It was a gamble, but we had too little understanding of how his quirk actually worked. Trial and error seemed like our only option.
Besides, it's not like we could have avoided him.
By the time Koda noticed, it was too late to change course. Our group isn't suited for stealth and with the fact that he's heading in our direction despite our attempts at hiding, he probably knows we're hiding somewhere. Instead of trying to escape quietly, taking a stand was the better option.
"Here he comes." Uraraka's voice came through the comms. Moments later, footsteps echoed faintly as someone entered the central courtyard.
It was calm, unhurried. Like he was taking a stroll.
I could see him clearly now through the through the window.
His hands stayed loose in his pockets, facial features casual. He didn't look vigilant ... Or battle ready at all. 'He definitely knows,' My gut told me instantly. Probably not our exact positions, but he definitely knew we were here. And that posture was his way of telling us to strike first.
My heart fell into a pit as a result. Few people would willingly walk into a trap without a plan.
From our discussion in that alley months ago, he definitely wasn't one of them.
'In that case, we'll just have to make sure our plan works.' We lost the element of surprise, but backing down now wasn't an option.
"Now."
I hissed into the comms as he walked past Iida's point.
The plan unfolded instantly.
The wall to Ken's right exploded outward as Sato burst through, fist cocked back and glowing with raw power. At the same time, a blur shot out from the left—Tenya's engines roared, propelling him forward with a recipro-boosted kick that cracked the pavement under his first step.
"Ribbit!" Tsuyu's tongue lashed out like a whip, angling straight for Ken's midsection.
Three attacks. Three directions. One moment to overwhelm him. One however, was faster than the others. With his legs blazing with blue thrusters, Iida's attack came first despite being farther away.
"Recipro Burst!"
The yell resounded throughout the courtyard as he swept his leg for a well timed kick to the head from Ken's blind spot. For anyone else, this attack should hit.
I wasn't surprised when it didn't.
However, it wasn't the way I expected.
"Huh? ..." Iida's exclamation rang out as his kick missed Ken's head by a few centimeters.
'He dodged?'
Ken didn't take the hit. Instead, he leaned forward just as Iida sprung into action, hands still in his pockets, like he was bowing to an invisible elder. However, such a move had cleanly dodged Iida's attack.
The shockwave generated from the dodged force blew away the nearby debris.
"No way!"
I didn't have time to process why, my thoughts interrupted as Iida turned.
Planting one foot on the ground, he pivoted immediately and fired another kick in less than a split second.
It landed. For real this time.
However, the result wasn't any we hoped for.
THUD!
Iida's right leg stopped as it slammed into a hand, held firm from budging any further.
BANG!
The ground cracked beneath Ken's feet cracked. He himself however, didn't move an inch.
"Pincer attack huh?" He uttered, lips curling up to reveal a small smile. At the moment, Sato and Asui's attacks came simultaneously.
The attacks hit ... And at the same time, didn't.
Sato's fist slammed and stopped mere inches away from Ken's face. The shockwave blew in different directions, rattled the windows above, dust bursting outward in a ring, but once again, Ken didn't budge an inch. Iida's engines roared as he pulled back in an attempt to free his leg from the villain's grip. Despite his exertion, he failed and threw a punch as a result. Once again, the attack halted, stopping just short of him.
And Tsuyu—her tongue slapped against the same invisible layer and just stopped there like it had hit an invisible wall. Three attacks ... None connected with the target.
"…!"
This was the end result to our ambush.
My throat tightened.
"I expected more but I guess it's not bad."
Ken uttered in the middle of all three attacks.
Then ...
SQUELCH!
A thin black rod jutted out from the other end of Iida's leg.
"Ugh!"
The blazing blue thrusters coming out of his engines vanished instantly.
Iida's eyes widened, barely releasing a groan before his entire body stiffened more than I had ever seen him.
"Fall back!"
I yelled into the comms. Asui retracted her tongue immediately. Sato however had barely taken a step when Ken finally moved.
He shifted, grip on Iida's leg tightening as he turned to face Sato. Following which, he pulled Iida off the ground, and swung him like a baseball bat. Sato could barely react when Iida's 179cm tall frame slammed into him, knocking him back like a bowling pin. He crashed into a nearby building structure.
__
GENERAL POV
The sound of crumbling masonry echoed as Sato's body smashed through plaster and steel support beams before skidding to a halt in the dust-choked ruin of the storefront. He groaned, half-buried under the debris.
Iida who was thrown out on the other hand, bounced off the ground several times before slamming into a wall.
"Midoriya wasn't kidding…" Sato wheezed, coughing out powdered concrete. "This guy's on a different level .."
"Sato, Iida, are you alright?"
Midoriya's voice came through the comms.
