Chapter Sixty
We stared, as Momo was covered with containment foam, half of the students gathered turning to look at me. "What?" I asked. "Why is everyone staring at me."
"What have you been teaching that girl?" Recovery Girl asked, giving me a serious amount of side-eye.
"Proper tactics?" I shrugged. "I didn't know she knew how to make that, but, well, are you really going to say her plan was wrong?"
The school nurse hmphd, turning back to the screen, the window displaying my friend minimizing as two others took prominence, one showing Ida, carrying Yuga on his back, the boy's cape held tight against his armor, both of them streaking down alley after alley. The other displayed an overhead view of arena, which showed us that the two boys, represented as paired dots, were almost to the exit, even as another dot, representing Power Loader, made a bee-line for their destination.
"He's moving slow," the school nurse commented. "That young lady really did a number on him."
Watching the two sets move, the paired blue and green dots darting around while the yellow one could move without obstruction, a window opened showing the sharp division where packed construction gave way to an almost desert environment.
A flash of silver heralded the pair making it out before Power Loader could reach them, Ida breathing hard as he carried Aoyama, the speedster grinning as he finally saw the exit, while the French boy just looked worried.
Tenya ran for the gate, only for the ground to give way underneath his feet, starting to fall as Yuga tightened his grip on the student carrying him, twisting his arms inwards, firing his lasers through both shoulders, shooting both of them backwards to safe ground, as capture foam mines exploded below them.
From our end, we could see Power Loader still making his way to the exit, digging underground, though the two students couldn't know that.
"Very good!" Ida said, eyes wide from their near defeat, tension thick in his voice as he stared out over the innocuous, though likely trapped, landscape. "I thought the lack of obstructions near the end meant we had outpaced Power Loader, but I see I was mistaken. Perhaps we should run around? No, he is a professional and would have considered that possibility." Yuga shifted, and Tenya looked back at him. "You have a solution?"
"Oui, though it is unpleasant," the French boy admitted. "Be ready."
Ida nodded, looking forward, and Aoyama concentrated, his pauldrons shimmering, before he fired dozens of bolts of light that struck the ground in front of them, exploding on impact, kicking up a dust cloud that cleared in seconds, revealing eight more pit traps between them and the exit, the caved-in sections already filling with foam.
The blond boy slumped, looking ill, but gave his partner a thumbs up.
"Very good, you've managed to reveal the traps!" Ida congratulated, "Now let me carry you to the finish line. Recipro Burst!" he yelled, flames pouring from the exhaust ports on his legs as he blasted forward, running as fast as he could, leaping over the pits in single-minded determination.
He was three hundred feet away, two hundred, one hundred. Everyone in the monitoring room went silent, watching, waiting, knowing there was going to be one more hurdle.
Fifty feet away, Power Loader erupted from the ground, mechanical arm arcing up to catch Ida square in the chest, but, the boy just smiled at the attack, yelling, "Now, Aoyama!" Bucking upwards, it looked like the speedster was going to dodge, his opponent compensating, but Tenya threw the boy he was carrying up, his partner standing on the speedsters shoulders and leaping for the exit himself.
Power Loader struck Ida, hard, sending the boy skidding backwards and into a pit, and turned, mechanical legs working as he leapt after the last student, who twisted around to face the teacher, one hand reaching behind his back.
The student's arm dipped beneath his cape, pulling out the capture cuffs that he'd hidden there, and Momo's words about not having them, despite them visibly being on her belt, came to mind. They were a decoy, I realized, as the real pair swept in, opening wide to catch the Support Hero's outstretched mechanical arm.
However, the man wrenched himself back, the bright yellow restraints missing him by inches as the teacher fell backwards, away from the student, who didn't seem bothered in the slightest that he'd just missed his chance to capture his opponent.
No, the boy smiled, wishing the older man "Au revoir!" as his belt and knees shimmered with light, before the student unleashed a trio of beams, almost point blank, at the teacher, blasting his opponent back even as the attack propelled Aoyama backwards, Yuga holding them as long as he could, the light fading, but still just enough to propel him through the gates, the buzzer ringing, and the rest of the class erupting into cheers.
Yuga hit the ground, rolled, popped to his feet with an enormous grin, and posed for the camera, for a second, before losing his composure and becoming very messily sick on the ground, which, if anything, just made his performance even more impressive.
"Damn," I laughed, shaking my head. I'd honestly overlooked the blond, who, from my memory, had been kind of a joke, but apparently there was a reason he was at U.A.
While Shoto and I made our way to our testing ground, I took out my phone, knowing how to navigate the school's network from my work with Mei. While a lot of it was locked down, I had access to the feed from the monitoring room, which let me watch Sero and Mineta's match.
"Do you have a plan?" the two-toned boy asked beside me, as we stepped onto the transport provided, which lifted up into the air, taking us towards our destination.
Huh, this explains how they didn't know the way out, I realized, having thought that Momo would've paid closer attention to her path, in order to follow it back out. If they'd been air-lifted, however, they wouldn't have had that luxury, and the floor of the craft was wide enough I couldn't just look down to get an idea of the territory.
Realizing Shoto was waiting for an answer, I replied with a shrug, "Nope. Aizawa doesn't have any kind of movement-based abilities like we do, but he's damn fast, so splitting up could work for us, letting one of us escape while the other's caught, or it could just make us easy pickings for him."
The other boy brooded, as usual, finally asking, "You don't think we can beat him?"
The look I gave him back hopefully encapsulated my level of scornful disbelief at his statement, but he just stared back, so it obviously wasn't enough. "Are you high?" I questioned. "Do you think the two of us, two of the strongest emitters in the class, could take out the man whose main power is stopping emitters? If we had someone like Momo, or Shoji, or even Mineta," I said, indicating my phone, which displayed the boy in question, "then maybe, but what kind of fighter are you without your Quirk?"
The boy stared at me, then turned away. "And you think you have a better chance?"
"Fuck no!" I shot back, the boy glancing at me in confusion. "My strength enhancement is very much a Quirk, not natural, and this," I held up a hand, making it spark, "is the same. I've got some gear, but it's nothing he hasn't seen before, and I'm not sure how to use it in a way that will catch not-Batman off-guard."
"Not-Batman?" Todoroki echoed, confused.
"Fictional superhero. Effectively a Quirkless Hero." The skeptical look Shoto sent me was almost palpable. "He was rich, which is almost a Quirk all its own," I explained, finding an interesting parallel between my memories of the setting and the history of this world, "and it was pretty much set right before the chaotic century, when adults with Quirks were rare, pre-collapse, so most of the people he fought were Quirkless."
On my phone, the buzzer rang, Mineta turning to Sero and saying something, the taller boy cocking his head, slowly nodding, starting to extend tape from his elbows, folding it back and forth. What is he doing? I wondered, but it became quickly apparent, two rough masks being formed that the boys could wear without sticking tape directly to their faces. Well, not a lot of tape, the edges of the masks sticking to their jaws, but it let them breathe better than Mineta's attempt in the original timeline would've.
