Chapter 9: Battles - Teleport Hacks
"How does your quirk work? Like, fully?"
"Right down to business, huh?"
Tsubaraba put his arms behind his head, sighing. Below, his partner was still fiddling with her gloves. Her short, red pigtails framed her round, oversized head, ears pierced with pink hearts hanging down and eyes surrounded by permanent dark marks resembling raccoon eyes or the heavy mascara of a tasteless actor. The markings themselves surrounded a pair of large pink eyes with concentric rings around the iris. Below her neck, the short girl sported a white bowtie and dark-blue reinforced compression top, covered by another heart-shaped breastplate leading down into a battle corset with twin heart belts. On her hands were tough white gloves with large, chunky wrist guards that ended with a thin, frilly cutoff, and her baggy striped pants led down into chunky sneakers. From the corset hung utility pouches on the left and a strap on the right, the occupant of which was a white tommy gun with a pink heart on the barrel and a heart-shaped sight. While it had its panache, the well-considered outfit spoke to careful preparation beforehand - some might say compensation.
"Right… My quirk's Solid Air. It means I can blow chunks of solid air out from my mouth, make shields and platforms, and all that good stuff. But if I use it too much I get a really sore throat! My quirk's more on the defense side, I'd say, so it's probably not the most help here. That's a tactical thing to say, right?"
"I guess I'm the tactician here then." Manami drawled, looking up at the boy. He wore a loose, black low-cut t-shirt over a sky-blue jacket, which was adorned with silver framing and a high, popped collar around his neck. Simple brown utility pants with pockets and combat boots were worn from the waist down, his kneecaps capped with silver guards and pockets lining the pants. On his face was a black mask covering everything above his nose - including his odd, oval-shaped obsidian eyes and pupils up to a shaggy, spiky puff of brown hair that sat atop his head. His face was handsome, boyish in an adventurous way. It was an outfit that was basic, and some might say unambitious, but it communicated his enthusiasm perfectly.
"We've got a major problem then. I can't use this gun without going through licensing and training under an accredited teacher for guns and gun-based support items. And I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly on the larger side."
"I've… noticed." He had indeed. It was hard not to when she was a little taller than his waist level. She rolled her eyes at his discomfort.
"Grow up, 'cause I probably won't. Vestigial mutation, you learn to live with it. Make punching and kicking a bit of a nightmare, though. Well, except for the shins."
"I guess. But hey! You're also too short to punch well, so you can dodge real easy!" He exclaimed, trying to find the brighter side of the situation. Manami looked nonplussed.
"You ever hear people talking about punting some brat kid away with a single kick?" He nodded. "Well, I'm at perfect leg height."
"Yeah, that sucks dude." Tsuabarabe sighed, a chunk of solid air manifesting and disappearing out of habit. "You can still fight dirty though! Literally be a little ankle-biter, amiright?"
She chuckled. "Yeah, probably. We should probably start forming a defensive strategy. I think Kendo-san's quirk is enlarging her hands, but I think I missed the memo on Fuwa-san's."
"Oh, Mawata-san's my friend, that's easy! She can make fog and sense what's in it, and she can teleport wherever her fog is."
Manami hummed thoughtfully, beginning to pace around the starting line as Tsubaraba watched her, intrigued. "Teleportation is a nearly-perfect quirk for breaking into the building, but as a defender I'm not sure how useful it is. She has to emit her fog, right?"
Tsubaraba nodded, remembering earlier. Mawata and Kaminari were getting on Bakugou's nerves after holding a conversation on his left and right side for about ten minutes without any breaks. The more explosive of the two blondes had blown into a rage and tried to sucker-punch Mawata, only for his fist to disappear in a sudden flash of fog and slam directly into Kirishima's instinctually-hardening skin. Recovery Girl was not happy.
"It kinda… wafts outta her skin? Like Midnight's does when she rips off her costume."
"You sure know a lot about Midnight's costume, ya perv."
