Just as Momo's team was about to complete the rescue, Kaina dealt them a harsh dose of reality, causing them to fail.
There was clear dissatisfaction within Momo, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Tokoyami's team.
Bakugo and Todoroki weren't the only prideful ones—Momo also hated losing. As for Tokoyami, he felt deeply frustrated; in that situation, he had been the only one who could have saved the "civilian," yet he failed. Still, they had to swallow the bitter taste of defeat, because Kaina was the teacher, whether they liked it or not.
The rest of the students grew nervous upon realizing that Kaina would show them no mercy.
Would this have happened to them if they had gone first?
The only truth was that they needed to be careful. This wouldn't be a simple rescue if they had to deal with a minefield. So everyone began thinking about how to avoid the explosives on the cliff.
'Maybe I can detect them with my Quirk,' Jiro thought, frowning.
'If I make the rescue stretcher float, we won't have to touch the cliff,' Ochako thought, feeling a bit nervous.
'With my vines, I can lift it while keeping it away from the wall,' Ibara thought with her calm and serene demeanor.
'I'll make them all explode with my electricity, hahaha! I'm a genius!' Kaminari thought arrogantly.
'Mmm, I want to ask some friends for help… maybe there are bats nearby,' Koda thought, worried about whether he would have enough time to gather animals to help him.
'Hahaha, I'll just go first and blow everything up before the stretcher passes,' Kirishima and Tetsutetsu thought, as if they shared the same brain cell.
'Maybe with my speed,' Iida thought.
'I need to push myself, I'm not doing very well in the rankings,' Handa thought, as the students near the bottom worried about being transferred to Class 1-B.
'It all depends on who I'm with, but what should I do?' Deku immediately pulled out his notebook and began making a plan.
Allen shook his head. It was easy to tell what everyone was thinking; however, in his eyes, they were underestimating Kaina.
Speaking of Lady Nagant, she smiled faintly upon seeing the determined looks on their faces.
Before starting, they moved to another section of the artificial cliff, since the explosives in the previous area had already been used.
....
The result was obvious... It was a massacre.
Ochako's team—Froppy, Iida, and Aoyama—came up with a simple plan.
Ochako and Iida went down, placed the mannequin onto the rescue stretcher, and Iida carried it. With the help of Zero Gravity, both of them floated upward. Halfway up, Tsuyu used her tongue to pull them higher, while Aoyama stood ready to assist in case anything went wrong.
Just when they thought they had succeeded, two armed drones appeared and aimed at the stretcher.
Aoyama reacted instantly, firing his laser and destroying one of them, but the second drone fired, hitting the mannequin in the head. This left everyone in shock.
"Did you brats really think there were only explosives?" Kaina declared coldly.
The next team was Ibara, Tetsutetsu, Kirishima, and Jiro.
This team came up with an even more absurd plan. Tetsutetsu and Kirishima descended the cliff.
Tetsutetsu went all the way down and shielded the mannequin, while Kirishima stayed halfway up. With Jiro's help, they identified the locations of the explosives, and one by one, Kirishima detonated them with his fists.
Once they were done, Ibara quickly lifted the rescue stretcher. As soon as the drones appeared, Jiro destroyed them with sonic waves.
"Very good," Kaina said, praising them.
Everyone thought they had succeeded—but at that moment, a massive rock rolled down from above.
"But you underestimated the power of nature. Landslides are common," Kaina said with a half-smile.
Ibara froze. If she moved, the stretcher would fall into the abyss. However, Jiro wasn't about to let her be crushed, so she tackled her out of the way at the last moment. The rock smashed into the edge, and the stretcher fell.
"Damn it!"
Kirishima jumped to catch it but failed. At the bottom, Tetsutetsu managed to grab it, but he couldn't fully absorb the impact. When they checked the mannequin, it had suffered spinal fracture damage. It wasn't "dead," but for this team, it was a defeat.
The third team was Toru, Koda, Ojiro, and Handa.
At the start, Handa helped Toru descend using the tape coming out of his elbows. Once down, Toru calmed the "civilian" and placed it onto the stretcher, then covered it with a blanket—something that caught everyone's attention.
They were soon distracted by Koda, who summoned bats. These animals located the explosives, allowing Handa to carry the stretcher up the cliff while avoiding the explosives.