"That. . . I suppose that could work," Todoroki mused. "Mr. Aizawa takes away other people's Quirks, so they have to fight him without them, where he's fighting the way he's trained."
"And have you trained to fight without your Quirk?" I asked, the boy shaking his head.
"Have you?" he asked right back.
"A little," I replied, getting a surprised look from the thermokinetic. "My power can't be aimed like yours can," I pointed out. "Hell, I only figured out how to shift the source point on my body the day of the entrance exam. That meant if I was fighting around friendlies, I couldn't just let fly with my Quirk and hope for the best." That and I have a decade of mundane martial arts experience, I added internally.
It hadn't been at a McDojo, instead a place that taught Brazilian Jujitsu, before it became 'trendy'. There were few things more humbling that getting your ass kicked by a guy almost two feet shorter than you, though getting your ass kicked by his similarly sized wife was one of them. It'd given me a much better sense of how, while strength was important, enough of a gap in skill could easily overcome it, as well as putting to lie a good deal of the 'women are weak' narrative I'd grown up with, reinforced by the females around me whenever they needed something done, or wanted me to step in to save them from a situation they'd gotten into by being an idiot, banking on the very gender roles they often decried to protect them when they needed it.
I frowned, thinking about it, only now starting to realize something that had been bugging me for a while. I'd put it off as 'anime physics' before, but given I was working with those very physics on the regular with Mei, I knew that copout was one-hundred percent, gold-plated bullshit. "So, um, this might be a stupid question, but how the fuck is he so strong? Or Endeavor? Or. . . pretty much any non-mutant, non-power type Hero?"
That earned me a squinty eyed stare from my partner, as our hoversled set down in the middle of Japanese suburbia, the robotic drone informing us to wait here until we received the announcement that our match started, and flying off. "You don't know?" Shoto asked, doubt dripping from his tone, as on my phone I watched Mineta and Sero carefully try and make their way to the exit, their heads on a swivel.
I looked back at him, "No, I'm asking because I don't know. No," I winced, at the boy's hurt look. "I do do that sometimes. Right. Sorry. No, I really don't know. It's never come up before." And it hadn't, as, searching Denki's memories, I came up empty.
"Oh. . ." Todoroki replied, silent for a moment, and I wouldn't blame him if he didn't answer. I was being an ass, it was just. . . so obvious that I felt like a complete idiot for missing it.
"It's. . . it's called the Atlas Quirk," Shoto explained, and I paid attention to what turned out to be one of those 'so obvious no one talks about it, or even thinks about it' aspects of this world, which fit along with the others I'd been slowly accruing, right up there with 'how come everything looks like the early 2000's, despite having hyper-tech?' along with others.
While he explained just how ridiculous someone with any Quirk could get, while also explaining why Quirkless heroes were treated with such disbelief, I kept watching how the match before ours was progressing.
The pair of students moved through the rocky area, small stone hills a dozen feet tall all around them, obscuring sight lines, and allowing Midnight to sneak up on them, which she promptly did. This time around, when she came up behind Sero and popped open his helmet, filling the area with her anesthetic scent, the boy dove forward, turning and lashing out with his tape while Mineta tossed his balls at her.
However, while not up to Aizawa's level, the woman was still physically capable and dodged most of the tape, and all of the balls. Even from behind his mask, I could tell Sero was grinning as he pulled at the tape he'd stuck to her, bringing her in as he cocked back his fist.
Which, incidentally, was the moment I realized he was going to lose.
Instead of keeping his distance, and leveraging his Quirk, the boy closed with a vastly more experienced combatant, who caught his fist and almost languidly flowed around it, sliding up the boy's body to almost gently peel off his mask.
Then she sunk a knee into his gut.
The boy reflexively gasped, taking in a solid lungful of pink mist and passed out. The cougar seductively caught him and lowered him to the ground, looking around with a frown on her face when she found it was just the two of them.
Minetta? He'd bolted the second Midnight had closed with Sero, seemingly coming to the same conclusion I had.
The Pro Heroine scowled, looking back and forth, before taking off running in the direction of the exit, immediately stumbling to a halt, swiftly moving to avoid the small minefield of sticky balls the other boy'd left behind to try and stop her from pursuing him.
I wished I had audio, as Midnight murmured something, licking her lips, before she took off running once more, steps careful as she moved through the trapped area, almost dancing, at a speed I'd be hard pressed to match without transforming my legs.
The screen split, and Mineta was hauling ass, shifting back and forth in what was obviously a practiced pattern as he'd pull a ball from his head and put it on his foot right before he landed, slamming the leg down to bounce off as he was pulling off another ball with his other hand, wiggling back and forth as he moved at a speed I'd be hard pressed to match even with transforming my legs.
The terrain even helped him, the small hills just high enough for him to bounce over, while Midnight was forced to weave between them. Once she was out of the minefield he'd left behind, she sped up, moving faster than an Olympic sprinter from my own world, now that I was paying attention to such things.
She called out to him, but the boy just shook his head, not looking back, tears streaming from his eyes for some reason, but not missing a beat in his movements. When that didn't work, she scowled, and tried to lash out with her whip.
Mineta pulled a ball from his head, trying to block it with the sticky substance, and only half succeeding, the sphere sticking to the end of the whip, which cut his glove in the process, a thin line of blood quickly welling up. The boy was sent into a spin, but threw down a ball right before he hit the ground, bouncing off that and giving himself time to recover as Midnight flicked the whip back as she ran forward, preparing for another swing.
However, in doing so the end of the weapon brushed against the ground, where it stuck fast, and the professional heroine was rather comically yanked off her feet as her weapon went taught, her momentum alone not enough to break it free.
Mineta risked a glance behind himself, seeing her fall flat on her back, and a lecherous look crossed his features, his free hand making a grabbing motion before he shook his head and turned to face the exit once more, grabbing another ball to propel himself forward.
On the ground, Midnight pouted, kipping up to her feet in a second, showing herself to have been waiting for the boy's attack, and tried to give chase, but was quickly outpaced, the small boy blowing through the finish line with over twenty minutes to spare, the best time of any of our exams.
The buzzer rang, and I looked to Shoto, who'd wrapped up his explanation a few minutes ago. "Decision time Todoroki, what's the play? We trying this together, or we going alone?" The boy didn't respond. "Shoto?" I pressed.
"Separate," he determined, holding up a hand, creating a candle's worth of flame. "Keep your Quirk going, and don't put yourself into a position where losing it will put you in danger."
Just like with Hawks. I wonder if he and Aizawa ever got into a scrap? "Got it." I hesitated, knowing what was going to happen. "Quick question, you blast your elements with your hands, but always stomp your feet. Any way to blast it from your feet?" Like if you were tied up over caltrops?
The boy frowned. "I. . . my father can, with his fire."
"Can you do the same with ice? Make a platform you can stand on, even if the ground's hazardous? Eraserhead's got a utility belt, like us, and his standard kit includes tape, smoke bombs, and caltrops," I questioned, having looked up all our teachers, yet I still somehow missed the entire 'superhuman physique' thing.