Tsubaraba scoffed. "C'mon, let's be fair here, she's like one of the hottest-" Suddenly he froze, horror erupting across his rapidly paling face as Manami leered up at the poor boy in a shit-eating grin.
"You forgot she can hear us right now, didn't you?"
"Can I borrow your Tommy gun? I think I'd rather see God than Midnight after this."
"Oh please, it won't be God you're seeing."
Tsubaraba chuckled lowly. "Yeah, probably. Anyway, I've got a neat idea for a super-cool trap if we can get them into a room, without windows. I can seal up the door with like, five layers of solid air and we can just wait out the timer.
"Sounds workable!" Manami nodded, staring up at the taller brown-haired boy. Tsubaraba studied her for a second before a question he couldn't believe he'd forgotten to ask came to the forefront of his mind. "Hey, I, uh, forgot to ask. What even is your quirk? I don't think you've used it or brought it up. 'Cuz, if you've got some sort of firepower besides that gun, I think we're gonna need it."
The short redhead stilled, sweating nervously. One of her gloved hands idly clenched at the fabric peeking out from behind her breastplate. Tsubaraba idly noted that her hands and feet were a bit larger than average, same as her head, making for an odd effect when combined with the rest of her body. 'Sorta like that frog girl.'
"I… I can't use it. At all. Like, not in the slightest." The woman he'd put on the spot shuffled uncomfortably as a few pieces slotted together in his head. He may not have been the brightest bulb in the shed, but even he could tell she did not want to talk about it anymore. So, he shrugged nonchalantly, shoving his hands into his baby-blue jacket.
"Aah, what can ya do. I mean, it's not the end of the world, right? Guess even Aizawa-sensei let you not use it, and he's way more 'logical' than anyone else here." He watched as she relaxed substantially.
"Don't let Intelli-san catch you saying that." Manami warned, but by her tone it was plainly obvious she was joking.
"Or Bakugou-kun!" Tsubaraba played along. "He's number one at everything, including logicalness, goddamnit! Fuck!"
"Damn, is that what he really sounds like?"
Tsubaraba shook his head, holding his arms up. "Nah, not really."
For a moment, the two said nothing, continuing their walk up to the bomb room.
"He usually swears way more."
The two chuckled at that. Idly, through one of the security cameras, Tsubaraba could feel an enraged glare sizzling the fringes of his spiky hair, but he ignored it.
"Okay, okay, enough talking smack." Manami decided. "Let's get serious. I think the best chance we have of stopping them is taking them by surprise, like Intelli-san did before. You were gonna use your air to box them in, right? How strong is it, exactly?"
Her partner raised a hand, wavering it slightly. "It's ehhh? It depends, I have to sort of 'commit' to it if I want to get it really hard. If I don't blow super hard, or with enough energy, it can get pretty soft, but there's just about enough there to get the job done. You'd probably be able to stand on one of those, but I don't think I'd be able to do it for two people."
Manami gave him a disgusted look. "Wow, I am so glad Midnight-sensei isn't here right now."
"Hey, you said we were getting serious!"
"Getting serious , not for mature audiences only . And, let's be understanding ." She held up one finger, like a lecturer about to outline their entire thesis. "You gave me an incredibly good opening. Fair's fair."
Tsubaraba grumbled at the truth in her words. "You're annoying."
"I get that a lot." She snarked back. "Okay, look. Here's how we're gonna go about this? Your power is super quiet and I'm super, uh, super tiny. We can sneak around pretty well, especially when the other two don't have any good quirks for stealth or listening or whatever. We sneak in as close as we can get to the bomb, and if we find them in a room that's not the bomb we seal them in. If not… throw up a wall and we both run like hell."
"Ah, a classic bumrush." Tsubaraba crossed his arms in satisfaction. "Well, half of planning is like improv anyhow, right? See, I'm being strategical again. So winging it is kind of the smart option."
The disgruntled girl fiddled with her gun, utterly unimpressed. "It's not our smart option, it's our only option. I saw Kendo-san during the assessment and she totally crushed the grip strength tester. If she grabbed me she'd pop me like a grape."
