Ch. 12: Noh Fear
Bakugou stared up at the building that Midoriya was currently hiding in. He could feel the familiar sensation of sweat running over his gloved hands as he paced back and forth, waiting for All Might to start the match. He could hear his teammates talking but he couldn't be asked to care as he knew exactly how he was going to win. He'd walk in, destroy Deku, his froggy friend, and the two nobodies from 1-B, and he'd do it his way. There was always the chance his teammates would get the bomb before he was finished but as long as Deku learned his place before then, that was fine by him.
"Let's see, our opponents are Midoriya and Asui as well as your class's Bondo and Shiozaki," Iida began as he poured over the map. Tsuburaba was dressed in a casual-looking outfit consisting of a light-colored jacket and pants with a dark shirt underneath will Yanagi was dressed in a white, fur-collared kimono and a black mask, almost like Shoji's. Iida couldn't help but feel overdressed in his knight suit but he designed it with pride so he'll wear it with pride. "I believe it would be prudent to exchange information on our quirks and theirs before making our plan." The two nodded before Iida continued and quickly explained how his Engine worked, as well as how he understood Midoriya's and Asui's quirks.
"Pay attention, kids and think about what you would do," All Might advised as he and the teachers put on earpieces. 'Young Midoriya, you probably aren't happy about being the villain considering the life you've lived but I'll hope you'll forgive me for the unlucky draws…' All Might thought as the students watched the two teams come up with plans. Well, most of the students. Minoru was thumbing through Izuku's quirk notebook, trying to see what he could figure out about what his friend was thinking.
"Find anything good?"
"I have a feeling I know how Zuku's going to do this," Several members of the class turned to look at Minoru as he shut the notebook, "As well as how Bakugou is going to respond."
"Hey, isn't that the notebook from our poker game?" Ashido asked as she remembered the book.
"Yeah, it's Izu's quirk analysis book," the class looked at Ochako with a collective look of surprise.
"Wait, you mean he was writing all that down?" Jirou's surprise filled her voice as she realized that Midoriya was basically studying them.
"Just the basics, really," Minoru turned his attention to the screen that showed Izuku and co. around the bomb, discussing something. Bondo was easily the tallest guy in the room while also somehow being the absolute smallest. Minoru could see how uneasy the big guy was as he was practically shaking in his baggy costume as he quickly shook his… odd shaped head. Minoru couldn't be sure but it reminded him of a glue dispenser crossbred with a spider from the seven eyeholes he had. Shiozaki, the girl with vine-like hair and a white robe for a costume meanwhile, seemed to be exasperating Izuku as the boy just shook his head and face palmed. He could just feel the sigh he was likely making.
"Though it would be nice if I could hear what they were saying…" Ochako bemoaned as she stared at the silent screens.
"We turned the sound off to help prevent copying each other's plans," Aizawa clarified, "One of the purposes of this is to see how you all think and react under pressure after all, as well as your ability to cooperate and coordinate." Minoru looked at a few of the other feeds throughout the building but something was bothering him…
"My quirk is Poltergeist," Yanagi began, voice slightly muffled by her face mask, "I can control objects up to a normal person's weight."
"My quirk is Solid Air and it lets me make barriers out of the air I breathe out," Tsuburaba explained, "I think Shiozaki's hair is made of vines she can control and Bondo can spit glue."
"So, we're up against two people who are able to make traps against us and I can only imagine how Midoriya and Asui will approach this."
"What about him?" Tsuburaba pointed to the still pacing Bakugou, curious about his quirk.
"Hm? Oh, he makes explosions with his hands," Iida replied bluntly.
"That's a little less detail than before," Iida could only shake his head at Yanagi's response.
"He wasn't a part of the poker game my class had to get acquainted with each other so I'm afraid I don't know much about him,"
"All you need to know," Bakugou growled over his shoulder, maintaining his stare at the door, "Is that I'm going to crush Deku and win. And I don't need your help to do it."
"I think we should be fine as we have your hateful classmate over there."
"Hateful?"
"It's usually how she says 'scary', though in this case, I'm not all that sure," Tsuburaba answered, "By the way, which one is 'deku'?"
"ALRIGHT, it's time to begin our first indoor combat training!" All Might shouted over the loudspeaker, "Team A and Team D, your time starts now!"
*SLAM*
Before anyone could even think of moving, the front door was kicked open, revealing the masked Izuku, surprising everyone.
"That would be 'Deku'," Iida anxiously replied as Izuku walked out of the doorway onto the sidewalk, "Midoriya, you honestly can't expect to take on four people at once by yourself!"
"Don't need to," Izuku turned his gaze towards the scowling face of Bakugou, "After all, I doubt Kacchan would accept any help in his quest to beat me into the ground," Bakugou blew his lid and charged Izuku at full speed, launching himself with his quirk. Just as he was about to waste Izuku, he, completely unseen, dropped a pebble from his hand. Bakugou swung and hit only air as Izuku used his warp to reposition himself before grabbing the blond by his arm and launching him through the open doorway. Iida tried to follow up but his kick was just as successful as Bakugou's attempt and had his other leg tripped out from under him and then punted across the back. Bakugou ran out of the doorway and was met with the now-flying Iida, which Bakugou barely managed to dodge. Izuku turned around to the class 1-B members of Iida's team. Both looked at him with apprehension as Izuku had his way with their teammates.
"You two might want to take Iida and go after the bomb," Izuku offered, voice friendly and non-threatening which only made him all the more unsettling after they watched him send their teammates flying.