"What is he, a ninja?" Shoto asked, and I just shrugged, as it wasn't an inaccurate description of the man. "I. . ." the boy awkwardly lifted a foot, and brought it down in aborted stomping motion, ice shooting down when he pulled the kick up short, making a small platform. "Huh."
"Fire's transitory, and powerful, but ice seems more stable," I remarked, "And the way you use the two sides of your Quirk seem interchangeable, so I figured that might work."
The boy seemed miles away, looking at his hand consideringly. "I guess it is. . . I wonder what else would. . ."
Another buzzer rang, jolting him out of his thoughts. "Our exit's that way," I said, pointing , before moving my hand to the left a little. "I'll go this way," I moved my hand to the right, "you go that. Watch the rooftops, and good luck."
"Same. And remember," he said after a few steps, holding up the small flame in his hand, nodding when my legs turned to lightning. "That works," he noted, deadpan, though the corner of his mouth quirked up just a hair, and he took off riding a path of ice, while I bolted away on electric limbs.
Heading off to the side, I made sure to put a good bit of distance between myself and Todoroki, before turning a corner and heading for the exit as fast as I could. The grid setup of the area let me move in pretty much a straight line, but that would also make me easier to spot. This arena was one of the larger ones, likely to combat the fact that both of us effectively had Mover powers, the apartment maze Momo'd dealt with being child's play to the two of us, as we could've just gone high and moved across them.
I didn't hear anything from Todoroki's direction, which would've been comforting, if not for the fact that I had no idea if that meant he was still moving quietly, or if his powers were suppressed. Regardless, I ran as fast as I could without my limbs crackling from the electricity or without rising above the level of the homes around me myself. It'd be simple to ride the power lines, but it'd also get me sniped in three seconds flat by Aizawa's power.
It'd shut me down, hard, in my fight against Shigaraki, and I was not looking forward to fighting the unholy lovechild of Batman and Captain America without powers. How does the enhanced physique fit in, I wondered, unable to keep my mind from drifting as I moved, a third of the way there already. Is it a mutation so ubiquitous that it's unremarkable? Mutations are genetic, just look at Koji 'my head's a rock' Koda who's power is beastspeech of all things.
As I ran, I felt something slam into my Defenses, so much that I stumbled, my legs still lightning as I glanced around, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. It was then that I saw Aizawa staring at me from a rooftop, hair flaring, Quirk active, while my Quirk remained fully functional.
The man leapt off the building, dropping his Quirk, using his scarf to hook onto a power-pole, swinging in front of me and landing with barely a sound. Make that the bastard child of Batman, Captain America, and Spiderman. Or maybe just the first and last, since Spidey had strength as well. I knew my thoughts were racing out of my control, but the spike of panic that I'd felt bounced off paralyzing and had settled into an odd sort of manic.
Again, Aizawa's Quirk activated, eyes glowing red as his hair floated upwards, and I felt it slam against my Defenses, to no avail.
Eraserhead tried to Erase my powers, and I instinctively said no.
Regardless, I let my legs snap back as realization dawned. Mind or Soul Defense. Maybe both. I'd bought them when I was freaking out over having 'captured' Mina, but, with everything else that'd happened, I'd completely forgotten about them, but that hadn't made them any less present. Either way, with them, I was apparently immune to Meta-Quirk powers. And from the glare the man was giving me, he'd just learned that as well.
"Um. . . hi?" I offered with a cheery wave, trying to figure out what the fuck I was going to do.
The look I received in return was many things, but impressed was not one of them. "Hello."
Chapter Sixty-One
Mina Ashido walked into the monitoring room, where the other students had gathered. It'd taken a while for her and her partner to get back to the others, their training field on the other side of campus, and both she and Tokoyami had swung by the locker rooms to clean themselves of the rust and dust that'd stuck to them from the collapsing buildings. Her teammate was a Gloomy Gus, really living up to his name, but, while he was quiet, she was pretty sure she'd helped him out of the funk he'd gotten into when he'd lost in round two of the Sports Festival.
Helped my classmate, passed the test, and looked badass while doing it! You go girl! she cheered in her head, smiling. She'd've rather been paired up with Sparky, or Yaomomo, but Aizawa had set up these tests to, well, test them, so pairing her with the boy she'd barely talked to made sense. And, with how much heinie she kicked, along with how hard Dark Shadow could apparently go, they'd totes take down someone like Ectoplasm or Present Mic without breaking a sweat!
Walking inside the room, the humongous screen was showing Mineta running for his tiny little life, Midnight chasing after him. Huh, thought he'd be happier. While Mina only understood why she was paired up with Tokoyami mid-way through her test, it was painfully obvious why the little perv was up against that Christmas Cake. Like, Midnight still had it going on, but the woman was really touchy about her age, and sometimes tried a little too hard.
From the woman's expression, the fact that Mineta was *ahem* 'resisting her charms' was obviously buggin' her. On another screen, Sero was out cold, which honestly surprised the acidic girl, but maybe he was just a closet pervert? Then again, a little perversion can be fun, she giggled to herself, thinking of her nights with Sparky.
The boy only had eyes for her, which was. . . sweet. Really sweet, especially with what he could do if he wanted. She wasn't sure she would've done the same, to be honest, and it was just one of the things that made her okay with everything that happened. Eventually. Now if she could just drag his attention to a certain big-boobed, high-society creator, things would be perfect. Though, from the way that they'd been getting 'hands on' in their spars, Mina knew it was a matter of time.
Yeah, her man was nothing if not respectful, but she could see that look in his eye when he worked with Yaomomo, the same look he had when he was with her, and while he never did anything about it, Mina was confident he would. It's like he keeps saying, she thought, we have time. And she might've not believed him, if she hadn't started a growth spurt right after she'd been set her new height with his phone, one that matched his own growth almost perfectly.
If whatever the heck this 'catalog' was could do that, then maybe it was something more than copying her powers. She wondered when he'd start picking up others' Quirks, and, from what he'd explained, it was totes going to be Yaomomo's power he picked up next, but that, like so much else, was just up in the air.
Oh well, nothing I can do about it, she mentally shrugged, coming up to stand next to Midoriya. Sparky had a soft spot for the little broccoli that could, and she hadn't really understood it at first, but he was slowly growing on her. Watching him and Ochaco dance around each other was adorbs, and she loved the fact that Sparky teased Mini-Might as much as she teased the cutest of astronauts.
Aw, and they're standing together! she thought, coming up to stand on Midoriya's other side, as the pair, along with Tsu, watched Mineta blast through the gate, the buzzer ringing. "Huh, maybe he's not so bad after all," she commented.
Beside her, Midoriya winced. "He's getting. . . better," the boy hazarded, unwilling to say anything bad.
Tsu was under no such restraint. "He's still a pervert," she declared flatly. "He was complaining about not feeling up Ms. Midnight."
"Still did better than Sero," Mina shrugged.
". . . you're not wrong," the frog girl grudgingly admitted, as the screen shifted, to show Sparky and Todoroki, the microphones picking up their conversation.
"-stomp your feet," her lover remarked. "Any way to blast it from your feet?"