" Ewww . You're sure you can't use the gun? 'Cuz if you're allowed to you could just pop 'em from the window and be done with it. Like, if I had a gun on me and we were being attacked I'd be really tempted to use it, y'know"
"Are you a psychopath?"
"I'm just saying, man!"
Ishiyama-sensei's voice crackled in both of their earpieces. "I'd like to remind the both of you that no , you may not shoot your classmates."
"Nuts." The psychopath pounded a fist into his open palm, before coming to a sudden realization. He turned towards his shorter partner-in-crime. "Hey, I just had a thought."
"New one for you."
"Shut up. I just had a thought and you're gonna love me when I say it." Imperceptibly, she flinched at the word, a hundred bad memories flashing through her mind at once. She shook her head, dispelling the thoughts. "Okay, so you can't use your gun. As in, you're not allowed to fire it at anyone… but did they say anything about pointing it at someone?"
"That's… a good point!" She brightened up, checking her magazine. "And since I'm not licensed yet, they didn't give me any ammo! The magazine's empty! I can point this at whoever I want, no risk!"
"Right??? You can make 'em think you're gonna totally pump 'em full of lead!"
She held up the gun with both hands, propping its stock over her shoulder and miming a cuban cigar in her mouth. "We's gotta coupla' villains around, huh? Tell ya' what. I ain't gonna lay a finger on youse. I'll even send youse home with a partin' gift. Ain't I a saint? How'dya like yourself… some precious metals! " She erupted into a cacophony of gunfire sounds, Tsubaraba doubling over himself laughing at the impression.
"Mm. Not a good sign, and even they've realized it." Shouji crossed his six arms across his broad chest, frowning beneath his mask. "I usually have it in me to root for the underdog but I don't see Tsubaraba-kun and Aiba-san snatching a win from this one."
Shinsou watched tiredly as Manami continued to plan with Tsubaraba. The two were gesturing to each other, clearly determined and excited for the exercise, but there was an undercurrent of desperation there. Insecurity, perhaps, palpable even through the cameras. He needed to be able to suss these kinds of things out and exploit them for his quirk to work, after all. Just what kind of quirk did Aiba-san have? Would it be quirkist to ask if it was a shrinking quirk. She wouldn't have much reason to hide that though. Only the teachers knew. Still, if she couldn't even use her quirk, that was another easy avenue to exploit.
'It's a pity your quirk's so useless you can't even use it…' No, too obvious. 'Must be rough down there. I wonder what your quirk can do to make up for everything else?' Hmm. Needs tweaking. 'How'd you even get into UA with a quirk you can't use? Sneak in under the fence? Makes sense - nobody would've seen you.' There we go. That was a good one.
He frowned again. Was it really so natural to think up insults like that? It was necessary to use Brainwash, of course it came naturally. It was like a reflex, really, and he didn't mean what he could say - nobody should hold it against him. And everyone was a dick about it anyway, so who cares if he was a dick back?!
'Point is, Shinsou…' Midoriya met his eyes with a determined viridian, nothing but compassion - not a hint of judgement. '...we won't judge you for your quirk. We weren't all given the easiest times either.' Some of the others had a little fear - Iida, Tsunotori, Uraraka - but they all gave him smiles nonetheless.'
Oh, right. The group. The gang that'd coalesced around Midoriya and somehow dragged him in. Despite him having the nervous disposition of a weed about to be plucked, he had these odd moments of charisma - helped that he was very attractive in that soft-faced way with a solid musculature coiling around his arms and defining his chest through his hero suit, terrible though it was. Though the hero course in general seemed to be full of hot guys. Midoriya, Shouji, Kaminari… Not the point.
Midoriya was all shaky smiles where he was snark and insults. Perhaps that was it. Midoriya was genuine and he was not. Midoriya was authentically cool, authentically dorky, authentically shy, and authentically a hero. Shinsou relied on tricks and on cruelty.
