The monitor room was silent, save for the crackle of static and the heavy breathing of twenty students watching a tragedy in high definition. We simply watched as Katsuki Bakugo reached for the pin on his right gauntlet—a massive, grenade-shaped canister that looked far too lethal for a school exercise. The metallic click of the safety pin being pulled echoed through the speakers with the finality of a gunshot.
"Young Bakugo, stop!" All Might's voice boomed, his hand hovering over the 'Abort' button. "Are you trying to kill him?!"
"He won't die if he dodges!" Bakugo's voice was a jagged shard of glass, devoid of his usual arrogance and replaced by a cold, obsessive fury.
The explosion that followed was a pillar of white-hot fire.
"He's insane," Kirishima whispered. "That wasn't a training move. That was a kill shot."
I watched Midoriya. He was scorched, his sleeve burned away, but he was standing. His eyes weren't filled with the fear I had seen in the locker room. They were filled with a terrifying, desperate clarity. He was predicting Bakugo. He was moving before the sparks even left Katsuki's palms.
"He's not just fighting," I observed. "He's reading the muscle memory of a decade of bullying. Midoriya knows Bakugo better than Bakugo knows himself."
All Might stood at the front, his hand hovering over the 'Abort' button. His usual grin was tight, strained. He was letting it continue, but only by a thread.
The match ended in a way that left us all breathless. Midoriya didn't punch Bakugo. He punched the ceiling. The sheer updraft of the 'Detroit Smash' tore through five floors of concrete, creating a chimney for Uraraka to float the weapon to victory. It was a strategic masterstroke bought with broken bones.
"Hero team... WINS!" All Might announced.
As the medic bots rolled in to carry Midoriya away, Bakugo stood in the middle of the rubble. He looked at his smoke-stained palms, trembling. He had won the fight, but he had lost the game. For a guy like him, that was more humiliating than anything in his life.
"Alright! Let's clear the air!" All Might boomed, trying to steer the mood back toward education. "The MVP of this match was... Young Iida!"
As Momo began her flawless analysis of why Iida was the only one who truly played the role, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Hiroki.
"Takeru, we're up next," he said, his expression unusually grim. "And look at who we're facing."
I looked at the board.
Match 2: Heroes (Team B: Todoroki & Shoji) vs. Villains (Team I: Kazama & Hiroki)
Shoto Todoroki was already walking toward the building. He didn't look at us. He didn't look at the monitors. He just walked with a cold, detached grace that felt like a looming blizzard. Shoji followed him, his multiple ears already mapping out the building.
"We're the Villains," I said, adjusting my light-blue jacket and checking the support harness on my back. "We head to the weapon room. Hiroki, your job is mobility. If Todoroki gets a clear line of sight, it's over. Use your stretch to stay on the ceilings. I'll handle the front-line defense."
"Got it" Hiroki said, his limbs beginning to ripple with nervous energy.
We entered the building and found the nuclear weapon on the fifth floor. The room was large, with two main entrances.
"Shoji is probably already listening," I whispered, tapping my Flask gauntlet to activate a low-frequency Aether Hum. It created a veil of white noise that would frustrate Shoji's sensory Quirk. "Hiroki, get up high. When the temperature drops—and it will—don't touch the floor."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to see if the Recommended Student can handle a Pulse," I said, standing directly in front of the bomb.
Five minutes in, A thick frost began to crawl up the walls, turning the concrete into a crystalline trap. I felt the moisture in my breath freeze instantly.
Crrr-ack!
it exploded inward as a tidal wave of ice roared down the hallway. It was a mountain of frozen jaggedness, meant to end the match in a single second.
"Hiroki, NOW!"
Hiroki shot his arms upward, sticking to the ceiling like a spider. I didn't move. I planted my feet.
"Aether Accumulation: 15%!"
I slammed my palms forward. A wave of shimmering blue energy collided with the ice. The heat generated by the high-frequency vibration turned the leading edge of the glacier into steam, creating a massive explosion of mist and shattered crystals.
The room vanished in a cloud of white vapor. Through the mist, Shoto Todoroki appeared. He had entered the building after the initial freeze, walking calmly with his right side trailing frost
Through the mist, the door creaked open. Shoto Todoroki stepped in, his right side covered in frost. For the first time, I saw his expression break. His eyes widened, his gaze sweeping over the steaming puddle that used to be his "instant-win" move.
"Aether Accumulation: 40%," I commanded. My suit flared, the black lines turning a violent, electric blue.
I didn't dodge. I stepped forward and threw a concentrated punch directly into the heart of the advancing frost.
"Aether Smash!"(A/N: He's not actually saying it, I'm using the name to show what's moves he's using.)