Hearing her Sparky talk about new power uses, Mina had to shake her head. The boy just didn't stop, though the way he talked she was pretty sure he was using his foreknowledge. He'd warned her that they were getting to the end of what he knew, and that any info he had was iffy, like how Stain was supposed to get captured instead of getting away, but she figured that the tests were still the same. He'd even offered to tell her what was gonna happen in her test, but she'd said no, wanting to pass on her own.
Halfway through, she'd been regretting that, but now, having won, she was glad she'd turned him down. However, that meant that he probably knew exactly what was gonna happen here, which she'd say was cheating, except he already kind of knew what was gonna happen because he made the gear the teachers were using.
Watching, Todoroki and Sparky split up, heading in opposite directions, Shoto carrying the yellow capture cuffs on his belt, Midoriya hmmm'd in disagreement. "What's on your mind, green bean?" Mina asked, wanting to pick the boy's brain.
"Splitting up like that makes sense, but I think it's a mistake," he said, watching as the video broke apart into two windows, one for each boy. "Mr. Aizawa's Eraser Quirk is strong, but he has to focus in one direction. If they moved together, but moved apart when Eraserhead attacked, one of them could use their Quirk at a time. If it were me, or Kacchan, that wouldn't be enough, but Todoroki and Kaminari both can shoot their attacks out. Even if Mr. Aizawa erases their Quirks, he can still be hit by their attacks, if they launch them before he looks at them."
A third window opened, following their homeroom teacher as he ran across rooftops, leaping and using his scarf to swing across streets, almost like Sero could, but even faster than her classmate could move. A fourth window opened to show a map of the area, the yellow and red dots that were Sparky and Shoto moving quickly, while the black dot that was Eraserhead was closing in on Todoroki.
It was over in moments, Mr. Aizawa running up to intercept Shoto, who stumbled, barely catching himself as his ice stopped and sent the boy flying forward. The student looked around, spotting the teacher as the man swung in, and while Todoroki moved to run into an alley to break line of sight, he wasn't fast enough.
The boy tried to fight back, throwing a high kick, but his opponent didn't break stride, ducking underneath it and slamming a fist into the boy's stomach. Shoto folded over, gasping, and was quickly wrapped up in the hero's scarf, then strung up on the power lines, left to dangle.
"Splitting up wasn't smart," Mr. Aizawa noted with bored chastisement, echoing Midoriya's words as he tied off the scarf he'd captured the student with. "And you took too long to run when you realized I was near. Now all I have to do is catch Kaminari and I can take a nice nap."
"You think you've caught me?" Todoroki challenged, "I can burn myself free in seconds-"
"Do whatever you want," the teacher shrugged, interrupting Shoto's trash talking, as he threw out caltrops to cover the ground below the student, "just be careful where you land."
"So he was right," Shoto muttered, causing the professional hero to shoot the boy an inquisitive glance, but Todoroki didn't say anything else.
Mr. Aizawa shook his head. "You took the wrong lessons from when you faced the Hero Killer, kid. You only survived because you worked together, and you thought you'd be enough against me on your own? Worse, I know about both your Quirks and what each of you can do." The man pushed his barred goggles up onto his forehead, tilting his face up and applying eyedrops. "I'm perfectly prepared to defeat you both."
"He doesn't know," Midoriya muttered, and Mina looked to him for an explanation.
"Doesn't know what?" she prompted, when he didn't say anything more.
Mini-Might glanced over at her, then up, blushing, as he'd turned to where her eyes had been a month ago, now almost staring at her boobs accidentally. Such a sweetheart, Mina thought as he tried to rally, embarrassed. "M-Mr. Aizawa knows what we can do, but Kaminari came up with something new right before they started. It's almost like he knew what was going to happen."
Uh oh! Mina shoved down the bit of panic as the boy got too close to the truth, but played it off. cool as a cucumber, waving away the completely correct conclusion. "You heard him talk to Todoroki, Midoriya. He knew Mr. Aizawa's gear. Probably looked him up. After that, it would be easy to figure out what our teacher would do!"
The boy considered that for a moment, and Mina held her breath, but he nodded. "Yes. Yeah, that makes sense. Like I think I know what All Might is going to do." He paled. "Oh no. I know what All Might is going to do!"
"I believe in you, Deku!" Ochaco cheered from his other side, the boy looking to her with a mixture of fear and hope, Tsu nodding in agreement.
Whatever he was going to say was lost, as Mr. Aizawa continued talking. "Between the two of you, you're the heavy hitter. Kaminari needs to get close, but you could've taken me out without me seeing you, so of course I was going to take you out first." The man sighed, "You were supposed to work with your partner, but you never work with others unless you have to, do you Todoroki. Or you don't, unless they're following your orders. In that way, you really are Endeavor's son."
The shocked, hurt look Todoroki sent his teacher made Mina want to give him a hug. She didn't know his situation, the boy rarely talked to anyone, but in that moment he didn't seem fifteen, but five. "Think that over, while I wrap this up," Eraserhead suggested, before darting off, leaping up onto a fence, and then a house, running towards Sparky's location.
The boy hung there for a long moment, shaken, before he took a shuddering breath and shook his head. "No. No, he's wrong," Todoroki said to himself. "That's not why I wanted to split up. If, we were together, I would've listened to Kaminari. Or. . . would I?" he asked, losing steam, doubting himself.
Another long moment passed before he shook his head again. "No, no this is Kaminari's plan as much as it's mine. And. . . and this," he said, kicking a foot down, shooting a long stream of ice that hit the ground before pushing the boy up to stand on it, the ribbon binding his hands loosening without the tension needed to keep him trapped, "is exactly what he suggested."
Freeing himself, Shoto looked in the direction that Mr. Aizawa ran. "Should I?" he asked, before shaking his head yet again. "No. No we had a plan. Eraserhead thinks I'm bound, so he'll take his time with Kaminari. That'll give me time to. . . Oh. I see it now. Mr. Aizawa was going after me first, so by getting free. . . Thank you Kaminari. I won't let you down."
The boy took off on a path of ice, speeding for the exit, and while Midoriya muttered, "Oh, I get it now!" but Mina had her doubts this was what Sparky had meant. Denki's plans were, well, they were all about what he and other people could do. He really didn't try to guess what others would do, just kept things open so that he could react, whatever they did. They both kinda did that, and she hadn't really talked to him about it, but she had a feeling his reasons for doing so were different than hers.
Watching, Mr. Aizawa was having a hard time catching up to Sparky, but, when he got close, Kaminari suddenly stopped, looking around, doing the same thing Todoroki had. Except, he still was still transformed, his powers not erased at all. Did Eraserhead not use his Quirk? Mina thought, as the hero leapt forward, swinging to a stop in front of her boyfriend. This time, the Pro obviously used his Quirk, and there was a weird couple of seconds as Sparky's form slowly shifted back, instead of snapping back like it was supposed to.
She'd seen how fast he could turn off his Quirk, but that had seemed almost hesitant. Glancing around, while Midoriya was frowning, everyone else just seemed concerned for Sparky, who just gave his opponent a cheeky little wave and a 'Hi!', smiling his 'I don't know what I'm doing but I'm trying anyways' smile as he greeted the Pro. She'd seen that on her boyfriend enough times to recognize it, but if you didn't know better, it almost seemed nonchalant.