"You're just going to let us go for it?" Before Izuku could answer, Bakugou was back on him, ready for Izuku's warping. Izuku popped and Bakugou was ready to erase the area in front of him but Izuku got the drop on him, literally, this time landing on Bakugou's back and driving him into the sidewalk. Izuku quickly flipped a coin into the street to teleport away as Bakugou lit up the area above him, "Come on over, Kacchan," Bakugou turned towards Izuku with a glare that could kill as the teleporter just stood out in the streets with his arms out. "You and I both know this is what you want."
"Bakugou, he is clearly playing you!" Iida shouted as he stumbled out of the doorway, a little unsteady as he gathered his bearings.
"No shit, Sherlock!" Bakugou shouted as he jumped over the railing into the street, "Just go get the damn bomb! I'll deal with Deku."
"Iida, we've only got ten minutes!" Tsuburaba yelled as he and Yanagi ran for the open door, pushing past the armored hero. "If you want to stop them from fighting, we need to get the bomb and win!" Iida gritted his teeth before running after his teammates, hoping he can secure the payload before the two hurt each other.
Bakugou, instead of charging Izuku like last time, started measuring his opponent. He checked his arm and gauntlet for any tags, only to find none.
"Are you messing with me, Deku?" Bakugou spat out, voice full of venomous fury.
"I haven't a clue what you're talking about Kacchan," Izuku replied with an overly innocent voice.
"Stop calling me 'Kacchan'!"
"Stop calling me 'Deku'!" Izuku fired back, completely dropping the act. Bakugou couldn't see Izuku's face from behind the smile mask but even he could tell that the boy in front of him was getting tired with him, "What, you think that only you get to call people by names they don't want? If you want to call me 'Deku', fine, but you better be ready for the consequences." Silence followed for a few seconds, only for Bakugou to finally speak up.
"If you were telling the truth about what happened to you, then you have more than one quirk, don't you?" Izuku was glad that his face was covered or Bakugou would have gotten his answer without a word. The boy took a deep breath to steady himself before crossing his arms and leaning back, head cocked inquisitively.
"What?"
"You said you were kidnapped by a villain that could give you a quirk. If this villain you claim that kidnapped you is real, what I want to know is, why only one? What villain sees the chance to make a superweapon and doesn't go all the way with it?" Izuku didn't have a response, his brain too fried from shock that Bakugou theorized he had more than one quirk.
"How am I supposed to know that? I lost my memories."
"You still expect me to buy that?!" Bakugou shouted as he closed the distance, "I'll just beat the truth out of you then!" Bakugou fired a blast in front of Izuku, not close enough to hit him but enough to cloud his vision. Too bad for Bakugou that Bio Scanner existed in Izuku's head as he was able to follow the faster blond as he tried to sneak attack him, allowing the warper enough time to get out of the way of the follow up.
"Holy crap, Midoriya's got balls if he's taking Bakugou head-on like that!" Kirishima gushed as the class watched the two go at it. Izuku had the early advantage but with each passing second, Bakugou started to regain ground. Any tags left on the ground were immediately destroyed by Bakugou's explosions as he tore up the asphalt to remove Izuku's ability to get the jump on him. Izuku fought in a passive manner, focusing on feints and defense rather than anything resembling true offense while Bakugou tried everything he could to pin Izuku down for a beating, demolishing everything in his path to catch him.
"Either that, or he's incredibly foolish," Yaoyorozu theorized, "Bakugou has a clear advantage in power so what's his play here?"
"I think the advantage might not be as vast as we've been led to believe," Tokoyami pondered.
"Yeah, you wouldn't think someone as scrawny as him would be able to launch Iida like that with just a kick!" Sato boisterously commented.
"It's because of Bakugou's power that Zuku needs him gone," Minoru answered, "Or more specifically, not doing what he's supposed to be doing."
"Now that I think about it, Izu did say that fighting Bakugou in a group wouldn't be a smart idea because of how widespread his explosions could be."
"So, he's trying to stop Bakugou from going after the bomb by having him target someone he's got beef with?" Kaminari asked, earning a nod from Minoru.
"That means his plan is to either run out the clock or capture Bakugou by himself," Jirou remarked, "But why is Bakugou even fighting him if it isn't the goal?"
"Pride, probably. Zuku beat him in the entrance exam and then again in our quirk test. Now, he's been thrown around like a ragdoll. He probably wants to prove he's better than Zuku is." Minoru rationalized, before pointing at one of the screens showing the indoor hallways that were following the rest of the hero team, "Though there's something… off about Zuku's plan here…"
"What do you mean, Mineta?"
"Zuku has a teammate that can make glue and another with vines, right?" he asked the members of 1-B, who nodded, "Then, why didn't they just put down a glue trap inside the door where he threw Bakugou and then cover him with vines so he would be out of the fight in the first minute? It would've beaten Iida too since he was also sent flying. It's just weird to me that Zuku wouldn't take the fast win like that..." Everyone looked at each other with shared realization as they absorbed what Minoru had said, especially the teachers as they watched the match unfold.
Iida ran past his two partners as they charged towards the stairwell. Iida couldn't hear any explosions. All Might hadn't said that anyone was eliminated so that must mean that the two were still in the match but had stopped fighting for some reason.
"Iida! Stop!" Tsuburaba shouted, breaking Iida free of his thoughts, before coming to a sudden halt due to Yanagi using her quirk on him. Good thing too as Iida looked down to see the floor of the stairwell covered in glue on every single surface. The walls, the stairs, the railings.
"Midoriya doesn't leave anything to chance, does he?" Iida mused as he looked for a way past the glue.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
Iida looked back towards the entrance as the sounds of Bakugou's explosions could be heard clearly.