His train of thought was interrupted by Pony tapping his shoulder, standing a little over him with her blonde hair almost draping down in golden waves. "Who do you think will be getting a victory, [Hitoshi] ? I think the hero team will not be doing so hot. D-Did I say wrong?"
"You said it fine, Tsunotori-san" Shouji assured, the girl beaming back up at him with a sunny smile. "Though you should probably stick to last-names, for formality."
" [Oh, phooey to that!]" She exclaimed. "I am not a, um… [how do you say?] Battle thinker? But the hero team does not have any attackers! And the villain team has one! So it is like it's a bit unbalanced, right?"
"Guess so." Shinsou observed. "Teleportation is really useful but it's not like it helps her hit harder or anything. The hero team is sort of outclassed. Bad quirk matchup."
"T-that's not true!"
'Ah ', Shinsou thought. ' Here comes Midoriya with the steel chair the second anyone says anything about any quirk that's not a glowing appraisal.'
Midoriya walked up to the two, stashing a notebook behind his back, a haunted-looking Uraraka and Asui behind the boy confirming he didn't want to ask where it went.
"J-just because a quirk doesn't have any obvious and up-front combat potential doesn't mean it can't be used as an attack! L-like Tsubaraba-kun! Sure, he can't shoot it like Aoyama-kun or anything, but solid air is a v-very versatile quirk! He could leave a wall at head level and bait someone into running into it at full speed! Or he could create tough air bubbles around his hands as boxing gloves! Depending on how far his range is he could blow a chunk of solid air directly into someone's throat and choke them out, or create complex shapes like handcuffs to restrain someone! A full-body cast could freeze them completely, preventing someone from even getting the momentum needed to escape or a-attack back!"
Shinsou glanced back at the screen, where it looked like Tsubaraba was blowing a platform out, though he couldn't see it from the cameras. Manami stepped onto it, seeming to float in the air, and jumped up and down, testing it a few times, before giving Tsubaraba a thumbs-up.
"Looks to me like he can only make them a bit from his mouth, so that's a no-go."
"I-I mean, he still could if… if…"
"If he caught them with a real sloppy lip-lock, Izu-kun?"
Midoriya squeaked and whipped around, to Toga's fanged grin, stretching itself up to her cheeks before she seemed to catch herself, lips tightening at the edges, closing into a pleasant smile instead. "Honestly, Izu-kun. Such a dirty battle strategy, are you sure you're not taking notes from Miss Midnight?"
"I-I-I mean… If I needed to save someone from a villain, and…"
Toga decisively stepped closer to Midoriya again, Shouji and Tsunotori watching with barely-hidden amusement as she gingerly grabbed his respirator with one hand and his hood with the other, peeling his mask open like a delectable treat to reveal a blushing red centre.
"Oh?" Toga breathed deeply, hot breaths washing over Midoriya's face and heating it further. Shinsou tilted his head slightly to catch Uraraka and Tsuyu both glaring at the blonde's moves, Uraraka also blushing slightly.
"So brave, you're so brave, Izu-kun…" She sighed again, running both arms on either side of his neck and brining his face closer to hers. "Such a hero… that if you needed to catch a villain, you'd just hold her close …" He gulped, feeling conscious of the way his lips rubbed together and his adam's apple bobbed. She hummed appreciatively, sharp eyes lidding at him in adoration. " And then you'd… you'd … oh, what was it again?"
"[Give 'em a big 'ol kiss!]" Pony cheered, Midoriya suddenly jolting out of his trance and backing away as Toga snickered at him.
"You're too easy, Izu-kun! Mega -cute." She booped his nose, vocalizing the sound, and skipped back to Komori's side, who was also snickering under her bangs.
"You gotta put a cap on it, Midoroya-kun! Next you'll be telling me to choke people with my shrooms!"
"I-I-I mean it is workable as an attack if you can get them to inhale the spores and-" Midorya stammered out, desperately trying to regain his previous composure and momentum, only for Komori to stomp it dead without mercy.