"Hello," Mr. Aizawa greeted back, with his normal deadpan tone.
"So. . . . Did you already get Shoto?" Sparky asked, getting a slow nod from the older man. "Oh. Well. That was fast. So. . . is this the part where we fight?"
Eraserhead's hair dropped, and he stared at his opponent. "You're not going to run?"
Mina could practically see the moment Denki decided on what he was going to do, as he grinned, shifting to a fighting stance, bouncing on the balls of his feet the way he did whenever he fine-tuned just how much of All Might's Quirk he was going to use, which made no sense, since Mr. Aizawa was just going to Erase it again, unless. . .
The girl bit back a gasp, as she realized that, somehow, when he was being 'Erased' Denki still had his Quirk. She glanced around, thankful that Yaomomo wasn't there. Mina knew why Sparky might still be able to use it, but their friend didn't, and might start asking some questions that really shouldn't be asked.
Sure enough, Denki charged Mr. Aizawa way faster than he could normally, moving almost as fast as the pro could, and the man's hair started to float again, his eyes glowing, but Sparky didn't slow. Eraserhead moved to leap back, but Denki followed him, leading with a punch that the man moved to catch, only for Sparky to yank himself back and lash out with a kick, which the pro barely dodged.
Mr. Aizawa moved to lash out with his scarf, but when he did that, Sparky ducked underneath it, out of sight of the man, and exploded with electricity, forcing the Pro to pull back, the blast fading the second Eraserhead got eyes on Denki.
The hero landed, staring at his student, who smiled and pulled out his sword, the edge blunted. "Do you even know how to use that?" Mr. Aizawa asked, hair dropping, as he slowly stalked to one side of the street, Denki moving to the other, the two circling, almost like predators.
Sparky grinned, shrugging, "Not really, but I've been learning from Momo. It's still a baton, even if I can't electrify it. Maybe I should install a battery, in case this happens again?"
"You don't need to," the older man noted, watching his opponent.
Denki laughed, "Yeah, Trumps like you are a rarity. But having some extra juice wouldn't go amiss."
This time, it was Mr. Aizawa that charged, and Sparky moved to engage, almost loosing his sword in their first exchange, spinning away and leaping back as Eraserhead pressed the attack. Denki sped up a little, starting to spark, but Eraserhead's hair started to rise again, the boy slowing back down to where he'd been before, still using All Might's Quirk, but at a low enough level to hide it.
Sparky knows we're watching, Mina realized, as the two fought, back and forth, a blast of electricity when her boyfriend wasn't 'Erased' making Mr. Aizawa back off for half a second, the man using his own Quirk and darting back in, even as Denki dropped his power, pretending it was Erased, but Sparky had used that time to recover, and met Eraserhead's attack with one of his own, getting hit but hitting the teacher in turn.
"Kaminari is holding his own?" Tokoyami questioned, impressed. "Yet it is a mad dance of desperation he will not win," the bird-headed boy sighed. "I wonder why Todoroki could not put on such a performance."
This, I got, Mina thought, quick to explain this weirdness away. "Sparky trains with me and YaoMomo, when he isn't training with All Might like Kiri, Midoriya, or Shoji," she offered, her partner for the finals considering that, and nodding.
Watching the fight, though, Denki was doing better and better, using his Talents to learn from Mr. Aizawa, which was eight kinds of unfair, and Mina watched, wondering if her boyfriend, with his Quirk 'erased', and on his own, was going to beat the Pro Hero.
Sparky was doing well, right until he wasn't, Eraserhead stepping up his game and moving in almost a blur, a knife hand chopping the thin strip of Denki's wrist that was unarmored, sending his sword flying. Her boyfriend tried to pull back, but Mr. Aizawa didn't let him, pressing the attack, using his scarf to wrap Sparky up in an instant.
The boy hit the ground, arms and legs bound, and froze. ". . . huh," he said, not upset that he'd just lost. "Thought that would take longer."
"So did I," Mr. Aizawa replied drolly. "You're stronger than you look."
"I train," Sparky shrugged and unconcerned. "So, what now?"
"Now we're done," Eraserhead smiled, taking a moment to re-wet his eyes, before looking around in confusion. "Or we aren't."
Denki just smiled. "Ah. Glad that worked. So, I guess this is the part where you go grab him, I run off, and you have to go after me as he escapes. Because, let's be honest, this isn't going to hold me for long."
Mr. Aizawa glared at her boyfriend, who just grinned back. "So that's your game. Fine. I'll have to try something longer lasting." The man reached into a pouch on his back, and pulled out an. . . antibacterial napkin? The man opened the package, taking out the damp cloth and approached the bound student. "Tell me, does this smell like chloroform to you?"
Sparky gave the teacher an unamused look, replying with a muffled, "You're a dick."
"That would be 'You're a dick, Sensei'," the man corrected, smiling slightly.
"You're a dick, Sensei," the boy repeated, rolling his eyes before he had to breath in, passing out.
Eraserhead stood up, looking at the student suspiciously, nudging him with his foot before he turned and ran towards Todoroki, who was halfway to the exit. The other students around Mina sighed, the tension of the fight gone, even as she stared, confused. She knew Sparky was immune to poisons, she was too, because of the 'Defense' they shared, but was he really going to lose the match just to keep it a secret? It'd be the smart thing to do, she guessed, if he didn't want to reveal that he could just ignore them, but while he thought he was sneaky, her boyfriend also didn't like losing. To fail something like this wasn't what she expected that from-
"Look!" Uraraka gasped, pointing at the screen showing Denki. The boy was sparking something fierce, and twitching a little, before he sat up with a gasp, crackling with electricity, breathing hard.
That little stinker! Mina thought, grinning, as her boyfriend acted like his Quirk had woken him up, instead of faking being out in the first place. As Recovery Girl hmmm'd judgmentally, Ashido glanced towards the little old lady, who was watching Denki with narrowed eyes. Oh damn! If anyone's gonna figure it out, it's her!
However, the school nurse didn't say anything, watching along with the others as Sparky turned his legs to lightning, slipping them out of their bindings, then his arms, pulling them off completely. Stretching, he sighed, commenting to himself, "Okay, don't fight the Professional Hero in his specialization. Damn, if he's just going to knock Shoto out, I've only got one more shot. . . . fuck it."
On the other screen, Eraserhead made it to Todoroki, who was sliding forward on an icy path several feet over the street, but was following the boy without erasing his Quirk. The teacher waited until Todoroki was between roads, with no easy place to run to, before he erased the student's Quirk.
However, Shoto seemed to be waiting for this, and quickly threw himself backwards, rolling behind the path he'd created as Mr. Aizawa closed, breaking the man's line of sight. A half-second later the boy exploded into fire, melting the ice he was hiding behind, but also turning it into a cloud of steam, obscuring the teacher's vision even more.
