Gato raised both hands toward me, and I felt the air temperature spike.
WHOOOOSH
Heat radiated outward in a visible wave, distorting the air.
I threw myself sideways, pulling Shouko with me. The heat wave washed over where we'd been standing, intense enough that I felt it sear through my coat.
Heat-based quirk that spreads outward from hands in a cone.
Gato's hands dropped, and he took a shuddering breath. That must be his recovery time; his quirk needed a cooldown between uses.
Thirty-second minimum based on breathing pattern, maybe less if he pushes it.
FWIP
Sato vanished. One second, he was five meters away. Then, he appeared directly in front of me, hand reaching for my throat.
CRACK-SHHHHHH
I created an ice wall quickly.
THUNK
His hand slammed into the barrier.
He stumbled back, eyes unfocused, body swaying. Unsteady on his feet for three seconds before he recovered.
Short-range teleportation, based on the distance covered, with a three-second disorientation window after activation.
"Shouko, behind me!" I shouted.
She moved quickly, positioning herself at my back where I could protect her.
I had seconds before they coordinated their next attack, so I quickly created ten ice clones around me.
Both brothers stopped, staring at the sudden multiplication.
"That's new," Sato muttered, eyes wide.
"Rush them!" Gaku called from his safe distance. "They're just ice! Break through and get to the real targets!"
But the clones were already moving.
Three rushed toward Gato, spreading out to attack from multiple angles, and another three toward Sato, coordinating their approach. Four surrounded Shouko and me as a protective barrier, ice bodies forming a wall.
Gato raised his hands, but my clones split apart before he could aim. They dodged left and right, then closed in from both sides while he was still recovering from the heat wave.
One clone grabbed his right arm, another his left with Ice spreading from the contact points, freezing his sleeves, creeping toward exposed skin.
Gato swore and wrenched free, but a third clone was already sweeping his legs. He stumbled, off-balance, arms windmilling.
Sato teleported, appearing behind the clones attacking Gato, but the three clones assigned to him had been waiting for exactly that move. They turned as one, moving as one, and grabbed him during his three-second disorientation window.
Two pinned his arms behind his back. The third pressed a hand flat against his chest, and ice spread across his torso, binding him in place, rooting his feet to the frozen ground.
Teleportation is predictable once you know the pattern, especially when it's short-range.
"Shouko," I said quietly, not taking my eyes off the fight. "Can you smell them? Track their movements with your quirk?"
"Yeah. Sato smells like cigarettes and motor oil, a really strong scent, bitter. Gato uses cheap cologne, kind of sweet and flowery. What do you need me to do?"
"Tell me when they're about to attack. Before they actually move, your nose picks up adrenaline spikes, right? Muscle tension? Chemical changes in their sweat before they commit to an action?"
"I... I think so. Never tried to use it like that during a fight, always just used it to find things like tracking people from a distance."
"Try now, this is important."
She took a deep breath, concentrating, filtering through the myriad of scents.
FWOOOOOM
Gato pressed both hands flat against his own chest. Heat radiated outward, more intense this time.
HISSSSSS
The ice on his arms melted instantly, water streaming down. The clone gripping him jerked back, its hand damaged where the extreme heat had touched.
CRACK-SHHHHH
But the clone's hand reformed almost immediately.
Clones regenerate minor damage automatically, as long as there's cold air, they repair themselves.
FWIP
Sato broke free by teleporting again. He appeared three meters away, stumbling badly from consecutive uses, causing stacking disorientation, but clear of the ice binding his legs.
"Left side!" Shouko shouted suddenly, "Sato's adrenaline just spiked hard! He's about to—"
FWIP
Sato teleported to my left, exactly as she predicted.
CRACK-SHHHHHH
But I was already forming an ice wall at that exact position, responding to her warning.
CRUNCH
He materialized face-first into solid ice. The impact was brutal, with his nose crunching and blood spraying across the surface.
THUD
He hit the ground hard, completely dazed, hands going to his face.
Shouko's quirk gives us perfect prediction. She can smell intent before action, and combined with clone numbers, we have an overwhelming advantage.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK
My three clones swarmed him before he could recover. They created ice around his legs, thick bars of ice that formed like prison cells, binding them together. More ice spread across his arms, pinning them to his sides with more across his chest and back. Within seconds, he was completely immobilized in a cocoon of ice, only his head free.