"We should hurry," Yanagi suggested.
"Looks like it's my time to shine!" Tsuburaba boasted as he took a deep breath before letting it out, creating a solid platform barrier over the stairs. He began to huff and puff, creating a new stair to lead them over the glue, allowing them to finally get to the second floor.
"Great job, Tsuburaba! Now we can continue!" Iida applauded as he and Yanagi followed up after him.
"This building has five floors and they most likely place the bomb on the top floor," Yanagi theorized as she hopped up after the guys, "I fear you'll run out of breath by the time we get there."
"Do you have a better plan?" Tsuburaba asked as all three landed on safe, glue-less ground.
"I do. We instead, use a combination of your quirk and mine to ascend to the top floor from outside."
"I see! Midoriya would have wanted all of the stairs covered to prevent us from continuing. If we went from the outside, we'd be able to save time."
"Let's look for a window out that Midoriya won't see us from." The three combed the floor, with Iida finding a side window first. After regrouping, Yanagi lifted Tsuburaba with her quirk to let him build the platforms for his teammates, without fear of falling.
'I feel like I'm dead weight…' Iida thought as he dejectedly watched as Tsuburaba finished building the last platform to the fifth floor, 'Their quirks are far more useful than mine here… I'll just have to work extra hard in combat.'
"Uh, guys?" Tsuburaba called out, voice worried, "We've got a problem!"
"What is it?" Iida shouted out to his floating comrade.
"The windows are all covered in vines on the fifth floor. We'll have to go in through the fourth."
"Nothing gets by them, does it?" Iida placed a hand over his helmet at Yanagi's words.
"Of course, they would try to cover the windows. With Bakugou being able to fly, he'd have no reason to use the door," Iida jumped onto the first platform before offering his back to Yanagi to carry her up. She jumped onto his back and began their ascent to the fifth floor to join Tsuburaba, "Though that won't be enough to stop us! Yanagi, lend me a hand!" Yanagi nodded as she levitated Iida in front of the vine-covered window, allowing Iida to easily kick through the vines, using his armor to protect his legs. After the impromptu gardening, Iida poked his head in to find the entire floor covered in glue.
"They set all this up in five minutes?"
"Midoriya seems like a very hateful person…" Iida looked over his shoulder to Tsuburaba who shrugged.
"It's 'scary' this time," Iida nodded as he began to formulate a plan. They needed to know what room the bomb was in, and fast. How much time did they have left?
"ONLY FIVE MINUTES REMAINING! BETTER PICK UP THE PACE, HEROES!" All Might's booming voice shouted over the loudspeaker, as well as the earpieces in their ears. Half of the match was already over and they still knew nothing about where the bomb, or the other team was.
"With all this glue, we can be certain that it's on this floor," Iida pulled out the map and looked at the fifth floor to see which room would be the best spot for it, "Here," Iida pointed to the largest room at the back of the building, "This would be the best spot for the bomb to be."
"Okay, I've caught my breath. I'll build us a way forward," Iida moved out of the way to let Tsuburaba on the windowsill to begin making platforms over the glue floor, slowly but surely leading them to the main hallway that led to the bomb room. Tsuburaba, lungs starting to burn from all the huffing, tried to pick up the pace but just as he passed by an open doorway…
*WHAM*
Out of nowhere like a bat out of hell, Tsuyu flew through the doorway and delivered an absolute screw you of a double kick into Tsuburaba's side, sending him flying into the opposite room into a patch of glue before she latched onto a wall to prevent herself from falling in. Iida and Yanagi looked on in stunned surprise, only being broken by All Might's voice.
"Young Tsuburaba has been captured and eliminated! Three left!"
"So sorry, 'heroes', but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to stop you here, ribbit," Tsu croaked as she launched her tongue towards Iida, only for the speedster to kick it away.
"Iida, apologizes about this."
"About whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!" Before Iida could finish, Yanagi picked him up and threw him down the hallway with her quirk, determined to get him to the safe floor of the bomb room. Iida quickly fired up his engines to give him even more speed as he flew towards the door. Tsuyu took advantage of the distracted girl and shoved her off the platform onto the glue below before looking towards the flying boy.
"Young Yanagi has been captured and eliminated! Two left!" Iida was no longer being propelled but had just enough momentum to safely land past the glue… and immediately covered in vines that wrapped him up before he had any time to react. He tried to fire his engines only to find them covered in glue. Bondo and Shiozaki stood on opposite ends of the doorway, one looking sheepish as he just rubbed his hands together nervously and the other began to calmly pray, eyes closed to the speedster.
"Young Iida has been captured and eliminated! One left! Three minutes remaining!"
"Well… this is less than ideal…" Iida groaned as Shiozaki unwrapped him and Bondo got to work removing the glue from Iida's legs. While this was happening, Iida got a look at the room and realized that the bomb wasn't there. Iida looked back at the other team as Tsuyu joined in.
"Bondo, you may want to get the other two," Bondo quickly nodded before walking across his glue, completely unaffected.
"Where's the bomb?"
"On the third floor," Shiozaki answered, finished with her prayer.
"What?" Iida was confused for a second before the answer hit him like a brick to the head. 'Targeted Warp!'
"Pretty good plan, right?" Tsu bragged in her usual monotone, "Izu had a feeling that Tsuburaba could make air platforms and Yanagi could lift people so he had the idea to place glue on the first staircase to fool you into thinking we placed glue on all of them. He believed you'd try to get around it by going outside where you'd see the vines on the windows and the glue on the floor and believe that the bomb was on this floor," Iida looked on, incredulous that Midoriya and co. had so completely outplayed all of them.
