Chapter 25: Unexpected Event
Katsuki Bakugo had not anticipated this at all. The enemy was incredibly strong. Although Bakugo hadn't fought the Nomu from the first incident, he felt the same overwhelming pressure from the man in front of him.
But—since that monster was defeated by All Might, then he, the one who would surpass All Might and become Number One, could definitely defeat this guy too!
He had already noticed that the enemy seemed to be intentionally avoiding any harm to Shoto Todoroki, keeping the fight tactfully to his left side. Although Bakugo wanted to take the opportunity to snatch Todoroki back, the enemy was extremely vigilant and gave him no openings.
Bakugo was starting to get frustrated. The very air around him began to heat up.
"Bakugo, we need to make a plan," Momo Yaoyorozu said, standing beside him with a frown. "Shoto Todoroki is in the enemy's hands. It's too reckless for you to go in alone."
"Tch." Bakugo clicked his tongue. He knew Momo was right. Even though he was deliberately trying not to worry about that half-and-half bastard, fighting while he was a hostage was holding him back.
"What's your plan?"
Momo looked at their classmates, who were gradually gathering around them. "It will require everyone's cooperation."
Just as Bakugo was about to speak, a sudden explosion ripped through the air.
BOOM! BOOM!
Bakugo whipped his head around. After a flash of light, the building behind them let out a groan. As if a real earthquake had struck, the three-story apartment block began to crumble. Before the students' shocked eyes, it collapsed, toppling onto the smaller houses around it. The next moment, a massive cloud of dust billowed upwards.
"Cough, cough... Was that the enemy in front of us!?" Momo coughed in the dust, quickly creating several masks and distributing them to her classmates.
"It doesn't seem so," Mezo Shoji said. He had turned all the tips of his Dupli-Arms into eyes, giving him a 360-degree view. His own mask protected him from the dust. He transformed one of his eyes into a mouth. "I was watching the enemy the whole time. Even with his mask on, he looked surprised in that moment."
Mezo Shoji kept one fact to himself: he had seen Todoroki's body twitch a moment ago.
He had already concluded that the "enemy" was likely a teacher in disguise, so he wasn't particularly worried about Todoroki's safety. He had been watching their fight like a detached detective. But this sudden event made him doubt his own theory, so he kept his speculation to himself.
"Thirteen, what the hell is going on?" Aizawa's gaze sharpened instantly. "This wasn't part of the original plan, was it?"
"I don't know either!" Thirteen clutched their bulky helmet in frustration. "This was my masterpiece! And you people from the demolition squad just had to come and wreck it!"
In truth, Aizawa and Thirteen weren't surprised by the arrival of this "enemy." On the contrary, this entire operation was their own creation. That's why, when the students had called for help, they had used their injuries as an excuse, claiming they couldn't fight.
The students really should have realized this. If a real enemy had appeared, would the two of them just stand by and do nothing? They had forgotten that during the League of Villains attack, both teachers had charged the enemy even while injured.
The students who accepted this situation as normal were severely underestimating their teachers' resolve.
The masked "enemy" in the center of the crater was none other than the hero, All Might. He was the one who had convinced Thirteen and Aizawa to conduct this combat drill, using the persona of a "League of Villains remnant" to fight his own students.
Yesterday, All Might had suddenly approached Aizawa, proposing a simulated anti-villain operation. He had decided to lead by example and play the part of the villain himself.
"A surprise?" Aizawa hadn't been fully on board with the idea. "This is more likely to be a shock."
"Class 1-A thinks the attack four days ago was a fluke, a one-in-a-million chance. But that's not the reality. As heroes, they will face countless crises. I want them to be aware of that."
"I can't say I agree. This could give them psychological trauma."
"We need them to have the resolve to overcome those obstacles! Don't you think that's our duty as their teachers!?"
As All Might's body had suddenly bulked up, his face cast in shadow as he laughed, Aizawa had simply said from his office chair...
"Then please, be sure to take responsibility for it."
"It'll be fine! I believe in their strength!" All Might had boomed. "Besides, I've asked a teammate to join me! I guarantee this will be a memorable experience for them!"
This "teammate" All Might mentioned... was that the one who just brought down the building?
Aizawa was a little surprised, but he wasn't particularly upset about the destruction of property. To be honest, the wind pressure from All Might's earlier punches had already made a mess of the place. Compared to that, a collapsed building was a minor issue.
All Might hadn't mentioned his teammate's name, and Aizawa had never met them. All he knew was that they were currently stationed on the old, scrapped ship that the school had dragged over from Seaside Park during the USJ reconstruction.
All Might trusted this person completely, even allowing them to be alone on the ship where the school had reinstalled its surveillance terminals after the attack, monitoring everyone from behind the scenes.
...Which meant that even he was currently within that person's line of sight.
Aizawa looked up, his gaze falling upon the eaves of a nearby building. As an underground hero who avoided the public eye, he was extremely sensitive to hidden cameras. He knew, with absolute certainty, that there was a camera right there, pointed directly at him and Thirteen.
If All Might trusts you, he thought, then I can only choose to trust that you won't do anything out of line...
Aizawa said to Thirteen, "Don't worry about what happens next. We just need to play our parts. Act like patients who have just recovered from a serious illness."
In the center of the plaza, the enemy—"All Might"—was also a little flustered. Behind his mask, a nervous smile played on his lips.
Originally, things had been going according to his plan: he had found an excellent hiding spot, and young Todoroki, after some thought, had entered the basement and encountered the "enemy" hiding there.
He had initially planned to have a brief fight with whoever entered, making a lot of noise. But when he saw that young Todoroki had already discovered him and was on high alert, he had made a last-minute decision to try and talk him down instead.
The reason was simple: All Might wasn't confident he could end the fight with an overwhelming advantage. While he could have defeated young Todoroki in an instant by going all out, he wouldn't have been able to hold back. Young Todoroki would have been seriously injured.
This was just a training exercise. He had no intention of letting the boy suffer needlessly.
Fortunately, young Todoroki had quickly understood his intentions and had cooperatively pretended to be defeated.
So what was this unexpected development? All Might thought. I told you to act according to the situation, but destroying a building is a little too much...
Clearly, All Might was completely unaware of his own destructive power.
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