNOW! I KNOW!" He took a deep, relaxing breath. "It just doesn't matter. If it wasn't so... stupid... the extent of the reality manipulation her quirk has would be frightening".
"Yeah right", He scoffed, "What does it even mean that she's always ninth place"?
He had an example, one that still haunted the faculty. "In her written entrance exam, she doodled herself beating up a bunch of bank robbers. Doodled. Stick figures. Striped shirts. Bags with dollar signs. That was her entire exam. In the practical exam... She got some notification on her phone, her phone then distracted her, and she started playing some gacha game. The entire test". Izuku took another deep breath, some of his classmates probably didn't know what he was talking about, and it felt good to get it off his chest. "Out of all of the hundreds of applicants, the best of the best from all over Japan... She placed ninth with a doodle and a few uncommon pulls. She didn't even get an SSR"!
Before anyone could respond, if anyone could actually muster up a relevant comment, the girl in question flashed into the plaza with a huge grin and a hand raised high with a victory sign.
Race 1/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - Disqualified.
Race 2/5: League of Villains - 1st Place. Hero team - 2nd Place.
Race 3/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - 9th Place.
Hatsume was always a wild card, Izuku knew. She had a 70% chance of winning, but a malfunction would stop her in her tracks. Unfortunately, it didn't even matter. They took three losses already. He could feel the smugness radiating off of Shigaraki through the energy barrier.
Of course, when it rains it pours. The malfunction was so bad that Shigaraki felt sorry for the heroes. Or maybe he was trying to mock them? It was honestly hard to tell with the way the villain spoke.
At least Iida could stay true to his values, even if he eked out a win, it wouldn't change anything.
Race 1/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - Disqualified.
Race 2/5: League of Villains - 1st Place. Hero team - 2nd Place.
Race 3/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - 9th Place.
Race 4/5: League of Villains - 1st Place. Hero team - 2nd Place.
And yet... Iida stood up, looking more determined than ever. Izuku's eyes widened in comprehension... Iida didn't know. An almost palpable aura surrounded him... Determination, Izuku thought, until he saw the gleam in Iida's eyes and understood: It was the power of friendship.
He performed better than ever before, showing masterful control of his quirk. He crossed the finish line, and when he appeared in the plaza, Izuku felt his own heart clench. At first Iida looked around in confusion, but then he raised his head up to the scoreboard. The sound of his heart shattering was almost physical.
Race 1/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - Disqualified.
Race 2/5: League of Villains - 1st Place. Hero team - 2nd Place.
Race 3/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - 9th Place.
Race 4/5: League of Villains - 1st Place. Hero team - 2nd Place.
Race 5/5: League of Villains - 2nd Place. Hero team - 1st Place.
Villains Win!
OMAKE - Hair-Buddy Bonding
Mina was super grateful for all the haircare tips Shuichi gave her, but even with how many there were, the walk down took enough time for their conversation to veer away towards other topics. There were a few things that she really wanted to know. "So... Why Spinner? I mean, it's a cool name, but you're an awesome lizard guy who fights with knives. You could have gone for Bladezilla, or Komodo swordsman, or even Tyranoswordsus"! He stared at her for a long minute "Well, maybe not the last one. But still, you have some cool stuff, why not lean into it"?
Shuichi exhaled deeply, "Most of my life I was kind of an outcast, right? People don't like heteromorphic quirks, definitely kids especially. I just... I had nothing. Nothing I wanted to do, no people I wanted to see. Every time I tried something, I was kicked down until I failed. So, I want to be able to turn it around. My life, I mean. So I chose Spinner".
"Oh man"... Mina hoped that he didn't hear her sniffle, "That's really cool, in a deep kinda way. Like, your story I mean. But why Spinner? Why not Turner- Nevermind the moment I said it out loud I got it... Spinner is great! So is that why you decided to become a villain"?
"Nah. Well, that's why nothing was stopping me from becoming a villain. I chose to become a villain because of the Hero Killer, Stain. He knows how the world really works, and he's trying to fix it. The same kids who always talk about becoming heroes see no problem with bullying someone different. And then they go on to become heroes. No wonder there are so many stinkin' fakes".
Mina chewed her lips for a moment "Look dude, we're friends so Imma lay it straight for you. Stain is kinda cringe". Shuichi stuttered and sputtered, but Mina forged onwards "No look, hear me out, right? Like, people don't stay the same, especially kids. I'm not saying that what happened to you was all fine and stuff, and there are definitely crappy heroes out there, but like, not letting them have a chance to change or grow as people? That's a pretty dick move".
Shuichi grunted at that, and Mina took her chance to continue "Like, I'm pretty sure that right now I'd make a pretty bad heroine. I have so much to learn, and I just made friends with a villain, so I'll definitely change as I grow up". Suddenly Mina felt enlightened, and knew she had a homerun argument "And! And! If you had just killed me like Stain would, instead of talking to me, then I never would have had the chance! And, right, this talk taught me a lot, and probably will make me a better and more aware heroine"!
"I... I guess you have a point, but... Stain isn't cringe! Come on Mina, he's so cool"!
"Whelp, if that's what you think... Just so you know, you kinda sound like a fan of Shadow the Hedgehog right now".
That stopped him in his tracks. "Low blow Mina. I'll have to think long and hard about what you said".
Mina saw that they were almost at the finish line, but there was still one thing she had to know. "So, before we cross, we should exchange contact info. And... You don't have to answer, but what's up with the fit? Goggles, gloves and denim overalls? Is that standard issue villain uniform"?
The villain huffed, "No, Tomura said that he wanted us all to be like minions. So there you have it".
"Wait... Seriously? And you just do it"?
Shuichi cracked a grin "Well, some of the members take it really seriously. As for me? I do it just to mess with him a bit".