Chapter 27: The Training Ends
Yoshikage Kira relaxed and decisively pulled Kaminari's hand off him. "You're so boring. I didn't touch anything."
From the sound of it, that means no one in the monitoring room knows what happened...
After all, Toru Hagakure was just a young girl. It was unlikely she'd tell anyone he had touched her body. Todoroki's team, the villains, would be even less likely to know. The only one who knew everything was...
"All Might-sensei, do you know where Toru Hagakure went?" Kira asked, appearing like a ghost behind All Might and speaking suddenly.
"I didn't hear anything!" All Might said reflexively.
"Oh, really?"
All Might slowly turned his head. Seeing Kira's faint, knowing smile, he laughed stiffly. "Young Kira, Toru Hagakure said she wasn't feeling well and went home early. I don't know anything else."
All Might was, after all, a man in his forties. His earpiece could connect to all four participants' conversations, so he knew exactly what had happened in the stronghold. But should this be considered an unavoidable circumstance? Kira hadn't done anything wrong, and Toru had made the request herself. He had no right to comment on the matter, so he could only play dumb.
Kira had only come to All Might for an answer. Knowing that the incident wouldn't be spread around and his reputation wouldn't be tarnished was enough for him. He had no intention of pressing the matter; asking about Toru was just an afterthought.
Kira looked at the large screen. There were five matches in total. He was in the second group, and Kaminari's third group had already finished. So that meant it was the fourth group's turn...
On the screen, the villain team's "Tape Hero" had created a barrier around the nuclear weapon with his tape. He and Kirishima stood brazenly at the entrance of the stronghold, waiting for the hero team to attack. They wouldn't be able to touch the nuclear weapon unless they could defeat the two of them.
He forgot to mention, the "Tape Hero" was Hanta Sero. Kira felt his costume looked like the cheap rubber suits often seen in tokusatsu shows, which inexplicably gave him a sense of cheapness.
On the other side, the hero team consisted of Fumikage Tokoyami and Tsuyu Asui, with Quirks "Dark Shadow" and "Frog," respectively.
To be honest, watching Tokoyami's Dark Shadow, which looked like a Gengar from Pokémon, emerge from his cloak, and Asui crawling along the pipes above to scout the area, it was hard to imagine they were the heroes. They seemed to be the complete opposite of the hot-blooded "villains."
When the two sides officially made contact, Eijiro Kirishima charged straight at Tokoyami.
Watching from the side, Yaoyorozu covered her face and said, "This is really making me want to comment. It feels like the roles of hero and villain are completely reversed."
Right, the previous match must have been Yaoyorozu and Mineta's team versus Kaminari and Jiro. Although he didn't know the details of the fight, judging from how Kaminari had been changing the subject earlier, he must have been on the losing side.
"The hero team wins! The match is over!"
Tokoyami continuously pushed back the charging Kirishima. Each time he retracted Dark Shadow, he would also conveniently sever a few strands of tape. Sero was tied up by Asui; every time he tried to shoot tape, she would knock it down with her tongue.
When the tape was in tatters, Kirishima stopped his useless attacks. No matter which way he attacked, he would be pushed back by Dark Shadow with greater force. Several times, he almost crashed into the nuclear weapon.
He chose to surrender cleanly. When you can't fight back, surrendering is the wisest decision. Sero also stopped. No matter how you looked at it, their side was doomed to lose. It was better to be decisive.
The next villain team was Mashirao Ojiro and Koji Koda. Yuga Aoyama and Mina Ashido were the hero team.
"Kira-kun, watch my performance carefully!"
Mina Ashido waved at Kira and trotted to catch up with Aoyama, who was walking ahead, humming a little tune.
To be honest, Kira didn't have high hopes for their team. Aoyama was a narcissist who didn't seem to be taking this test seriously, and Mina was so carefree she seemed more like an elementary schooler on a field trip.
As expected... not long after they started, Mina accidentally spilled her acid on Aoyama's cape. Looking at her apologetic smile, Kira really felt helpless.
What kind of performance does she want me to see? Her clowning around? And is Aoyama just going to mope about his cape, pretending to be a sentimental prince?
Since they didn't encounter any enemies along the way, Mina quickly relaxed again and walked cheerfully to the stronghold, with the cape-clutching, weeping Aoyama trailing behind her, completely off guard.
When she swaggered into the stronghold, she was quite pleased with herself. Seeing Koda standing by the window, she had no intention of using her Quirk and prepared to engage him in close combat. But just as she reached the middle of the room, a swarm of crows and rats suddenly appeared from some corner and surrounded Koda.
Mina's face instantly changed. Although she wasn't particularly afraid of these animals, the sheer black mass of them was intimidating. She had an immediate urge to flee. Who would want to fight a bunch of animals?!
Although Mina, in the middle of the training, didn't know, Kira saw everything clearly. Ojiro, who had a flexible tail, had used it to hook onto the pipes above the door. He didn't attack the first person to enter, Mina, but waited patiently. When Aoyama walked in, he instantly flipped behind him and, before Aoyama could react, threw the cape over his head and wrapped him up with tape, taking him out cleanly.
When Mina turned to run, she saw Ojiro, dressed in a taekwondo uniform, standing behind her, smiling. At his feet was Aoyama, his head wrapped in a red cape, wriggling like a worm.
Seeing a strong enemy in front and pursuers behind, Mina still didn't want to give up and exchanged a few blows with Ojiro.
Soon, after a sweeping leg kick, Mina was lying on the floor. Seeing the rats getting closer and closer in her field of vision, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
And so, the five matches came to an end. Kira now had a clear understanding of everyone's abilities in the class.
Originally, All Might had wanted the students to discuss the reasons for their victories and defeats on the spot, but because too many people were absent, he decided to hold the discussion during the next Hero Basic Training class.
He gathered the remaining students, gave a summary, and then dismissed them, rushing out of the training ground.
The entire competition had only taken up the morning, not even reaching lunchtime, but there were no more classes in the afternoon.
Just as Kira was wondering how to spend the rest of the day, surprisingly, Izuku Midoriya walked up to him, scratching his head shyly. "Kira-kun, would you like to have lunch with us?"
Kira looked behind him. Tenya Iida and Ochaco Uraraka both smiled and greeted him.
In the distance, Katsuki Bakugo was watching. When he saw Kira's gaze, he spat on the ground with contempt and turned to leave, a small, firework-like explosion going off on the ground as he did.
Clearly, he had turned his saliva into nitroglycerin and created an explosion as a show of force to Kira.
"Sure," Kira said after a moment's thought. "I have something I want to ask you, too."