"What kind of six-dimensional chess is that guy playing?!" Tsuburaba exclaimed as Bondo carried him and Yanagi into the room and set them down on the non-glued floor, "Are you telling me he knew exactly what we were gonna do before the match even started while going on nothing but assumptions?!"
"He truly is hateful…" Yanagi muttered as she shook her head at how badly they were outmatched.
"Indeed…" Iida sighed as he removed his helmet, dejected at his failure. He happened to catch a glimpse of Tsu looking confused before...
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
...The whole world started to crumble around them...
"Young Tsuburaba has been captured and eliminated! Three left!"
Bakugou and Izuku stopped fighting for a brief moment in the torn-up street to look at the building behind the green warper. Izuku was thankful for the small break in the action, as Bakugou was getting faster and stronger as the fight continued from all the sweat he was producing. Not helping matters is that Izuku couldn't really get close and when he did, he would be swiftly repelled or he had to half-commit to attacks just to keep Bakugou from realizing that fighting him wasn't what Izuku was trying to do.
"A bit too fast for my liking but that's fine, I guess…" Izuku muttered under his breath, voice annoyed, "I had hoped that it would be a bit closer to time running out but I guess if they have too…"
"What are you-"
"Young Yanagi has been captured and eliminated! Two left!"
"What am I what?" Izuku asked innocently, "You didn't finish."
"Young Iida has been captured and eliminated! One left! Three minutes remaining!"
Bakugou heard the announcement and growled. His entire team had been eliminated without Izuku's losing a single member.
"How's it feel, Kacchan, to be so completely defeated?" Bakugou stopped growling, though his scowl only deepened.
"What did you say?"
"Think about it, why am I fighting you out here, completely alone?" Bakugou thought about it for a second before it hit him, his eyes widening in shock.
"You were distracting me…"
"DIng, ding, ding, we have a winner, folks!" Izuku exclaimed with a clap like a gameshow host, "I bet it took every brain cell in your head to figure that one out after I pretty much spelled it out to you." Bakugou looked at Izuku like he just finished killing his whole family but Izuku continued, "You're strong, Kacchan, I won't deny it so I needed you far away from the fight that was actually important. This, this right here, is just me indulging your weird fixation on me to keep you from winning. You're the one that decided to fight me instead of just going for the instant-win. You're the one that has this weird desire to beat me despite the fact that we haven't seen each other in over a decade! You're the one that's going to be blamed for this loss and the entire hero course gets to see it happen live. If you had ignored me, you could have beaten us easily but you just couldn't help yourself, could you? You just had to stick it to me, to prove you were the best because that's all you care about. It was the same when we were kids with you telling everyone 'I'm gonna be the best hero ever'! News flash, you aren't the best and you won't be the best. Not while I have anything to say about it. Congrats, Kacchan, you're a failure!" Izuku pulled out a roll of capture tape that All Might had given to him earlier, "With that said, I think it's about time we wrap this embarrassment up."
Bakugou had enough and pulled up his gauntlet, aiming it at Izuku.
"He doesn't strike me as the kind of person to go with things for aesthetics so what's with the big-ass grenade gauntlets?"
"His quirk lets him sweat nitroglycerin from his palms so facing him in a group would be ill-advised."
"I'm not sure how much it's grown but most likely it's enough to cause major damage to a wide area if he could get that many villain points on the exam."
Izuku's eyes widened before placing a hand to his earpiece, "Tsu, get out of there!"
"SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, DEKU!"
"Young Bakugou, st-" Too late.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
Bakugou had already pulled the pin and an explosion so loud it could be heard from the main building roared out, far eclipsing any blast Bakugou had shown since he had arrived, making even his performance in the entrance exam look like him throwing firecrackers in comparison. As the dust settled, Bakugou observed the scorched earth in front of him, a feeling of instant regret settling in his stomach. Izuku was gone and the building behind him had the entire front of the first floor blown out, causing the building to start to lean towards him. He finally heard footsteps to his left, seeing Izuku stomp slowly up to him. Fists clenched in rage, a dark red aura burned around him, and from the two eye holes of his mask, piercing red eyes full of fury.
"Bakugou…" The blond heard his name in the double layered voice of Izuku, now seeing someone that was the complete antithesis of the boy he knew.
And it screamed at him, with bloody murder in his cry.
"BAKUGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!"
"IZU!" Ochako screamed as she covered her mouth with her hands.
"TSU!" Minoru cried out as he clenched his fists, unable to tell if his friends were okay. The explosion's shockwave blew out all of the cameras, preventing anyone from seeing anything.
Aizawa had expected a number of things today. A bunch of school kids given the freedom to use their quirks after years of being unable to and told to fight each other was a classic recipe for disaster.
He just wasn't expecting it to be happening this quickly.
"All students, report in!" All Might shouted, desperation in his voice. The students were all looking on in shock.
"We're okay…" The voice of Tsu came through the other end, causing All Might to sigh with relief, though the students shouting "what?" on the other end, didn't make him feel any better about what happened. "We're all on the ground at the back of the building." All Might was overjoyed that most of his students were fine but he still felt a massive weight in his stomach, unable to tell what happened to Bakugou or Midoriya.
"Young Midoriya, Young Bakugou, come in!" All Might received no answer from either boy, causing his fears to grow.
"Stop the match, All Might," Vlad commanded, voice concerned while holding back a very clear rage, "Midoriya could be injured or worse."
