Chapter 38: Splitting Up
"Class President! So you're here too!"
Mashirao Ojiro, who was being chased relentlessly by the enemy, suddenly heard someone behind him shout inexplicably. Although it was strange, he didn't have time to look back; he just kept running for his life.
After a while, he felt something was off. Using his tail to hook onto a sign for a moment, he looked back like Spider-Man, hanging upside down. The people who had been chasing him so fiercely were all gone.
He cautiously moved along, sticking to blind spots, and headed back the way he came. Turning a corner, he was overjoyed to see Yoshikage Kira walking toward him! At that moment, he felt that the firefighter's uniform Kira was wearing was the most beautiful piece of clothing in the world...
What could be more moving than seeing a firefighter at the scene of a fire?
"Are you alright?" Kira asked, looking at the conspicuous stains on Ojiro's white taekwondo uniform as he ran excitedly out from the corner. "Are you injured at all? I can treat you."
"No, but Class President, did you take care of all those enemies?" Although it was far, Ojiro's gaze went past Kira, and he could faintly see many people lying on the ground. "Amazing! You took down so many of them!"
"Just got lucky. Have you seen anyone else?"
Ojiro shook his head gravely. "No. When I was teleported here, I just saw a group of people chasing me. I realized they were enemies and started running."
So we really were teleported to different areas...
"Ojiro, we're in the Conflagration Zone right now. Do you remember the overhead map Thirteen-sensei showed us? We're at the very edge of the entire USJ facility, the farthest from the exit."
Seeing Ojiro nod, Kira continued, "The USJ has a total of six natural disaster zones: a downpour zone, a flood zone, a conflagration zone, a mountain zone, a landslide zone, and an earthquake zone. Assuming two students were caught in each disaster zone, there should be at most eight people left at the exit, plus Thirteen-sensei. We have reason to believe that someone has already broken through the gate to get reinforcements."
"That would be great!" Ojiro's face lit up with an excited smile. "If All Might comes, we'll be saved."
"Wrong. It'll be a disaster if All Might comes," Kira said bluntly. "Based on my deductions, the enemy probably isn't very interested in us students. The ambushers they sent didn't even use their Quirks. It's highly likely they're just stalling for time, waiting for us to call All Might for help. They probably have something up their sleeves to deal with him."
Hearing this, Ojiro's eyes widened, and he laughed in disbelief. "But it's All Might! How could anyone possibly deal with him? All Might is invincible, right?"
Invincible? All Might had been famous for decades. Everyone has their limits. How long could he maintain his peak condition?
"Maybe. I hope my guess is wrong, too."
Kira glanced at his watch. Several minutes had passed since they encountered the enemy. In that time, Aizawa-sensei might have been fighting the enemy all along...
"Ojiro, do you still have any strength left?"
Ojiro shook his head decisively. "This is nothing compared to the sweat I work up during taekwondo practice."
"Good. We've dealt with the enemies here, but our other classmates might still be in danger. So..."
Ojiro immediately understood what Kira was about to say. "Are we going to save the other students?"
"Yes. The closest zones to us are the Flood Zone and the Mountain Zone. Your tail would get heavy if it got wet, right? So, let's split up. I'll go to the Flood Zone, and you go to the Mountain Zone. Help our classmates take care of the enemies there, then lead them to the other zones to continue searching for more students."
Ojiro nodded and said with confidence, "These enemies don't seem to want to kill us. Their Quirks aren't that strong either; they're just at the level of street thugs. If you hadn't come, I would have hidden and then easily taken them out one by one."
Kira sighed and said worriedly, "They're just cannon fodder. The important ones are the group attacking Aizawa-sensei. I don't think he can hold out for much longer."
"Then let's not waste any more time. Let's part ways here."
"Wait, take this rope." Kira took the fireproof rope hanging from his belt and handed it to Ojiro. "You'll need it to tie up the enemies."
The two of them ran to the exit of the Conflagration Zone. Ojiro said a quick goodbye and, using his tail for support, leaped up into the adjacent Mountain Zone.
...He's like a kangaroo, Kira suddenly thought. After Ojiro left, he also ran toward the Flood Zone.
Kira arrived at the Flood Zone. There was a water slide here, like at an amusement park, and a large lake in the middle with a boat floating peacefully on it. From the looks of it, the rescue objective here was probably how to save passengers from a stationary boat.
If only they had hero rescue courses back in the era of the Titanic, then that tragedy might not have happened... Of course, it was also possible that it was precisely because of that incident that heroes started training for water rescues. It was a chicken-or-the-egg problem that was best not to dwell on.
"Have all the enemies here been eliminated?"
From Kira's vantage point, the lake was quiet, with no signs of lurking enemies, unless they all had "fish"-type Quirks.
So, are they on the boat?
Kira looked at the distant boat with a headache. Was he supposed to swim over?
Although he could swim, and at a decent speed, by the time he got to the other side, Aizawa-sensei would probably have already been taken down by the enemy. What would be the point of his "surround the city from the countryside" strategy then?
It looks like I'll have to go around the edge.
Kira made up his mind. He would go around the outskirts of the Flood Zone, following the rocks that encircled the water, and sneak past the plaza where the enemies were, reaching his destination without being seen by anyone.
But first, he had to take off his firefighter's uniform. To be easily spotted, the uniform was bright orange, standing out in a crowd. But now that he needed to be stealthy, the uniform was unnecessary.
Without a second thought, Kira took off the firefighter's uniform that had helped him so much and tossed it by the side of the pool. Wearing only his tracksuit underneath, he headed for the central plaza.