When the drones appeared, Ojiro destroyed them by kicking rocks with his tail like cannonballs.
Everyone expected the massive rock—but this time, it didn't appear. Instead, something unexpected happened: the ledge where Handa was standing broke apart, causing him to fall.
"Handa!"
Ojiro reached out but couldn't grab him. However, Handa shot his tape toward Ojiro, who grabbed it and stopped the fall.
Soon after, the familiar rumbling sound echoed, and a large rock rolled down the cliff.
Everything seemed lost, but they both smiled and let themselves fall.
The stretcher slammed into the ground.
"Look! The stretcher is empty!" Kaminari exclaimed.
"...?!" This surprised Kaina.
Allen smiled.
Kaina frowned and scanned the area, noticing that Toru Hagakure was nowhere to be seen. She turned around and looked at Allen, who merely shrugged.
He had promised to help Toru become stronger so she wouldn't be removed from Class 1-A. Of course, this wasn't something that could happen overnight, but since support items were allowed, Allen had given Toru a set of enchanted tools with invisibility—among them, an invisible cloak, just like Harry Potter's.
"I'll do it!" Toru climbed the cliff with the mannequin tied to her back. That's right—everything before had been nothing but a distraction.
Kaina smiled for the first time. "Very clever. I'm impressed, but..."
The woman closed her eyes, causing Allen to frown. Not long after, she opened them and kicked a stone to the right, striking Toru's hand as she clung to the edge.
"Don't forget that being invisible doesn't erase your presence," Kaina said.
"Ah!" Toru fell into the void—but Allen caught her. Unfortunately, this still counted as a defeat.
"I'm sorry, Allen," Toru said, feeling down.
Allen smiled encouragingly at her, "What are you talking about, girl? You were closer than anyone else in the class."
Toru's face lit up with joy. "Hehe~"
....
The next group was nervous. It was terrifying how this woman wasn't even trying, yet she was already humiliating them.
Thirteen and Aizawa could only watch in silence. Kaina had proven to be even more terrifying than Aizawa when it came to making students suffer.
The next group was Deku, Shoji, Kaminari, and Itsuka.
When they heard this, everyone fell silent. If this was the second-to-last group, that meant Allen would be alone in the final one.
"I don't need to explain why you'll go alone, right?" Kaina said, looking at Allen.
"I'm fine, sensei," Allen smiled.
Itsuka was about to speak, but Allen placed a hand on her shoulder. She smiled, understanding what he meant.
This team's plan was extremely aggressive.
They didn't play defensively.
Shoji used his many ears to locate the drones, while Deku immediately moved to intercept and destroy them.
Itsuka did the same with the massive rock. Before it could fall, she climbed the cliff and found the rock suspended by a net. Without hesitation, Itsuka enlarged her fist and shattered it with a single punch.
Shoji descended the cliff and shielded the mannequin with his body, while Kaminari detonated all the trap explosives with a massive electrical discharge.
With this, the traps were cleared. This time, most of the class felt relieved—the team had overcome every obstacle and slowly lifted the stretcher.
"We did it!" Deku said as he watched Shoji reach the top—but the moment they set foot on the ledge, a gunshot rang out.
The mannequin's head was blown into the air, leaving everyone in shock.
"No, you lost..." Kaina said as she smoked a cigarette.
At some point, her arm had transformed into a rifle.
"What are you doing?!" Kirishima protested.
"They had already reached the top of the cliff!" Momo argued.
"This is clearly unfair!" Kaminari shouted.
Everyone was furious.
Kaina sneered. "At what point did I say the test would end once you climbed the cliff?"
Her words left everyone stunned. You call yourself a teacher like this? Aren't you just a delinquent who enjoys making others suffer?
"When do you think a hero lets their guard down the most? When they believe they've won..." Kaina's smile vanished. "Don't forget what I told you. I don't care if you hate me—but engrave this into your minds. If those mannequins had been real people, you would have let every single one of them die!"
Everyone fell silent.
"Brats, until now you've been training while being led by the hand. If someone told you a tiger would appear, you'd never expect a lion—but there are no rules in the real world!"
"People deceive. Villains lie. Remember this—you have moral codes. They don't! You have limits. They don't!"