*beep* *beep* *beep*
Aizawa pulled out his beeping phone and his eyes immediately widened in shock. Aizawa quickly bolted from the room, scared for his students for what was coming. Everyone looked on, confused by what that was all about.
Bakugou fired off an explosion at Izuku, who dodged it like it was moving in slow motion before he delivered a jaw-splitting punch to Bakugou. He followed up by warping the gauntlets off of Bakugou's wrists, grabbed him by the collar of his costume and threw him down hard on his back. Izuku quickly jumped onto him and grabbed his hands and forced them back towards Bakugou's face, holding them there so that he couldn't use his quirk. Izuku deactivated Rage Shroud as Body Burst was more than enough to hold down Bakugou without his explosions, just as Tsuyu and co. quickly rounded the corner and saw what was happening.
"Bondo, Shiozaki, bind his hands to his face!" Tsu ordered. The two nodded as they ran over, spraying Bakugou's hands till they were glued to the sides of his head before wrapping them tightly with vines, finally defeating the blond, as he cried out in frustration. They couldn't see Izuku's hair but his eyes were plainly visible, green as they ever were. Tsuyu and Izuku shared a knowing glance, Tsuyu's worried gaze making Izuku wince.
"All Might hasn't called the match yet," Iida realized as the absence of the familiar voice became too much to bear.
"The explosion probably knocked out the cameras so no one knows we're done out here." Izuku theorized before sitting down on the ground, slightly exhausted as he turned on Bio Scanner to see Aizawa sprinting towards them, only slowing down when seeing the unharmed Izuku and struggling Bakugou.
"All Might, I've got Midoriya and Bakugou down here, both fine and Bakugou's been captured. Call it."
"Young Bakugou has been captured and eliminated! The Villain team wins!"
Bakugou immediately stopped struggling as if hearing All Might proclaim his defeat was all it took to calm him down. His eyes went wide as he just stared at the sky, lost in thought. "Is everyone okay? No injuries?"
"I've got a sore rib cage from Asui kicking me into next week," Tsuburaba joked as he rubbed his ribs, causing Tsu to bashfully apologize. "Also, is anyone's ears ringing?" Everyone nodded and voiced their agreements but everyone seemed none the worse for wear despite the scare.
"Vlad, can you get Recovery Girl for us?"
"Anything serious?"
"Tsuburaba might have cracked ribs from Asui but otherwise, ringing ears seem to be the only injuries."
"Small miracles, it seems." Aizawa then turned his gaze to Bondo and Shiozaki as he gestured to the almost catatonic Bakugou.
"If you would?" The two immediately released their quirks, allowing Bakugou's hand to fall free of his head, only to have himself pulled up by an irate Aizawa, "As for you, the principal and I are going to have a long talk with you after class about firing an attack like that at a classmate, am I understood?" Bakugou looked down at the ground, not resisting, "Well?"
"Understood," Bakugou's voice was low, no longer full of the same rage as before. Izuku wasn't sure how to feel. He couldn't recall a time when Aizawa was ever this mad about something. It felt... kinda nice to know he did care about them but he still couldn't really believe that Aizawa cared especially about him.
The two teams walked into the observation room, little more than tired from Recovery Girl fixing them up as well as the match they just had. Ochako and Minoru were the first to greet them, worried sick.
"Izu, Tsu, you're both okay!"
"Don't scare us like that!"
"Yes, because I was the one that fired that thing," Izuku snarked as he pointed at the still unresponsive Bakugou, "But I'm sorry I scared you guys."
"That match was insane though!" Kirishima shouted as he and the rest of the first years gathered around the two teams, "I can't believe how one-sided it was!"
"Your team really had it all planned out by the looks of things," Yaoyorozu praised.
"Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you…"
"Now, I know you all want to praise the two teams on their match but we should first review it as a class." The two teams lined up, all eight standing before the two classes, "Now, in my opinion, the MVP of this match is Young Bondo!"
"Yeah, let's go Bondo!" Izuku praised as he clapped, causing everyone else to join in, causing the big guy to sheepishly rub the back of his head.
"You earned it," Tsuyu added with a smile.
"A well-deserved win," Shiozaki followed up with a smile of her own.
"A-ah… t-thanks guys," Bondo spoke in a quiet, almost whisper.
"And he speaks too. What have we done to receive such a blessing?"
"Now, can anyone tell me why Young Bondo is our MVP?" Yaoyorozu, in a split second, rose her hand.
"Sir, while the villain team had solid teamwork for three of the four members, Bondo was a deciding factor in all four of the hero team eliminations. Tsuyu and Shiozaki were key players as well but it was thanks to Bondo's glue that they were able to defeat the villain team as quickly as they did. Midoriya, however, contributed very little to the team's success, only focusing on fighting Bakugou to keep him away from the bomb instead of just capturing him early as Mineta had suggested earlier." Izuku, Tsuyu and Bondo all turned to look at Shiozaki.
"Let me guess, he said we should have put a glue trap at the door, right?" Izuku asked, catching Yaoyorozu and the rest of the students off-guard, "I'm just saying, we had five minutes and I didn't want to waste it arguing over what was considered a 'sinful strategy' of curb-stomping everyone in one minute. She wanted to give everyone a chance to shine so we went with the compromise of me playing decoy to the man that could have blown down the whole building. Yes, my part in this plan was very dumb. I couldn't even get in close enough to capture him." Bakugou wanted to scream. He wanted to so much but kept his mouth shut for now. Here was Deku, the boy who beat him, telling everyone that he couldn't with a straight face.
"I thought it had to be something like that," Minoru remarked with a smirk, "You were always one for the cheapest wins ever."