"A bit banged up, but we're fine." Sato replied, looking at Ken in the distance, eyes blazing with fighting spirit.
However ..
"Um ... I beg to differ .." Embedded in another wall like Sato, Iida spoke with difficulty.
"Iida? What's wrong?"
"I .. I regret to inform that ... I currently can't move."
Iida's facial features scrunched inside the suit, trying and failing to move his body.
"What happened!"
"It seems one of his rods pierced my leg. It's still in there. Now my body isn't responding. I'm afraid I'm in no condition to do battle now."
"Crap. What now?"
Deku's face hardened. "Guys. How did it feel when your attacks hit?"
"If anything, stalled. It felt like I was kicking the side of a mountain. I couldn't move further."
"I see" But Midoriya didn't. In his hiding spot, countless thoughts burned though his mind as he tried to pick apart why Ken had dodged the first attack.
However, he didn't have the time nor luxury to dwell on that as the problem was staring at them right in the courtyard below.
Iida had gone all out.
To win this, he had explained his abilities and his strongest move. Recipro, alongside the drawbacks of using it.
Drawbacks well worth it.
The speed Iida just showed with this boost was insane. That alone spoke volumes about the abilities of one who could react to it. But if you had a barrier that could block attacks ... Why bother dodging it?
'Is it possible that ... His shield couldn't keep up?' Midoriya thought. 'Or maybe it wouldn't be able to hold up under all the force from Iida's attack, or is there something I'm missing .. '
His hands clenched into fists.
'If only I could control One For All ...' He thought. 'I wouldn't be stuck hiding like this. I wouldn't be stuck hiding while my teammates were fighting the actual battle ..' Now, he could only use All For One at 100% or nothing at all. Using it would break his arm in the process.
'Even if I do, would it be enough? No. No use thinking about that now.'
"Guys, what do we do now?" Uraraka's voice came through the comms.
"Everyone Fall back."
"Huh?"
"We can't win this fight." He cut in quickly. In a frontal assault, there only chance of victory was to get through Ken's barrier. There had to be some underlying principle behind his quirk they didn't understand yet. His gut told him that all he needed was time to properly analyze this.
However, he doubted Ken would wait that long for them to accomplish it.
"Alright then,"
CLAP!
Theatrically, Ken clapped his hands together. "No hard feelings guys. But I plan to ask All Might for today's exercise footage as a souvenir. I'll have to show it to my mom later on ...."
He smiled.
"So I think I'll show off a bit."
'Dammit!' Midoriya cussed. "Asui, get Iida out of there."
"Ribbit!" From her vantage point, Asui shot out her tongue towards the motionless Iida.
Seeing their actions, Ken raised his hand. Black energy coalesced in his palm, condensing into miniature black rods and shooting outward.
"Ribbit!" Asui pulled back.
BANG!
BANG!
The rods slammed into the wall, inches from where Asui's tongue had been a heartbeat earlier. She snapped it back with a startled croak, landing in a crouch.
"That was close, ribbit…"
Ken's voice drifted across the courtyard, calm, steady. "Not close enough."
Sato roared and ignored Midoriya's warning. He charged, the glow around his fist so bright it painted the dust golden. Each step cracked the ground beneath him. He swung for Ken's head with enough force to rattle the windows.
The shockwave hit first, ripping through the courtyard—
—and still, Ken didn't move.
The barrier held firm, and Sato's knuckles stopped cold against it.
His eyes widened. "Come On!"
Ken didn't answer. His hand rose, black light sharpening into jagged rods. They fired point-blank.
Sato screamed as the rods punched through his palms. He staggered, blood splattering against the cracked tiles, before crumpling to his knees. His arms trembled, useless now, fingers curling helplessly around the shafts.
"One less brawler to worry about."
Ken exhaled.
Moving his hands to create another rod, he suddenly found his stiffen.
'What the ...'
Before he could react, a warmth surged through his chest, low and steady, like a current he hadn't felt in a long time. It rolled through him with an almost familiar weight, pulling his attention inward before he even realized it.
His eyes widened.
That feeling… he knew that feeling. He let out a helpless sigh.
"About time. I thought it would—huh?"
The thought slipped away as a shadow swallowed him whole.
Ken's head tilted up just as a massive shipping crate floated above him from the upper floor.
Uraraka stood on top of it, slightly pale but firm. Her hand snapped into the release gesture. "Release!"
The crate plummeted instantly.
Uraraka leapt off before it could hit the floor.
"I gotcha!"
Tsuyu lashed her tongue forward, wrapping for Uraraka's waist and yanking her free just as the crate crashed down —and froze a breath above Ken's head.
Looking at the hovering crate, the whole class held their breath.