"You'll run into countless bastards who don't care what they have to do to end you, and in that moment you'll understand the harshest truth of all... YOU CAN'T SAVE EVERYONE!"
A hero is someone who makes the impossible possible. It sounds beautiful on paper, but the reality is that not even All Might can save everyone—and they learned that straight from All For One when he mentioned Nana Shimura.
The atmosphere grew heavy, but everyone understood that Kaina wasn't a sadistic bitch—she was truly teaching them a lesson.
....
"It's your turn..." Kaina said, fixing her gaze on Allen.
"Wow, I hope you'll be gentle with me since I'm all alone," Allen smiled.
"I hope you can keep that smug smile after this," Kaina replied with an amused grin.
The atmosphere shifted once more. This time, Kaina was testing Allen—the one who possessed the most absurd Quirk known, and who was rumored to already be capable of becoming a professional hero.
"Since Allen-sama is special, his test will be special as well," Kaina said with a sarcastic smile. This, however, didn't affect Allen, who remained calm.
"You will be given conditions. A scenario."
Silence fell as everyone waited for what she was about to say.
"You have confronted a group of villains who forced you to use four of your cards. Your opponent is a villain who knows you will prioritize the lives of your friends, who are unable to use their Quirks due to the injuries they sustained... You must endure the villain's assault, as they try to take away what matters most to you, for three minutes until reinforcements arrive."
"Huh? What does that mean?" Momo asked, but she was ignored. Lady Nagant's attention was focused solely on Allen.
Allen wasn't the only one who noticed how strange these conditions were. They were mannequins—why did it matter that they couldn't use their Quirks?
"..."
Allen's eyes widened when he saw the violet glow in Kaina's eyes. She was serious.
"You are now forbidden from moving until I say so... you know, heroes always arrive at the last moment~" Kaina smiled coldly. "Protect them, Allen!"
Kaina grabbed Ochako by the neck and hurled her into the air.
"Huh?"
Allen was about to fly, but Kaina's gaze stopped him.
"Not yet!"
In Ochako's eyes, still unable to fully understand what was happening, were reflected the figures of her classmates staring at her in disbelief.
"What?! I have to do something!"
Ochako tried to activate her Quirk on parts of her suit, but she couldn't. From a distance, Aizawa apologized.
"Ah!" Ochako fell, unable to hold back her tears of fear.
"Not yet!"
Some wanted to protest, but shock kept them frozen.
The ground beneath Allen cracked as his veins bulged—his emotional state made manifest.
Seeing Allen's expression, Kaina smiled widely before speaking. "Now."
To everyone else, Allen vanished...
To Allen, the world slowed down...
He flew past Kaina, then dove down the cliff so fast that he left behind all sound and color.
He reached Ochako before she could hit the ground.
"Allen-kun?" Ochako blinked as Allen appeared.
"I'm sorry... can you walk?—"
"Ah!"
Hearing another scream, Allen looked up and saw Toru flying through the air, this time in a straight line. But that wasn't all—Kaina transformed her elbow into a rifle and aimed at Toru.
"Sensei! Isn't this too much?!" Itsuka exclaimed, but she was ignored.
"Don't forget the villain, Allen Walker!"
Kaina fired.
The bullet crossed the distance toward Toru in an instant, but before it could hit, heat vision destroyed it.
That was close!
Allen flew toward Toru and caught her in his arms. Before he could say a word, Kaina aimed at Ochako.
"You think just because you saved her once I won't aim at her again?!"
Kaina fired once more.
Allen appeared in front of the bullet and deflected it with a punch. It slammed into the cliff, piercing the rock as if it were paper. He was still carrying Toru, but thanks to his bioelectric field, anyone in contact with him wasn't affected by his speed.
Kaina smiled faintly, adjusted her rifle again, and fired. The shot created a shockwave that knocked several students off their feet.
"Something's different about that last shot!" Allen thought as he saw the trail of light rushing toward him.
This bullet looked different—but he had no time to think. It fell from above like a railgun round.
Upon impact, it caused an explosion no one expected.
"What?! Why?!"
Deku was the most shocked. Due to his obsession with heroes, he took notes on even the smallest details of every hero and villain he encountered. Because of that, he knew Lady Nagant's ammunition was made from her own hair, hardened beyond steel.