Eraserhead leapt out of one side of the cloud, while, with a crackle of ice, Todoroki shot out the other, sliding up and between two houses, leaping and sending a bolt of flame behind himself to create even more steam. Mr. Aizawa saw this new, higher plume, and quickly ran to the side to try to intercept the boy, only for both teacher and student to stop as the loud crack of lighting rang out over the otherwise quiet arena, everyone in the monitoring room switching back to the other screen.
On it, Sparky was riding along the power lines, legs transformed into electricity that merged with the wires, body tucked down and held in tight like a speed skater, hands pushed out behind himself. From each gloved palm came emerged a golden glow, energy crackling as he was forced forward faster and faster. With a powerful leap, her boyfriend angled his hands down forty-five degrees, and while his legs returned to normal his arms shifted, flattening and lengthening into wings, like a jet taking off.
He got higher and higher until, suddenly, his body returned to normal and his gloves stopped glowing, but the boy, grinning, just shrugged and kept flying through the air. Mina tried to guess where he'd come down, and while he wouldn't be able to get to the exit, he was going to be landing even with Todoroki in a matter of seconds, though she worried about how he was going to land. When he dropped below the level of the houses, he should get his 'Quirk' back, but that was cutting it really close and-
With a sharp crack, a wall of ice sprung into being, blocking Eraserhead's sight, and Todoroki, moving as fast as he could, turned and made another ice wall that joined up with the first, almost all the way to the closer edge of the arena. The Pro Hero turned, hair floating, but Todoroki, frost covering his left side and breathing hard, stood defiantly, meeting the erasing gaze with a determined one of his own.
On the other side, Sparky, only starting to fall, turned to look at the ice wall, a considering look on his face as he glanced between it and the exit. Laughing to himself, too far away for any of the microphones to pick up what he said, her boyfriend activated one of his electric grenades, lightning wreathing himself as his arms shifted back to wings, and golden auras extended from his palms, pushing him forward to fly once again.
On the other screen, the words spoken were picked up, as Mr. Aizawa stalked towards Todoroki, remarking, "You're not going to beat me."
"I don't need to," the boy replied levelly, taking hold of the capture cuffs, and standing at the ready, "I just need to slow you down."
Eraserhead leapt for the boy, who ran away from the wall of ice, running through the gate towards one house and stepping behind the concrete dividing wall that separated the yard from the street, erupting into flame. Mr. Aizawa only waited a moment, leaping over the wall even as a spire of ice lanced out towards the pro, who twisted around it, not stopping as he closed with the warmed Shoto, who barely held off the older man with punches and lunges with the cuffs, which their homeroom teacher dodged easily.
Even then, having seen how hard the man had fought Sparky, Mina frowned as Mr. Aizawa was moving much slower, and, from the murmurs of the others, she wasn't the only one who noticed.
"My, my. That man's such a big softie," Recovery Girl chuckled.
Turning back to look at Todoroki, frantically trying to hold off the older man, giving it his all, Mina understood what she meant. With how fast Sparky was moving now, there was no chance that Mr. Aizawa could catch him now, but instead of pouncing on Shoto and moving on, or leaving him behind entirely, the Teacher was pushing his student as hard as he could.
The boy fought hard, but, after almost a minute of fighting, stumbled, and started to fall. Eraserhead closed, but stopped right before he struck Todoroki, who, in one last, desperate attempt, threw himself forward, capture cuffs swinging outwards.
"Good try," Mr. Aizawa noted in his normal sleepy tones, but Mina could swear she heard a bit of approval in them, as the pro lashed out with his capture cloth, completely cocooning the boy in it. "But not good enough."
However, seconds later, he was proved wrong as Sparky, diving at speeds that made Mina a little nervous, shot through the exit gate, the buzzer blaring the boys' victory over their teacher sounding, the announcement declaring, "Team Todoroki and Kaminari have passed the final exam!"
Eraserhead looked in the direction of the gate, and shook his head. He turned to his captured student, who smirked back at him. "I stand corrected." He paused, before reaching down and unravelling the bindings from the boy, waiting until Todoroki was starting to stand before adding, with a grudging nod, "Good teamwork."
Shoto froze, before he nodded back to his teacher. "Thank you."
Chapter Sixty-Two
Yagi Toshinori, All Might to the world at large, waited in a soon-to-be-destroyed room, and watched his students fight on the screen Power Loader had set up. All Might had wanted to watch, but ever since his fight against Nomu, his maximum time in his empowered form had been cut down severely. Whereas before, he could hold it for several hours a day, now he struggled to do so for longer than one, if he wanted to do anything more than stand still and look pretty for the cameras.
For teaching, he could easily hold it for a single class, though by the end it became difficult, but to fight?
Toshinori wasn't looking forward to the thirty minutes he'd be facing off against both boys. If they were as they had first been, even during that first combat exercise, he would have been fine, but they had been growing, and All Might could not find it in himself to be upset by that fact.
However, none had surprised him more than young miss Uraraka and mister Aoyama. Both student's performance had been. . . limited, in early exercises, but both had made tremendous progress. Aoyama's trying to elicit costume ideas from his team-mate was painfully obvious, but the boy was seeking to improve, and that was something that All Might could heartily endorse.
On the other end, he might need to have a talk about proportional response with Young miss Yaoyorozu, because that girl was getting a little scary. Power Loader had been able to avoid the damage, and there were no civilians nearby, but that kind of attack was something that would only be wise to use in very specific circumstances. From his time as a Pro Hero, All Might knew the tendency for other, well-meaning individuals to work on flashy, highly destructive techniques, that were, to be honest, fairly cool, and then to try and find situations in which to use them, to show off, and to not waste the effort it took to develop them. The problems started when Heroes started to make excuses, using techniques in situations where they were not needed, or appropriate.
Sometimes, you could not save everyone, but often times that was used as an excuse not save anyone. He knew none of his students would do that, not as they were now, not even Young Bakugo, but one did not turn away from heroism in an instant. Vigilantism was a subtly slippery slope, paved with good intentions, but built on a foundation of selfishness. It was one he'd lost compatriots to, and he would do all he could to make sure these young men and women did not tread that dark path.
Speaking of students who could tread dark paths, he watched Young Kaminari's fight with interest. For all Endeavor's rough edges, the man was a true hero at heart, so, while Todoroki was dealing with standing in the shadow of his father, Toshinori did not worry about him ending up falling astray. As he watched Kaminari face off against Aizawa, All Might had to chuckle.
So the boy does have my power.
He'd had his suspicions, growing ever more whenever he sparred with the young man, but he recognized his own power at work. It was one of the lesser-known aspects of his Quirk, the Quirk that had been passed down to him by his teacher, and her teacher before her, but while One for All was powerful, it was also inviolate. The power he had inherited could not be copied, could not be stolen, could not be repressed. If it could, he likely would've lost to Nega-Man, all those years ago, but the power was not his, but those of all those that came before him, and what was carried by many could not be removed by the one. And not by All-for-One, when the man had tried. Oh how he had tried.