"You know ... dropping things on me isn't going to work..." Ken said, scratching his head.
"Then we'll keep trying until we get it right."
Uraraka yelled, seemingly battle ready.
I raised an eyebrow. Didn't Midoriya tell them to retreat?
Just then, All Might's booming voice cut through the arena.
"ATTENTION. INDIVIDUALS RIKIDO SATO AND TENYA IIDA, HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED FROM THE EXERCISE."
Everyone paused.
"Oh no!" Uraraka exclaimed.
"I guess we got disqualified." Sato uttered with difficulty.
"Now ... We're permanently down to four." Midoriya clenched his fists.
"Things just got a whole lot harder,"
"That's two down." Ken uttered with a slight shrug. "Well, Todoroki's already done." Ken dusted his hands as though he'd just finished tidying a room. "No hard feelings. Really. But I can't let Bakugo finish earlier than me. That would be embarrassing."
He turned, smirk sharpening—
BZZZT.
The loudspeaker crackled. All Might's voice boomed over the district again:
"Villain Katsuki Bakugo has been eliminated!"
The words carved the air into silence.
Uraraka's eyes widened; even Tsuyu let out a startled croak.
Ken blinked. His smirk faltered, confusion flickering across his face. "…Huh. Didn't see that coming."
His hand rose, two slender black rods snapping into existence between his fingers.
"No point dragging this out," he said lightly. His voice carried across the courtyard, steady but carrying a weight that pressed into their chests. "Let's trim the board."
The rods left his hand like bullets. One streaked for Uraraka's thigh, the other for Tsuyu's shoulder—nonlethal, precise, meant to end the fight without ending them.
And then—
Midoriya appeared.
He appeared. One second nowhere, the next right in front of Uraraka and Asui, his body twisted in pain but his eyes blazing. His legs looked mangled, bones bent at angles no human should stand on. He must've torn himself apart with sheer speed to cross the gap.
'What the hell?'
"Smash!"
The explosion came first, then the shockwave, swallowing Ken's rods mid-flight and scattering them to splinters. A sonic boom ripped across the district, dust and rubble bursting outward as the arena shook.
A whirlwind of dust and debris kicked into the skies, looking like an explosion without flames.
___
**Team B - East District**
"Is he... still struggling?" Hagakure asked, her invisible form indicated only by the rope she was holding.
On the ground, thoroughly bound in capture tape and Momo's specially-created restraints, Bakugo thrashed like a caged animal. His muffled curses were barely contained by the gag they'd been forced to use after his threats became too creative.
"He's been like this for five minutes straight," Kirishima said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Dude has serious stamina."
"The important thing is that we succeeded," Momo said, though she looked exhausted from the effort. Creating that many capture devices in quick succession had pushed her quirk to its limits. "Though I have to admit, I didn't expect him to be quite so... volatile."
"You mean psychotic," Jiro added dryly, rubbing her ears. "I think he actually tried to bite Tokoyami."
Dark Shadow recoiled slightly at the memory. "His rage was... unsettling."
The announcement about Iida and Sato's elimination reached them as they were catching their breath.
"Two more from Team A," Ojiro noted grimly. "We've confirmed that Team C was taken down to Todoroki. That means Team A is Ken's group."
"Which leaves us in a difficult position," Momo said, her tactical mind already working. "With Team C completely eliminated and Team A down to four members, we're now the largest remaining group. That makes us the biggest threat to the villains' victory."
"But we just took out one of them," Kirishima pointed out. "That evens the odds a bit, right?"
"Perhaps, but—"
BOOM!
The loud explosion shook all of ground beta. Everyone turned South, shocked at the sight emerging before their eyes.
"Hold on, are the bombs real?"
Kirishima uttered, completely shocked.
"That's ... Not right ..." Momo replied, equally stunned at the sight before quickly realizing. "Come to think of it, doesn't that look like Midoriya's quirk?"
"You mean the green haired guy?"
"Yeah. His quirk ..."
She was interrupted as something impossible appeared in the distance.
A dark spot, no larger than a coin at first, began to expand. It twisted and writhed, growing larger with each passing second until it resembled a portal of pure shadow.
"What... what is that?" Hagakure whispered.
The portal stabilized, and a pale hand emerged from its depths, fingers splayed as they gripped the edges of the dark gateway. The hand pulled, widening the portal further, until a figure stepped through.
Sickly blue-white hair fell across a face partially obscured by what looked like a severed hand. Red eyes peered through the gaps between fingers, and when the figure smiled, it was all sharp teeth and malice.
"Well, well," the stranger said, his voice carrying a disturbing mix of childish petulance and genuine menace. "Look what we have here. A bunch of little heroes playing pretend."
___
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