"If it's in the game, I'm gonna do it," Izuku claimed with no shame.
"We, of course, knew this from listening in on the plans," Aizawa revealed, "We won't be giving any tips on how you should do this as you learn more from your mistakes rather than your successes."
"Though it didn't matter in the end, Shiozaki, you must remember that no matter how devious the scheme, solving situations quickly and efficiently must take priority to save as many lives as possible. After all, Bakugou's attack could have been averted if the match had ended quicker." Vlad King lectured. The vine-haired girl seemed to reflect on her teacher's words.
"While we're here, might as well touch on the hero team. Yaoyorozu?"
"Sir!" she nodded, "Tsuburaba and Yanagi were clearly important to their team as their quirks' utility outside of combat allowed them to get around all of the traps until they reached the villains. Iida, however, was severely hampered by the situation and was unable to contribute much of anything. Bakugou allowed his judgement to be clouded by a personal grudge and was completely reduced to a non-entity for the majority of the match, with his only impact being a poor thought out attack against Midoriya. Additionally, all four were caught off-guard by Midoriya bringing the fight to them and were unable to recover and adapt quickly, allowing him to throw two of their teammates around." All Might started quivering a little in shock.
'The eye on this girl is something else…'
"Well, there are a few things you overlooked, Young Yanagi focusing on getting Iida to the bomb instead of turning the glue against Young Asui is one such thing, not to mention the seven to eight figures in property damage caused by Bakugou but otherwise," All Might held a thumbs up, "I couldn't have said it better myself!"
"One should always start with the basics and devote themselves wholeheartedly to learning. That's the only real way to become a top hero," Yaoyorozu said with pride.
"Anyway, let's blow this joint and move onto the next match! I want you all to think about what you saw and what we discussed as you tackle this training for yourself!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Next matchup will be…" Out of the hero box, the letter "C" followed by the letter "B" from the villain box, "Hero team C verses villain team B!" Ochako gasped quietly, surprised that her team's letter came up so soon, especially after what she just witnessed.
"Looks like we're fighting the Iceman and his band of merry friends," Minoru remarked as he and their two other teammates walked up. The blond boy, Monoma, was dressed in a stylish suit and tie for some reason while the ginger-haired girl, Kendo, was in a qipao with a corset around her stomach.
"I'm looking forward to working with all of you!"
"You should feel honored to have my assistance," Monoma bragged, immediately causing Minoru to rub his forehead in exasperation.
"Why is it today, all I have is bad feelings?" All Might looked on, feeling a sense of pride as well as a sense of dread.
'This will be your next test on the road to becoming a hero, Young Uraraka, and I know you have what it takes to win. Though I'm hoping for your success, I must remain impartial and fair. Good luck.'
"So, your quirk lets you copy other quirks?"
"Indeed, though I have to be careful since there's a limit to how many I can copy at once until the five minutes are over. I can copy two at once right now.
"That gives us four, maybe six, extra quirks the whole match," Minoru added before turning to Kendo, "What about you, beautiful?" Kendo slightly blushed at the sudden compliment but quickly shrugged it off.
"My quirk is Big Fist, which lets me enlarge my hands," She says spiritedly as she demonstrates, causing her hand to grow to gigantic proportions. Minoru quickly bit his tongue from saying anything perverted before refocusing on the team. He and Ochako explained their quirks as well as the quirk of Shoji and what they knew of Todoroki's quirk. "Well, Kodai, if I remember correctly, can make nonliving things bigger or smaller."
"Shishida's quirk is a transformation quirk, causing him to turn into a truly massive beast. His quirk would be a great one to steal if it weren't for the cramped environment we'll soon find ourselves in."
"Unless he pulls a Zuku and kicks the door down at the start of the match…"
"You think he would?"
"No, not really, though it doesn't help us much," Minoru scratched his head as he plucked a grape, "The other team seems pretty stacked from top to bottom so we'll need a good plan, especially if we want to survive the first minute."
"You think they'll eliminate us that quickly?"
"Only if you don't follow my lead."
"You sure?" Shoji asked as he eyed Todoroki. He was wearing a solid white jumpsuit with ice covering the entire left half of his body, with a red lens to see out his left eye. Shoji kept it simple with a sleeveless blue bodysuit while Kodai had a red and white bodysuit and Shishida had no shirt, a pair of goggles and a pair of pants to call a costume.
"Vlad King said to be efficient and quick with defeating the opponents and that's what I plan to do," Todoroki, in an emotionless tone, explained. It sounded good to Shoji… in theory but something was nagging at him like he's forgetting something.
"Alright, match two, BEGIN!" All Might shouted over the loudspeaker. Shoji turned his stubs into working ears, allowing him to hear everything happening in the building. He morphed a mouth out of one of the ears to speak. "They're inside, having taken a second story window."
"I expected as much." Before anyone could say anything, ice poured out Todoroki's right foot, coating the entire room in ice before it spread to the rest of the building, quickly overtaking it.
"Well, I suppose this is the most efficient way to do this," Shishida remarked, disappointed that he wouldn't get a chance to do anything.
"Doesn't make it any less insulting." Kodai remarked, tone more monotone than even Asui's but still conveying her bitter feelings. The team waited for All Might to call the match…
For about a whole minute.
"Geez, you done yet?"
"I've been done for a while now."
"..."
"..."
"What was that Uraraka girl's quirk again? Something about gravity?" Shishida asked, causing Shoji to mentally slap himself. Now he remembered what was nagging him about Todoroki's plan.
"She floated her whole team over your ice."