Young Midoriya's OfA could be suppressed, because what the boy had access to was but the tip of the iceberg, his own body not yet able to control the immense power he could bring to bear. Young Kaminari, however, seemed to be building his copy from the foundations up. He was unable to match All Might's successor in pure strength, but having the power would explain the growth of the boy's Quirk. Shimura-sensei had mentioned that, before she had inherited One for All, her Float Quirk made her as fast as a speeding train, but after?
If she were still around, Young Hawks would merely be the second fastest flier in Japan.
All Might grimaced, the loss of the closest thing he had to a mother still painful, even after all these years. He had thought he'd killed All for One five years ago, had put her memory to rest, only to discover he had failed, just as he had failed to save her before he'd left for America.
No, Toshinori, he corrected, before you fled for America.
It had been the right thing to do. Gran Torino had been correct, as usual. He'd been a mess after he'd lost her, and playing the hero, hamming it up to the nines, had let him deal with her loss on his own terms. It had brought him out of range of what he thought were All for One's lieutenants, though now the number one hero wondered if the Villain's 'defeat' had been just another plan. Though, from the way the Symbol of Peace had caved the older man's skull in, he very much doubted it. Regardless, Toshinori had left for America, where he'd met David Shield, his best friend, even if the Support technician rarely communicated with him, which could be more than could be said than his old Sidekick, Nighteye.
Bringing up all the old wounds, aren't you? he thought chuckling, and trying not to cough as he turned his attention back on Young Todoroki and Kaminari's match.
Sure enough, the resistance that One for All gave to toxins brought the boy out of his chemically induced slumber, and brought him back into the fight. It had taken until his nemesis had approached the boy for All Might to feel correct in his suspicions that the boy had managed, somehow, to copy All Might's Quirk. He knew that it was Young Midoriya that was his successor, but the power had grown in the passing, and Toshinori had never had the boy's. . . teething problems, though he'd also had more time to train his body in order to accept it.
Regardless, All for One had set his sights on Young Kaminari, and Toshinori knew, from deep personal experience, that the road the boy would now walk was not going to be an easy one. But that was for the future, now, he needed to focus on the present,
Interesting, All Might thought, watching Todoroki seal in Eraserhead with his ice, 'losing' so that his teammate could succeed. It wasn't a move he expected from Endeavor's boy, but one that spoke highly of him, and the number two, for how he had raised him. Kaminari's visible hesitance, on whether to win, or save his friend, was also commendable, as was his choice to succeed, trusting in his partner's capabilities.
The next match was. . . less impressive. The small arena, given Snipe's ability, meant that the only reason Young Hagakure and Shoji hadn't lost in the first ten seconds was because the man was taking it easy on the pair. While it did go against the spirit of the exercise, to fight them as hard as they could while weighed down, well, the pair needed the help.
A lot of help, as the Pro tossed out a smoke grenade. Against ranged opponents, that would be good, the shooter's Quirk letting him hit his opponents without seeing them, but here it did nothing but hurt him. Hagakure was invisible, but she couldn't make things other than herself unseeable, and as far as All Might knew she did not have the physical training to capitalize on that. Shoji on the other hand, was surprisingly passive. For a young man with so many hands, he refused to raise a fist, in anger or otherwise. This was confirmed when he 'gave up' in front of Snipe, the Pro Hero noticing the smoke parting around the invisible Hagakure, but pretending not to, and so he was captured.
I will have to have a talk with that young man the next time we spar, the Number One decided. Against Shoji's teacher, it was a viable strategy, but a true villain would have just shot the boy in the head and moved on. Snipe hadn't even winged the boy in the leg, somewhere that he could not heal in moments, the man too soft for his own good.
But that mean's it's time, All Might thought, standing and stretching, folding up the screen and putting it on the waiting drone, to take back to Power Loader. With a flex of the familiar power, strength coursed through his limbs as weakened muscles expanded back to full strength, growing as he filled out his suit.
"Ah, that's the stuff," the Number One sighed, working his limbs. He could feel the remains of One for All fading, slowly, having done so ever since he'd given Young Midoriya his Quirk, but what he still had was more than enough for this.
Both boys started to move forward through the simulated downtown city street. To his enhanced hearing, he could hear Young Midoriya talk about how it was impossible to fight him, and All Might, waiting on a nearby rooftop, couldn't help but wince. The boy truly did look up to him, and he wasn't wrong, even as strong as he was he would not win against the Symbol of Peace, until Izuku's strength grew, or Toshinori's further waned, but to not even try?
Bakugo turned on his teammate grenade gauntlet raised to smack the boy, but the explosive-tempered teen paused, letting out a long breath through gritted teeth. "Deku. You want to be the best. Right?"
"I, yeah, of course!" All Might's protégé argued, looking confused.
"Then how the fuck are you gonna figure out if you're better, if you don't fucking fight him?" Bakugo demanded. "I can't fucking beat him. I couldn't beat fucking Shishido, and I got so fucked up that I couldn't fucking move, but do you know what I did?"
"Got hurt?" Izuku asked, missing the other boy's point, the explosion creater growling in irritation.
The blonde teen lifted his hands in a chocking motion, fighting with himself, seeming to give in, but grabbing his partner by the front of his costume and pulled him off his feet, Bakugo getting right up in the other boy's face. "I fucking tried!" he roared tossing the green-haired boy back, Midoriya stumbling. "I gave it my fucking all, and fucking failed, but that just meant I knew where I fucking stood, and how much farther I still had to go! Even before we got here, I busted my ass training, and got the best fucking combat score out of all of us for it! Pikachu beat me because of that stupid fucking rescue shit, but I had his ass beat in combat."
"But you?" the volatile teen sneered. "You never even tried."
"I did!" Midoriya objected. "My notebooks-"
"Were fucking useless, if you couldn't back them up!" Bakugo yelled. "And until the last year, you were the same scrawny little pathetic looser, wanting to be a Hero but never putting in any of the work! And then suddenly you start bulking up? It's because you finally got your fucking Quirk, wasn't it!? You broke a finger and blew up a fucking wall or something, and then suddenly you decide to actual give a damn, to try, when the rest of us had been working our whole lives to get here!?" Midoriya flinched, as, while his partner was incorrect in the specifics, All Might could tell he was spot on when it came to Young Izuku's mindset.
In this, Bakugo was correct. The boy hadn't trained at all until All Might had chosen him as his successor, and his gains, while incredibly impressive, could not match up to what multiple years of less strenuous, but still difficult, training would have accomplished. That did not, however, diminish the achievements the boy had gained in that short time, nor the tenacity, willpower, and sheer drive that it took to do what Midoriya had done
"You fucking didn't, did you?" the self-crowned Bombing King spat, disgusted. "Of fucking course you didn't. Because you knew I was fucking right. You knew that, without a Quirk, you couldn't be a Hero, so you didn't even bother! And that's why I fucking hate you, Deku, because you might have power now, but you'll still fold the second shit gets bad! You run, and hide, instead of fighting when you think you'll lose. All Might wouldn't! That's why he's the fucking best, and that's why I'll be the new number one someday! But you? You'll be lucky to crack two-hundred, coasting on your fuckin' Quirk instead of pushing yourself!"