"Are you into choking, shroom?"
He sputtered again, struggling for words, before noticing her trying to hide her evil grin behind her heavy bangs, giving her a glare. He swept his gaze over the other four, all of whom were also chickling. Even Iida was holding back a curt chuckle, despite his distaste for 'hanky-panky'.
"O-Oh, c'mon, why is it always me?"
"You're kinda fun to tease, Izuku! You start [putterin'] like an old [tractor!]"
"I-, hey. Um, I've been meaning to ask, Tsunotori-san. Why do you call everyone by their first names?"
Shinsou rolled his eyes at the clear diversion, Midoriya steadfastly ignoring him.
"Oh! Should I not?" Tsunotori jumped on her hooves, doe-eyes curious. "I know it is formal speaking here in Japan to use the last names and [honorifics] but back in America we all use first names, so it is making more sense to me! Plus, it's also just good ol'[Texan hospitality] ! Um, Treating people friendly from where I live! Plus also, don't friends use each others' first names?" She blinked at the rest of the group, inquisitive.
Uraraka walked up and patted the horse girl on the shoulder. "You're too adorable, Tsunotori-san. It kinda varies person to person. I'm okay with both, but it's a little weird when we've all known each other for a day, even if it's great to be friends with all of you!"
Tsuyu joined her. "I'd prefer my first name straight-up though, kero. I'd like to be friends with everyone as well, so that's kind of my way of showing it."
Shinsou nodded. "And I prefer my last. I don't know any of you guys, really, even if you're alright with my quirk and stuff."
"We figured, kero." Tsuyu smiled wryly as he shot her an annoyed look.
"Yeah, you're all dark and [broody] ! Like that classic comic hero, [Batman!] " Pony exclaimed excitedly. Midoriya perked up at her words as well, walking right up to her.
"The quirkless caped crusader? I love that series!"
"Oh, you too! [Nice!] I love the issue where…"
Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Toga all shared bored looks as the two descended into nerd rambling about some comic none of them had even heard of, as their souls left through their eyes.
"At least he sounds nice when he mutters…" Uraraka mumbled.
"What was that, kero?"
"A-ah! Um! Nothing!!! "
"Man! Our first hero exercise! How cool is this?" Kendo shouted, a bright smile on her face as she stretched, hands touching her toes with ease and letting out a small grunt. "Pity All Might had to go, but he is number one. Probably has a tight schedule!"
Fitting her excitement, the ginger girl was the picture of the eager hero student. Around her neck to her waist draped a teal qipao with golden accents, sleeveless and interrupted only in the middle by an armoured black corset protecting her organs and a brown belt beneath that. The qipao cut off shortly beneath the waist, revealing an extraordinary amount of toned leg and the ends of her sport shorts, and on her feet she wore heavy black combat boots. Her ginger hair clumped up around her face in large chunks, framing a classic black domino mask over her eyes.
"It's gotta be tiring." The pinkette beside her drawled. At Kendo's insistence, the two were doing pre-battle warmup stretches to pass the time. They'd figured that the best place to put the bomb would be on the fifth floor. Mawata disagreed, reminding Kendo her friend could just blow air platforms to create stairs up to any window, but with a wily grin Kendo had retorted that all quirks had their limits. "Let him climb with his platforms" , she had said. "He'll literally be wasting his breath!" And so the top floor it was. Perhaps not the most original strategy by any means, but it made enough sense to Mawata. She felt tired just doing all that thinking.
Mawata wore a white fuzzy buttoned top that hid body armour underneath, sleeveless and with a high collar. Her arms trailed down to almost full-length black gloves exposing only her shoulders at one end and her fingers on the other, and around her waist was a simple utility belt and a pair of baggy white combat pants in the style of tobi trousers. Completing the look were two massive, fluffy, white pom-poms dangling down from her ears, replacing her regular and much more reasonably-sized fare. Her straight-cut bangs were parted unevenly, bunching up and tapering out in odd angles around the back of her neck. She was, in a word, chill.