The collision was deafening. The sheer kinetic force of the Aether-enhanced blow met the ice at its weakest molecular point, shattering the first three meters of the wave into fine snow. But the ice kept coming, fueled by Todoroki's massive output.
"Ok lets focus and...," I muttered, taking deep breath in and concentrating, my childhood training kicking in. "Aether Refraction!"
The energy from the ice waves—the massive kinetic pressure and the thermal debt—collided with my field and was instantly redirected. I didn't just stop the attack; I reflected it. A massive, circular shockwave erupted from my point of contact, vibrating at the exact inverse frequency of the ice. The reflected energy tore through the glacier, sending the jagged spikes flying backward toward Todoroki in a hail of pulverized frost and concussive force.
On the flank, Shoji Mezo didn't falter. Despite the acoustic roar of the Refraction and the flying ice-shrapnel, he used his Dupli-Arms to create multiple shields, absorbing the shockwave. He lunged toward Hiroki, his six arms unfolding into a blur of coordinated strikes.
"Whoa!" Hiroki yelped, his body snapping like a rubber band as he dodged a heavy haymaker. "You're fast for a big guy!"
Shoji didn't waste words. He used two arms to anchor himself to a pillar and swung four others in a pincer maneuver. Hiroki was forced into a desperate dance, his limbs elongating and snapping back to evade Shoji's iron grip. Shoji was clever—he was using his enhanced hearing to predict Hiroki's elastic 'snap-back' movements.
Shoji caught Hiroki's leg mid-stretch, pulling him in for a crushing bear hug. "I have you," Shoji grunted.
"Not yet!" Hiroki retorted. He didn't fight the pull; he accelerated into it, turning his entire body into a high-tension coil. He wrapped his elongated arms around Shoji's primary torso and used the momentum to slam both of them into the concrete floor. As they tumbled through the melting slush, Hiroki's superior flexibility allowed him to slip free first, pinning Shoji's multiple limbs under his own weight and looping the capture tape around Shoji's massive frame.
Todoroki's eyes widened. He had to raise a defensive wall of ice just to keep from being swept away by his own reflected power. But I didn't give him a second to breathe.
Todoroki's eyes widened. He began to pivot for a wider blast, but I was already gone.
Psh-shhh!
"Aether Propulsion!"
Blue jets of energy erupted from the vents on my calves and back in short, violent bursts. I moved in a jagged zigzag, the 'blink-like' speed leaving afterimages in the snowy mist. Todoroki tried to track me, but I was closing the distance at a rate he couldn't calculate.
I entered his inner circle before he could raise his right arm.
"Aether Bind!"
I didn't punch him. I reached out, and from my gauntlets, ribbons of high-density Aether lashed out like glowing cinematic wire. They wrapped around his arms and torso in a fraction of a second. The Aether didn't just hold him; it surged with a numbing frequency that disrupted his nervous system, paralyzing the motor functions he needed to manifest his Quirk.
Todoroki gasped, his knees buckling as the 'Bind' drained his momentum. With a swift, calculated strike to the carotid artery—a move perfected over a decade of dojo sparring—I knocked him out before he could even register the loss.
I caught him before he hit the ground and wrapped the white capture tape around his wrists.
"Villain team... WINS!" All Might's voice crackled over the comms, tinged with awe. "Young Kazama and Young Hiroki have secured the objective and captured both Heroes!"
I stood up, exhaling a long plume of steam. My Aether levels receded, the glow of my suit dimming back to its resting state. I looked at the unconscious "Recommended Student" at my feet, then at Hiroki, who was breathing hard while standing over the captured Shoji.
The monitor room was dead silent when we returned. Even Bakugo was uncharacteristically quiet, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the replay of the Refraction.
"That... that was incredible, Kazama!" Hiroki clapped me on the shoulder as we walked back to our spots. "Shoji almost had me for a second there. That guy's a beast."
"He's really strong," I said, looking at the screen. "You did well to stay calm and use his own pull against him. Good job on the capture, Hiroki."
"WELL DONE YOUNG TAKERU-KUN, HIROKI-KUN," Allmight said,. "YOU CONDUCTED A PERFECT COUNTER-OPERATION IN SYNC, AND HIROKI-SAN SHOWED EXCELLENT ADAPTIBILITY IN A CLOSE-QUATERS STRUGGLE. A FLAWLESS TEAM VICTORY."
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A/N
So how do you like the chapter?
I wanted to complete the two big matches in this chapter and the other three matches will be mentioned in the next chapter.
Show some support, if you like this fic write a review and comments.
And throw some POWERSTONES.