"You're wrong!" the boy argued, glaring right back at his childhood. . . well, All Might would have said friend before, but apparently Young Midoriya had misjudged their relationship. "I have been pushing myself! You're. . . you're not wrong about me before. I don't know why, but I didn't."
Bakugo scowled, "I told you-"
"And you can be wrong too!" Midoriya cut the other boy off, emerald sparks trailing as he swept his hand out, creating a small breeze that ruffled the blonde's hair. "I wasn't before, you're right. It was a dream, a dream I thought I'd never achieve, but once it was possible I've been putting my all into everything I can do. And not pushing myself?" Izuku questioned. "I fought Stain, along with Todoroki and Tenya, and then we fought another Nomu and someone from the League of Villains! I know what it's like to fight until you can't move. Until you think you've lost. Until you think that the people you care about are going to die because you're not good enough. But just because I never fought you. . ."
The green haired boy trailed off, taking a deep breath, letting it out as his fists clenched, and he channeled more of the Quirk, body glowing as bits of green lightning played along his form. "Yes, back then, I would have done that. Back then, I was useless. But I'm not anymore!" the boy announced. "Maybe it took my getting a Quirk and that's, that's not good, but that doesn't matter right now! You want to fight All Might? Fine. You're not going to win on your own! You're not strong enough!"
"What'd you say to me?" Bakugo growled, taking a half-step forward, but Midoriya met his glare with a steady gaze of his own.
"I said you're not strong enough, but, together, and with All Might weighed down, we might be," the boy challenged right back.
The volatile teen stared down his partner for a long moment before letting out a barking laugh. "Least you found your fuckin' balls, Deku. Now lets see if ya found your spine there too," Bakugo grinned, before turning his back on Midoriya and looking up, but not in the direction that the Symbol of Peace crouched. "Hey! All Might!" the boy yelled, "You gonna come down and get this shit started, or are we gonna have to hunt ya down!"
Well, it would be rude to turn down such an invitation, Toshinori grinned. Both boys had grown from their first day, and he would see how they'd grown as fighters as well. "I am here!" the 'Villain' announced, leaping high into the air, sending himself into an overhead spin to build up momentum. This first attack would set the tenor of the fight, and test their resolve. "To villainously defeat you! Illinois Smash!"
Plummeting downward, a flick of his wrists pushing him towards the ground even faster. He turned his overhead momentum into a sideways rotation, pulling air around him in a tornado. Hitting the ground, the concrete cratered, the windows all around them shattering, the siding of nearby buildings fracturing enough so that, when he spun with he wind he'd gathered, he created a whirlwind that ripped everything around him apart, the pre-made shrapnel tearing into the landscape.
"Who really cares if I destroy this city?" he asked, trying to channel the very worst of those that called themselves 'Hero', but were truly Villains. "All that matters is that I stop you."
With a stomp, he cleared the air, the dust cloud he'd created pushed away and the remnants of the tornado he'd formed disrupted before it could become self-sustaining and leave the training grounds. Midoriya had taken cover behind the shrapnel-ridden wreck of a car, reading the directionality of the whirlwind and acting accordingly, while Bakugo had a few minor cuts, having tried to use an explosion to repel the attack, but unable to shape it properly in time.
There was fear in his apprentice's eyes, but also a sharp focus that the boy hadn't had before the Sports Festival while Bakugo, despite his injuries, smiled with bloodlust, but he, too, had a focus he had previously lacked. "If you think of this as an exam and not a real fight, you'll be sorry," the Symbol of Peace warned. Short of death, dismemberment, or severe brain damage, any injury could be healed afterwards, and he would not hold back like Snipe had, and rob these boys of this opportunity.
Grinning, he added, "I'm a villain now, heroes. You better remember that. I'll come at you with everything I've got. I won't pull my punches!"
Bakugo grinned back, "Wouldn't have it any other way, old man. Deku! You gonna-"
A speeding car cut him off, flying right for All Might, who negligently battered it away and into the wreck of a nearby building, but heard the telltale explosions of Bakugo's Quirk coming right at him. Don't be subtle if your power doesn't let you, Toshinori thought, respecting the boy's acknowledgement of his own weakness, and prepared to deflect the boy's attack as All Might deflected the car, only the blonde teen was too far away to truly do any damage, and Midoriya was nowhere in sight.
Was the argument an act? All Might wondered, and moved a hand to shield himself from the Bombing King's explosion, only for it to go off far brighter, and far more loudly than expected, momentarily blinding and deafening the 'Villain'.
A good tactic, and effective against a lesser foe, but Gran Torino had taught his student to fight blind, deaf, and the strict taskmaster would say Toshinori had the fighting 'dumb' part down pat, but that was just how the old man expressed affection. Because of that, All Might was able to dart forward and grab Bakugo by the face, careful not to squeeze too hard, and not to put a finger in the boy's eyes.
Rather than try and pry the hand off, a useless move, the angry teen just shoved his palms against All Might's ribs, setting off two chains of low strength explosions that did no real damage, but hurt like the dickens!
Alright, enough of that, All Might thought, getting ready to slam the boy into the ground in a way that would hurt his back and ribs, but not his head or neck, when the man felt the barest movement of wind on his hair and jerked his head to the side on instinct.
Because of that, instead of being hit on the directly by Midoriya's reinforced boot, he was struck on the shoulder with enough force to, combined with his weights, make him stagger, reflexively letting Bakugo go and blocking the follow up kick that, Midoriya, literally standing on his mentor's shoulders, violently aimed for the man's head.
He grabbed the boy and moved to slam him into the ground, but Bakugo moved too, a focused explosion detonating on All Might's arm, throwing his slam backwards and robbing it of most of its momentum.
Midoriya landed on one foot, his other in Toshinori's grasp, and while Bakugo did not have the strength to pull himself free, Izuku, sparking with One for All, did, having to use both hands to move his mentor's thumb, but succeeding and rolling away, even as Bakugo retreated from All Might's grasp.
I know I said not to hold back, but that was particularly vicious, Toshinori thought, working his shoulder, but pleased all the same. That attack hadn't been anything close to the Symbol of Peace's fighting style, something he knew his protégé aped with near religious accuracy. It was, however, the kind of thing that Mirko would do, from the few times he'd worked with the girl.
Yes, Young Midoriya was still copying the style of another, but if he could combine them? Make them his own, possibly adding other elements in as needed? Well, that would make a fighting style all the boy's own, and he'd started down that road during his internship with her.
I should do something nice for that young lady, All Might thought. Maybe get her a carrot cake? Wait, is that racist? Nevermind, I'll look into it later.
The boys' arguing had wasted a good amount of time, which meant that All Might could fight even harder, and still have enough juice to run things to the end. "Not bad as an opener," the 'Villain' remarked, walking towards them. "But can you keep it up?"
Both boys glanced at each other, and nodded. "I can do this all day!" Bakugo shot back.
"And I'll keep fighting as long as Kacchan does!" Midoriya added.
Very good! All Might grinned. "Then come at me, if you're hard enough!"
Both boys charged, and the Symbol of 'Peace' met them head on.