"Then why did it explode?!" Itsuka shouted.
"Allen!" Momo cried out.
A bead of sweat ran down Aizawa's cheek. He knew the reason for the explosion. Kaina had inserted a device into the middle of her hair strand before firing it.
Both professional heroes and students receive support from development teams, specialized companies, or expert engineers like David Shield to optimize the use of their Quirks.
Just like Bakugo's gauntlets, Iida's armor, or Toru's suit, these weren't decorative items. And now that Kaina had officially become a U.A. teacher, she also received that benefit.
"Aizawa-sensei, is this okay?" Thirteen whispered.
Thirteen was nervous. Kaina's actions were extreme, bordering on dangerous, but both of them had been warned by Nezu that this was exactly why she was here.
"Don't worry. That woman knows what she's doing... probably."
Kaina smiled as she toyed with one of the devices in her hand. Just like Hawkeye with his different arrow types, using these together with her bullets allowed her to produce different effects.
"So, what will you do now, hero?" Kaina asked with a grin.
....
When the smoke cleared, Allen's back was revealed.
"Allen?" Toru looked at him worriedly.
"I'm fine," he replied with a smile before turning with a teasing look. "Adding explosives is a bit excessive, don't you think?"
Kaina smiled as well. She grabbed a small device from her belt, resembling a tiny capsule. After pulling out a bit of her hair, she wrapped it inside; it rapidly grew, forming one of her spear-like bullets.
Allen watched as she loaded it into the chamber, aimed, and fired in his direction.
This time, the bullet exploded before reaching Allen, releasing a kind of gas.
Allen inhaled deeply, then released an icy breath to disperse the smoke—but it was only a distraction. In that moment, Kaina had already leapt into the air, carrying Momo with her.
"This time it's a hostage?" Allen set Toru down and flew.
He positioned himself in Kaina's line of sight so she couldn't aim at Ochako or Toru, then flew straight toward her.
"Are you inviting me to shoot?" Kaina smiled.
Kaina fired at Allen.
Allen took the first shot with a punch, creating a powerful air current.
Kaina fired again.
Allen used his heat vision to destroy the projectile.
He swatted the third shot aside and took the fourth directly to the chest.
Lady Nagant didn't stop firing. Even though Allen blocked every shot, they slowed him down and even made him bleed slightly.
Of course, Allen was only using the template at half power—but even so, it was impressive.
Each shot struck with the force of a battleship's artillery, leaving the students in awe. They hadn't realized just how powerful Lady Nagant truly was.
"As expected..." Aizawa murmured.
It might have seemed like Lady Nagant wasn't very strong during her fight against All For One, but that was only because her opponent was a monster. Against anyone else—even All Might—she would demand caution.
Momo didn't want to be a burden, and for a moment, she started creating something with her Quirk.
"If you use your Quirk, Allen will fail the test."
"...!" Momo glared at Kaina angrily, but she was ignored as Kaina focused solely on shooting at Allen.
Trying to protect two people while rescuing a third, against an opponent on the level of a top ten hero, without being able to use another template—
The difficulty was absurd. And yet...
"If it's you, you can do it, right?" Kaina thought as she watched Allen appear in front of her.
He didn't attack her. Instead, he focused on knocking the rifle aside and snatching Momo away. Once he had her in his arms, he threw a punch that Kaina blocked with her rifle arm. Even so, she was pushed back by Allen's strength, sliding through the air.
Kaina's sadistic smile vanished. She looked at Allen with a mix of pride, affection, and satisfaction.
Kaina let herself fall—but she didn't crash into the ground, because Allen caught her.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into Allen's gaze. Without saying a word, she returned her arm to normal and gently caressed his cheek.
"You've truly become strong."
"That's right," Allen replied with a confident smile.
The way the scene shifted from an intense battle to something straight out of a Korean drama left everyone speechless.
Soon, however, several girls began watching with cold stares, which frightened more than a few of the boys.
"Mmm" Itsuka narrowed her eyes.
"Hmph" Momo snorted.
"Mou..." Toru pouted.
"..." Ochako looked on silently.
At this point, not even a blind person would believe nothing was going on between the two of them.
====
A/N: 🗿
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