Chapter Twenty-Two
(Eijiro Kirishima)
After my partner rocketed out of the room, I didn't immediately follow.
Not because I didn't want to fight.
But because I knew—and this was the better strategic call—that I should stay with the bomb.
In the end,this was a team battle of two, not one.
If I left this room,it would open a clear path for someone to slip in, disable the bomb, and guarantee our loss.
Maybe the reason I stayed was exactly that.
In the end, I sighed.
Haaah.
A minute later, I could hear the explosions from the other side.
The mock building we were in had four stories.We were on the third floor.
I could easily feel the nearby battle was taking place on the second floor,maybe a short distance away from the central staircase.
"Go get 'em, man! Show 'em your manly spirit!"
I cheered on my teammate from afar while listening to the sounds of explosions, imagining the scenes.
Maybe I wasn't there,but I wasn't stupid.
Since the sounds of explosions were present,it meant (Bakugo) was still fighting.
Furthermore,I knew our opponents weren't the type to rely on brute force. They relied on intelligence.
But at the same time,I knew my teammate's intelligence wasn't lacking.
He was one of the smartest people in the class,at least grade-wise.
That's what I believed.
But soon, time ticked by.
And then,suddenly, the explosions that had been happening over there… stopped.
I knew my teammate.
He was the angriest person in the universe.
It was impossible for him to stop using his explosions unless he wasforced to.
(Could it be… that he lost?)
It was a possibility I had imagined, but I rejected it.
(Bakugo)had immense skill and power.
We'd only been here for two weeks,but even so, I knew the guy had more than enough to not be stopped in such a short timeframe.
Even if he had been beaten,it should have taken much longer.
Of course, (Kirishima) didn't know that (Suzuki) had been planning and possessed several strategies to defeat everyone in the class, thanks to his foreknowledge.
If he had known,he definitely would have reconsidered that conclusion.
---
After finishing his internal assessment, (Kirishima) looked at the bomb he was supposed to protect.
It was a comically large,cartoonish prop in the center of the otherwise empty room.
He confirmed no one had come from the room's rear door.
The room had two doors:one in front (where he expected trouble) and one in the back.
So,he positioned himself in the middle, his eyes darting between both points.
He was ready to harden at any moment and fight if someone entered.
But at that same moment, he heard a sound approaching from the other side.
From the front door.
He looked toward it.
The sound grew closer with each passing second.
Thud… Thud… Scuff.
The red-haired boy's heart wasn't pounding from fear.
It was from focus,excitement, and the desire to fight.
He wanted to prove he was the unbreakable shield,capable of protecting anyone.
This specific mission,right now, was to protect this bomb.
And he would do that,no matter what.
Of course, it only took a few minutes before the sound arrived right outside.
The door swung open with a softcreak.
The figure that entered was simple.
A boy with spiky blond hair and sharp red eyes.
My own eyes lit up in an instant.
"Hey! Is that you? Did you beat them?"
I asked my teammate.
He…didn't answer.
He just stood there,silent.
But his usual expression—the permanently angry,scowling mask—was still in place.
So,I started to feel relieved.
I saw him nod at me calmly after looking at me.
He didn't say anything.
But I felt something was off.
Shouldn't he be pumped up,happy after defeating someone?
But he seemed completely uninterested.
He even glanced at the bomb again before looking back at me,staring with a peculiar, contemplative expression.
"Is there a problem, buddy?"
I asked him, gesturing as if to ask if something had happened down there.
But he didn't answer.
He was silent.It looked like he was thinking about something.
Finally,he spoke to me in a strange way. It definitely wasn't his usual tone.
"Your Quirk is really remarkable, (Kirishima)."
After saying this, I saw him pull out something that looked like a capsule and toss it toward me.
A reflexive action I didn't even know I possessed kicked in.
I dodged away from that capsule.
It burst suddenly in mid-air.
PFFFT!
Not with smoke, but with a searing, blinding LIGHT.
It flooded my vision directly.
I was looking right at it.
The light was so intensely bright,I had no choice but to slam my eyes shut.
Screw!
The moment I closed my eyes, I heard a sound coming from below.
All of this happened within a single second.
But for a weird reason, I remembered what he had said to me a second ago.
"Your Quirk is really remarkable, (Kirishima)."
I'd heard that line before.
Wasn't that exactly what(Suzuki) had said to me during training?
But how would(Bakugo) know that line?
And why would he say it to me at this moment?
These questions cascaded in my mind, but there was no time for answers.
Before I could process them,I felt the floor beneath my feet become… brittle.
I heard a sound—an explosion.
In that split second,I thought the sound came from (Bakugo).
But it turned out it came fromunderneath.
KABOOM-CRUMBLE!
The floor directly beneath me shattered.
My eyes were still tightly shut from the flashbang,so I had no way to see, to react, to avoid.
I felt the world drop out from under me.