"One down," I said.
Gato saw him trapped and changed tactics completely. Instead of fighting defensively, trying to conserve energy, he went full-on aggressive.
THUD-THUD-THUD
He charged straight at me, boots pounding frozen ground, ignoring the clones, trying to end the fight quickly before I could trap him too.
"Incoming!" Shouko warned, voice tight. "Heat building in his chest, he's about to use his quirk at close range!"
FWOOOOOM
He released a heat wave mid-charge, point-blank range.
HISSSSSS
It scattered three of my clones, their ice bodies steaming violently, but not melting, as it wasn't enough sustained heat to actually destroy them, but he'd created a gap in their formation, and rushed through it, heading straight for me and Shouko with his hands outstretched to grab.
But that was a big mistake as the three scattered clones reformed instantly and attacked from behind.
One tackled his legs, bringing him down hard onto the frozen ground.
Another landed on his back, pinning him with his weight, with the third grabbing his right arm and putting it behind him in a hold.
Gato heated himself again, trying to melt the ice holding him down. Steam started rising from his body, but I quickly reacted, creating ice that formed like cage bars trapping his body. More Ice bound his hands separately, pulling them apart and preventing him from pressing both palms together to generate heat.
"Let go!" he roared, thrashing against the ice prison. "You think this will hold me? I'll melt through it! I'll burn my way out!"
"Then I'll make more," I said calmly.
And I did, every time he melted a section of the ice prison, my clones added more layers faster than he could destroy them. His struggles weakened with the constant use of his heat quirk was draining him rapidly. I could see it in his increasingly ragged breathing and the sweat forming down his face.
"Enough!" Gaku's voice cut through the fight like a knife. "Enough of this pathetic display!"
He started walking toward us slowly with his hands at his sides, looking relaxed.
My ten ice clones immediately formed a defensive wall between him and us.
Gato, still trapped in his ice prison, shouted a warning through gritted teeth. "Boss, don't! The kid's quirk is way stronger than we thought! We need backup, we need to retreat and—"
"Quiet. I've seen enough. Time to show this child what real power looks like."
He stopped five meters from my clone wall.
"Impressive," he said, voice sounding almost friendly. "You're quite talented for someone so young. Genuinely impressive work." He shifted his weight forward slightly, his hands still relaxed. But his eyes were looking for openings in my clone formation.
"The problem with ice," he continued, voice taking on an almost educational tone, "is that it's just frozen water. Apply enough heat, enough energy, and it returns to liquid. Simple thermodynamics, basic physics that any middle schooler understands."
He took one deliberate step forward. My clones tensed collectively, ready to rush him.
"But there are other ways to destroy ice," he said, taking another step. "Faster ways, more permanent ways."
Another step. Four meters now.
"Ways that don't require slowly melting it. Ways that simply... erase it from existence."
He reached out with both hands toward the nearest clone, moving with sudden explosive speed.
The clone tried to dodge, but Gaku was faster than his casual posture had suggested. F
His hands clamped onto the clone's chest, one palm on each side with a firm grip.
Contact established with both hands simultaneously. The clone struggled violently, trying to break free. Three more clones rushed at Gaku, grabbing his arms, pulling at his shoulders, trying to force him to release.
They tried desperately to pull him away from the trapped clone, but Gaku held firm despite their efforts, veins starting to come out of his neck. But Gaku held on through the assault, fighting against three ice clones trying to break his grip, holding position through sheer strength and will.
Five seconds passed, and then the clone erupted into flames, and the entire ice burst into fire and burned completely in the span of a single heartbeat.
HISSSSSSS
Leaving nothing but water vapor and ash floating in the air.
He must have a combustion quirk; it seems to take five seconds to activate, and you need to use both hands. Anything he touches burns completely.
The implications were terrifying. Five seconds to kill anything he could grab and hold, and he'd just proven he could hold a target for five full seconds even while being actively attacked by three opponents.
The three clones holding Gaku's arms tried to pull back and tried to create distance, but he was already reaching for them with both hands spread wide.