"Well, great job, Frosty. You've accomplished nothing. Shoji?" He quickly broke out the ears and scanned for any noises.
"They're on the third floor now."
"Well, we'll go stop them while you guard the bomb," Kodai and co. quickly left the room, leaving Todoroki to seal it off from the outside world, leaving him to wait patiently for the match to end.
"He froze the whole building?! That's insane!" Kaminari shouted, with everyone around him agreeing. Bakugou at the back of the room, just stared on in shock, completely in awe of the power on display. Izuku, and the teachers as well however, didn't seem all that impressed by the look on their faces, especially Izuku who already figured out what Todoroki had done wrong as he watched the villain team slip and slide around the building.
'His ice production is amazing, sure, but all that ice on the floor isn't going to help his team much."
"Told you this would happen," Minoru gloated as the team floated across the icy floor, "I just knew he'd try for the fast win after what Vlad King said."
"I think he would have gone with this anyway," Ochako remarked as they reached the stairs to the fourth floor.
"It would definitely have been effective if we couldn't float but I think I could have broken this easily," Monoma bragged with a smirk, his hair now yellow orbs.
"That's only because you can copy our quirks to use them.. Otherwise, you'd be screwed, and I'd be laughing," Minoru reminded him with a smirk of his own.
"I just wish it wasn't so cold in here…" Kendo said as she shivered, trying to warm up her bare arms by furiously rubbing her hands across them.
As they arrived at the fourth floor, who should be there but the villains themselves as they slipped and slid down the uneasy path of the icy floor.
"Looks like you guys are having a fun time on the skating rink you call a hideout," Minoru mocked.
The other team, not much for words, readied themselves. Shishida, however, was almost a sitting duck as his quirk would make him too big so of course, Mineta and Ochako went after him first while Monoma copied Kendo's quirk to take on Shoji and Kendo herself fought Kodai. Shishida threw a punch to Ochako who dodged it thanks to her One For All speed and grabbed his body and shoved him forward while increasing his gravity, sending him into a welcoming batch of freshly picked grapes from Minoru, taking him out in record time.
"Young Shishida is captured and eliminated! Three villains remaining!" The villains had no time to react as Ochako was already all over the distracted Kodai, who was busy firing super sized lug nuts into Kendo's massive hands. She was immediately flipped over Ochako and body slammed into the floor, onto more grapes. "Young Kodai is captured and eliminated! Two villains left!" Shoji, realizing the numbers game was against him, decided on the more… tactful option.
"I surrender," he put his hands in the air as the four surrounded him.
"Young Shoji has surrendered and is eliminated! One villain left!"
"You made a wise choice," Monoma smirked.
"You guys might want to get out of here," Minoru advised as he and Ochako helped the other two villains off the floor. The three villains nodded before making their way down the stairs towards the exit.
"That was pretty easy," Ochako cheered.
"Speak for yourself, you weren't pelted with giant rocks," Kendo snarked as she walked up, hands covered in bruises from Kodai launching large rocks at her.
"We're on the clock, people! Let's get moving!" Monoma shouted, already walking up the slippery stairs, causing the others to follow after him.
As the group arrived at the fifth floor, they were greeted with a massive wall of ice that blocked them from the bomb room.
"Okay… now what?"
"Well, I can punch much harder with my quirk so if all three of us punched at once, we might be able to bust through."
"Worth a try," Kendo nodded with her and Monoma lining up to punch through the ice wall. Ochako collected One For All through her body to her current limit of 6% and all three crashed into the wall as hard as they could.
If the wall could, it would have laughed at them.
While the wall was spider-webbed like shattered glass, it was nowhere near enough to break through. Ochako looked at the wall with a downcast look on her face, ashamed of her lack of ability to use All Might's power. Before they had any time to come up with a backup plan, the ice reformed and started to spread, forcing the team to back up quickly or get caught in it.
"Run!" Minoru shouted as they all sprinted as fast as they could on the ice away from the oncoming ice wave, "Ochako, remove our gravity. Kendo, Monoma, get ready to punch our way out!" Everyone nodded as the team quickly worked to fulfill Minoru's escape plan. The team now ready to fly, ran towards a window. Kendo and Monoma wound up and punched straight through the less solid ice window, allowing the hero team to escape Todoroki's counter attack.
As all four heroes of the match landed on the safe ground, they watched as the hole Monoma and Kendo blew open was sealed quickly with more ice. Minoru quickly looked at the windows on the bottom floor, watching them quickly become opaque as layer after layer of ice was stacked over it.
"He really doesn't want us coming back in." Ochako shivered as she still felt the cold of the building.
"Our triple punch must have put the scare in him."
"Five minutes remaining!" All Might shouted, reminding everyone still in the match of the time limit.
"And then there's that…" Kendo remarked as she looked to her "captured" opponents who were standing just outside as the hole that Shoji broke to escape filled back in with more ice.
"Indeed, Pop Off is gone now so we're definitely running out of time." Monoma ran a hand through his normal hair, glad that the yellow balls were gone.
"We'll never be able to break through all this ice to get to the bomb in time… at least not safely…" Minoru stared at the ice building, racking his brain.
"Do you have a plan, Minoru?" Ochako asked, curious about Minoru's choice of words.
"Um… well…" Minoru shifted, awkwardly trying to find the right words.
"Well?" Monoma inquired impatiently.
"It's an incredibly dumb plan but… all this ice has weight," Minoru explained nervously.
"Gravity Shift…" Ochako whispered in shock, with Minoru nodding solemnly. In her surprise, she didn't notice Monoma gently poke her and copy her quirk.