Finishing the last of their stretches, they recommuned. "Phew! Okay, planning time." Kendo exclaimed, walking up to her partner. "My quirk's called Big Fist. It lets me, well, make my fists big! Strong, too!"
"How strong?" Mawata inquired, hands in pockets. Kendo made a thoughtful noise, before pointing at the wall beside her, where the bomb had been placed. "See that wall?"
"Yeah?"
"I could punch through a couple of those before it gets bad, and even then mostly just for all the scrapes and cuts! Quirk doctor says they become tougher when they get big too! Also says if I keep at it I can make them even stronger!"
"Sweet. I can teleport things wherever my fog is, which comes outta me, but it takes a bit of energy to do it." She held a palm up and released a puff of smoke to demonstrate. "I can also make loads of the stuff no issue, but it kinda fades away after a bit. I feel everything in every bit of it. So I don't teleport into someone and split 'em in two, y'know."
"You can do that???"
"Nah, I'm kidding." Mawata laughed to herself. "I tried it with my pet cat when I was a dumb little kid and it just gave me a hell of a headache. Wouldn't recommend. Probably my quirk keepin' me safe, or else I'd lose my legs or fuse with the cat or something."
"I'm kinda happy my quirk is just big hands now," Kendo admitted. "The complicated quirks have a lot of utility but they're also a huge pain to deal with, huh?"
"Yeah. And feeling everything in those clouds is a doozy… Really makes you want a nap. Represent , Aizawa-sensei." Mawata grinned. "So, what's the plan, boss-babe? You seem like the planner kind of gal and I mean, I can think fast in a fight but big plans? Grand strategy? Really not my speed." Turning her dark, half-lidded eyes to Kendo, she was taken aback at the sight of the girl thinking carefully, the wheels in her head almost audibly spinning as she got to work sussing out the details.
"We don't know Aiba-san's quirk, but Aizawa-sensei said she wouldn't be able to use it in the tests so we probably don't have to worry about it." Kendo began. "Tsubaraba's solid air will be our biggest issue. We need to stick close to the bomb in case they come from any angle. Ideally, we fight them away from the bomb so if we get trapped temporarily they can't just rush it. I'm pretty confident I can smash through his air walls if it comes to it, so I'll focus on him and you support me."
"Works for me! Not sure I could add anything to it, I'm kinda dumb and all."
Kendo tutted. "That's not true."
Mawata shrugged. "I mean, hey? Near-bottom in the entrance exam, written and practical. I couldn't really take out that many robots."
Kendo frowned. "Don't say that!" She chastised, crossing her arms at the woman across from her. "You made it into UA, didn't you? Best hero university in the nation? And you've gotta work a super-hard teleport quirk! That seems way harder than some big hands or super-strength or anything else. You're smarter than you give yourself credit for!" She put her hands on the stunned girl's shoulders, an intense gaze in her eyes - disapproval and determination. Disapproval of her self-deprecatory comments, and a challenge - 'prove me right.'
Taken aback, Mawata opened her mouth but no words came out. After a moment, she conceded to the ginger girl's logic. "I guess. But, I mean, that doesn't help that much when it comes to quizzes and classes and whatever. I'm only good at physics…"
Kendo's reply was instantaneous, instinctual. "Study with me then! I can tutor you! I got pretty high in the exam, though I'm not like, top five or anything, but I used to tutor people all the time in middle and high school. I can help you with math and English and literature and all of that! Just don't ask me for help in art history." He capped off her offer with a chuckle.
"We have art history?"
"Yup. Midnight-sensei teaches it!"
"Damn, should've read the syllabus." Mawata idly popped her lips for a few moments, contemplative, before turning languidly to Kendo. "Alright then, Kendo-san, I'm in your hands. Get it?"
Kendo scoffed in mock abrasiveness. "Heard it. Glad to hear it, though. Hey, why do you hang around that Bakugou guy anyway?"