SHHHHHHHH
I dissolved all my clones instantly before he could ignite more. Now it was just me standing between him and Shouko.
Gaku smiled, "Smart of you pulling them back before I could burn them all", he chuckled.
I created ice walls between us, to buy us some time and was his energy.
Gaku walked calmly up to the first wall and pressed both hands flat against its surface.
FWOOOOOM
The wall exploded into flames, burning away completely, leaving a scorched gap.
He stepped through and kept walking, not even winded.
"Shouko, move back!" I created walls directly around her, forming a protective maze of ice barriers, giving her escape routes. "Get to the street! Find your friends! Call the police!"
She hesitated, torn between helping and surviving.
"Go! Now! That's an order!"
She ran, navigating through the ice maze I was creating in real-time, walls forming and shifting to shield her escape from every angle.
Gaku cursed and started after her, but I created more walls in his path. He had to stop and burn each one but he was adapting. Instead of burning walls completely, he started just melting handholds through them, pushing through the gaps, conserving time and effort, and he was getting closer to Shouko with each wall he bypassed.
I reformed all my ice clones. "Grab him!" I commanded. "Pin his arms! Don't let him touch anything for five seconds! Interrupt any attempt!"
The clones swarmed Gaku from all sides like a tidal wave. They grabbed his arms, his legs, his coat, pulling in different directions.
Gaku snarled and pressed both hands against the nearest clone's chest. The other clones pulled harder, trying desperately to break his grip before the five-second timer completed.
The clone burned to ash. But the instant it did, two more clones grabbed Gaku's arms and pulled them apart violently, preventing him from touching anything else.
Gaku struggled against the clones holding him, but they were strong. He managed to press both hands against another clone's shoulder, which started his count, but I had different clones pull that clone away before five seconds elapsed.
We entered a strange stalemate. Gaku trying to hold clones long enough to ignite them, my clones preventing him from maintaining contact for five full seconds.
Then a idea popped up in my head, If he needs five seconds of contact to ignite something, what happens if I freeze him solid in less time than that? Remove his ability to move before the timer completes?
I raised my hand and focused on gathering my ripoff kamehamaha. It began to form in my palm. This would drain me significantly, so I only have one shot at pulling this off.
The beam built rapidly, but Gaku saw what I was preparing and tried to move and dodge, but my ten clones held him tightly.
"Don't you dare!" he shouted, genuine fear entering his voice for the first time.
Too late bitch.
FWOOOOOOOOOOM
The beam shot forward like a frozen lance, hitting Gaku square in the chest with tremendous force. Ice spread instantly across his body and freezing his legs together into a solid pillar. Within three seconds, he was encased in thick ice from neck to feet like a frozen statue.
The drain hit me immediately, and my vision started to blur but it had worked.
I dissolved my clones to conserve energy; no point maintaining them now.
Gato was still trapped in his ice prison, lying on the frozen ground. He'd stopped struggling, exhausted from trying to melt free.
"I give up," he said quietly, defeat in his voice. "I surrender. Please. I'm done."
I created more ice around him anyway, reinforcing his prison, layering it thicker.
Sato was still bound from earlier, blood crusted on his face from his broken nose. He'd stopped struggling, too, and just lay there shivering. I encased him the same way I did Gato.
I sat down on it heavily, watching the three trapped men, making sure none of them tried to escape.
Minutes passed, but it felt like hours, then Shouko came running back, phone in her hand.
"Kori! Police are coming! Shoya called them, they're two minutes out!" She stopped, staring at the three men encased in ice. "YES, you got those son of a bitch."
But then she looked at me, and her expression shifted to concern. "You're really pale. Are you okay?"
"Just tired, Ice beam takes a lot out of me, I need to rest."
"Here." She sat down on the frozen ground next to me. "I'll watch them, you rest."
"Can't rest yet, I have to make sure they stay down until the police arrive."
"They're literally frozen in ice, they're not moving."
"Still have to be sure."
She didn't argue and just sat beside me in the snow.
We waited together, watching three murderers trapped in ice, waiting for justice to finally arrive.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
A/N: Me need powerstones to function
700 Powerstones: Incomplete
900 Powerstones: Incomplete
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