"If we use Ochako's quirk to increase the gravity of both the building and the ice, it will cause the whole thing to come crashing down."
"But Todoroki is still in there!" Kendo reminded him, "He could get seriously hurt from all that ice shattering."
"Not to mention the weight of all the ice landing on him with the increased gravity. I did say it was a dumb pla-" Minoru was cut off by the sound of the building behind him being punched before it began to groan. As everyone was focusing on the plan, Monoma, using his copied quirks, had begun increasing the gravity of all the ice and the building simultaneously. The ice started to crack dangerously, alerting everyone to the building's impending doom.
"Monoma, you idiot!" Kendo shouted, clocking Monoma out cold with her massive fist.
"Kendo, now he can't release the gravity!" Ochako shouted, causing Kendo to wince as the building started shifting away from the group towards where Todoroki's room was. Minoru could only brace himself for impact.
"Ah… shit."
The building smashed into the street with an earthshaking crash, causing debris from the ruined building to fly in all directions. As the dust settled, Team C looked at the ruined building with awe. Shoji had done his best to shield his teammates from the shock wave of dust as he too looked at the chaos before him. Lying in this pile of rubble was a half-conscious Todoroki whose only relevant thought was "What the hell just happened?" His whole body ached from the shock of the fall as well as the possible hypothermia from standing in that room for so long.
"T-the hero team has recovered the bomb! The hero team wins!" Todoroki looked up from where he was lying to see Ochako and her team, including the unconscious Monoma, all next to the bomb with the gravity girl's hand on the fake bomb, mercifully bringing the match to an end. Their faces weren't happy with the result, faces full of regret and shame. They all quickly ran over to help the icy boy, concerned for their classmate.
"Todoroki, are you alright?" Minoru and co. took stock of Todoroki's appearance. His body was covered near head to toe in frost, the ice over his left side shattered, with his body visibly hivering from the cold.
"W… what happened?"
"Monoma copied Ochako's quirk and then made the building and your ice super heavy to get to the bomb."
"That's insane..." Kodai noted.
"The ice is so light though," Shishida mentioned as he picked up an icy rock. It then hit Minoru why it was light now.
"His quirk timer must have run out as the building was falling and it must have reset the gravity before it could crush him." He theorized, not knowing when Monoma copied her quirk before he turned to the now standing Todoroki, "You got so lucky that you didn't get killed today."
"Hurry it up already," The group turned to see a very annoyed Aizawa. Clearly, he wasn't having a good day. "We haven't got all day, you know."
"Yes, sir!" Minoru took one last look at Todoroki, watching as the frost that covered him turn to steam in the blink of an eye. He could also feel a wave of heat overtake him as it came from his dual-haired classmate.
'He can make heat too? Might need to tell Zuku about that.'
"Clearly, in spite of the result, the MVP is Young Todoroki!" The students all gasped in surprise but Aizawa and Vlad just nodded.
"Shouldn't it be from the winning team?"
"Excellent question. Can anyone tell us why one of the winners isn't the MVP?" Yaoyorozu and Izuku both raised their hands.
"You want to go first?" Izuku offered.
"I had the last one so you lead off,"
"Fair enough." Izuku stepped forward, "The most obvious reason would be that Todoroki was able to shut down the entire enemy team single handedly and forced them to use extreme measures that no sane hero would ever go for," Izuku emphasized as he looked at Monoma, who at the very least showed a hint of shame, "Though he wasn't without his own flaws. His ice ended up causing nothing but problems for his team, especially when the enemy can just float over it. His teammates were completely overwhelmed due to the numbers advantage and lack of stable footing. Also, no member of the hero team performed especially well in comparison to the other members. Minoru was the one to capture the villains but he left the fighting to the more physically capable members of the team."
"Dude, could you imagine me trying to body slam people like Ochako can?" Minoru asked.
"I would be surprised if you threw a punch." Tsuyu countered.
"So would I, honesty!" Minoru said with a smile.
"The closest the hero team had would be Ochako herself due to her quirk being the only reason her team won due to the insane method they needed to even stand a chance of winning." Yaoyorozu added. "Kendo found it hard to assist while Monoma just escalated the situation beyond rational thought."
'Two incredible analysts... it almost feels like they could teach the class...'
All Might thought to himself as he felt a drop of sweat run down his brow.
"It's worth pointing out that all but Monoma was against the plan from the start and Mineta, while the one to come up with it, immediately called it the stupid plan it was." Aizawa explained.
"So, I'm not in trouble, right?"
"Not yet but if you keep making bad plans, you might be one day," Minoru nodded his head, just glad he wasn't in trouble more than anything else. "Especially if you end up taking a leadership role like you did today. Though it's worth stating you performed well before that in the role. It might be something for you to consider developing." Minoru nodded, a bit proud his teacher praised him.
"Other than the obvious blunder, both teams performed admirably. There's a lot to work on but it's your first day so that's to be expected. Now, on to the next match, this time, with less buildings falling down, please!"
"Yes, sir!" As the next match was being set, Todoroki stared at Ochako, the one whose quirk beat his. His face was very calm but he could feel a rage burning underneath.
'I need to get stronger... I'll never surpass him if I'm losing like this...' he thought.
Bakugou was also staring at the brunette, unable to process just how powerful some of his classmates were... and how close they were to being better than him, if they weren't there already. Ochako, meanwhile, just looked at her feet. She had pretty much tuned out most of what was said, too lost in her own world as she saw just what kind of damage she could do with just her own quirk, not just One For All.
She saw it and it terrified her...