CRASH!
---
In the Observation Room with Class 1-A and All Might
They had all been watching the scene from the beginning.
The'arrival' of (Bakugo) had left them utterly dumbfounded.
(Kaminari Denki), the guy with the electric Quirk and yellow hair, was staring, slack-jawed.
"Wait, what? Didn't he just get knocked out? How is he here?"
He wasn't the only one. The entire class was in a similar state of shock.
They all stared at the screen,utterly confused, their questions practically visible in the air.
"Wasn't (Bakugo) defeated? Why is he there?"
They were seriously questioning it for a second.
But (Izuku Midoriya) wasn't among the confused.
He knew(Bakugo) too well.
The moment he saw the figure on screen,he knew.
The person in front of(Kirishima) wasn't him.
He said quietly, almost to himself, but his muttering habit carried his words to the others.
"It's that method. The one (Suzuki)-san used again. It seems he's using it to transform and take on Kacchan's appearance."
His notebook was open, his pen flying across the page as he scribbled conclusions at lightning speed.
"A holographic disguise. He's using Kacchan's form as a cover to lower (Kirishima)-kun's guard. (Suzuki) is now approaching (Kirishima) under a false identity."
This rapid-fire analysis reached the entire class in less than a minute.
They understood what was happening.
But then, the fake (Katsuki) started doing strange things.
First,he walked toward the bomb, not saying a single word while (Kirishima) on the screen tried to talk to him.
In the end,he seemed to press a button on his wrist—an action unclear to them (and to anyone, thanks to the hologram overlay).
Then,suddenly, he threw a capsule at (Kirishima).
Class 1-A recognized this capsule. It was the same type used earlier to release the smoke screen.
But unlike the previous scene,everyone in the observation room was also forced to shut their eyes.
Because the capsule suddenly erupted,releasing a flash of light so brilliant it whited out their monitors and flooded the dim observation room.
FZZZT-BLAM!(over the speakers)
They all flinched, throwing up hands to shield their eyes.
"Gah! My eyes!"
"What was that?!"
Not just them, but (Kirishima) too had shut his eyes.
They saw the redhead instinctively harden his skin in a flash—Crk-crkk—to protect himself.
But unfortunately,the floor beneath him exploded.
By the time the light died down on their screens,(Kirishima) had fallen through the hole, tumbling down to the second floor with a heavy THUD-WUMPH.
Thanks to his hardening, he wasn't badly hurt. He felt some pain, shook it off, and got back to his feet almost immediately.
He looked up through the new hole in the ceiling,his expression one of stunned betrayal.
There, standing at the edge of the hole, looking down at him, was (Suzuki Saito).
No hologram.Just him, in his gear, with a small, composed smile.
"Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win in that location."
After saying this, he seemed to look off to another direction.
This made(Kirishima), who was staring up at (Suzuki), shift his gaze.
Suddenly, he found a girl with long black hair and beautiful dark eyes also looking up at him from a different spot on the second floor.
(Momo Yaoyorozu).
She smiled and said,pleasantly:
"Well, the plan has been executed. It seems we've won."
At that same moment, up on the third floor, (Suzuki) had already reached the bomb.
He placed a hand on its cartoonish surface.
Tap.
In that moment, a computerized voice blared through the building's PA system and the observation room speakers.
"THE BOMB HAS BEEN SECURED. THE FIRST TEST IS OVER. THE WINNERS: THE HERO TEAM—(SUZUKI SAITO) AND (MOMO YAOYOROZU)."
Silence.
Then,a collective, slow release of held breath from the observation room.
They had just witnessed a masterclass in tactical deception,misdirection, and teamwork.
The Quirkless student and the Creation prodigy had not only beaten the explosive powerhouse but also outmaneuvered the unbreakable shield,securing a flawless victory.
(Eijiro Kirishima) stood in the rubble on the second floor, looking up at the hole, then over at (Momo), his hardened skin softening back to normal.
A wide,genuine, if slightly rueful, grin spread across his face.
"Man… that was so unmanly of me to fall for that. But… that was also seriously cool."
He had been tricked, outsmarted, and defeated.
But he couldn't even bring himself to be mad.
He'd just seen something incredible.
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End of Chapter.
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A Note from the Victorious (and Slightly Smug) Tacticians:
VICTORY! Through holographic trickery, flashbang distractions, pre-planned demolitions, and perfect coordination, Suzuki and Momo have clinched a stunning win! Bakugo is napping in a hallway, Kirishima is standing in a pile of rubble, and the bomb is secure.
The floor is yours for commentary! What was the most brilliant part of the final strategy? How do you think a conscious Bakugo will react to seeing a recording of his likeness being used to trick his teammate? Is Kirishima now Suzuki's biggest fan? And what does this mean for Suzuki's reputation in Class 1-A? Share your thoughts, praise, and predictions for the fallout below!