She shrugged in response, lackadaisical. "Dunno. Mostly hang out with Kaminari-kun and Sero-kun to be honest. Setsuna-chan too. Really, it's Kirishima-kun that hangs around Bakugou-kun. I don't get it but whatever floats his boat, I guess? Plus, he's pretty strong. If I wanna be a good hero, training with him could help, even if it seems really hard."
"You're a really relaxed person, huh, Fuwa-san?"
"That's me. I mean, I also stress and stuff, but that's tiring too. I can be tired and also excited, I think. I hate hard work but, I mean, gotta do it, right?"
"Right. Say, any interest in sparring with me sometime? I'd like to have some practice with a teleporting opponent. I mean, warp quirks are super rare so the chance I gotta face off against one is a million to one but it wouldn't hurt!"
Mawata raised an eyebrow behind a pink bang. "Isn't this just your boxing club thing again?"
The ponytailed girl shrugged guiltily. "Mayyybe. By now it's more of an all-purpose sparring club of sorts. Not everyone's a boxer so we forced Shoda-kun to drop the name."
Sighing, the pinkette shoved her arms into her pockets. "Fine, sure, you're gonna help me with math and all that, I guess I can get in the ring here and there so you can beat me up."
"That's the spirit!"
They giggled together, settling together before an idea struck Kendo's mind. "Hey Fuwa-san… their biggest advantage would be the element of surprise, right?"
"Um… yeah, I guess."
"Didn't you say you could sense things that touch your fog?"
As the buzzer rang out, Tsubaraba walked leisurely towards the door of the building and pushed it open, stretching his back with pops and cracks. Manami jogged up beside him.
"Woah, woah! We can totally use some air platforms to go up a window! Why are we using the stairs?"
He snorted. "Sucker's move. It's a literal waste of breath. When I was a kid I made a ton to make a big block fort in the sky and ran out of breath and broke my leg trying to get down 'cuz my throat was too sore to make it down safely."
She sighed, following after him as the pair scaled the steps through the stairway. Nothing but silence pervaded. Silence and, faintly detectable above the smell of cold concrete, what smelled like freshly boiled water, with a hint of ozone. She looked down. Small clumps of mist pervaded on the floor, thin and transparent. It rode up to around her shoe height. The atmosphere was serene.
"This has gotta be her fog, right..? She must be nearby."
Tsubaraba scoffed. "She's a teleporter. Does nearby even matter?"
"But it's thin, and low to the ground. And… do you know any restrictions on her teleportation?"
Tsubaraba scratched his chin. "I don't think we've talked a bunch about it. She mighta mentioned it takes her energy but I dunno how much. Um… restrictions, restrictions… hmm. I think she needs to cover something completely to teleport it?
His partner nodded resolutely. "That makes sense. So we don't have to worry about her ambushing us from these tiny clouds. And if she tried it'd still be two on one."
Tsubaraba grinned. "Yeah! Oh, now that you mention it, I think I saw her try teleporting the grip tester during Aizawa's tests, but man that did not work out, haha!"
Manami froze in place. Her head c r e a k e d slowly to face the boy beside her.
"She… teleported the grip tester?"
"Umm, yeah?" Tsubaraba scratched his spiky hair. "It didn't work? Why is that important?"
She held in a deep breath, then released, before looking him dead on with a spiraled glare. "Tsubaraba. Fellow hero. Fellow partner in our first exercise who withheld vital information."
"What?"
"You only said she can teleport herself. If she can teleport the grip tester, she can teleport other things. And if she can teleport other things then-"
She cut herself off as she heard a sound deafening in the otherwise silent halls they stalked.
CRACK
Slowly, Tsubaraba and Manami's heads turned as one to the open door beside them, where a much larger and considerably and denser cloud of thick white fog sat in the corner. Manami looked downwards, at the thin mist she'd stepped into.
'Oh, Mawata-san's my friend, that's easy! She can make fog and sense what's in it, and she can teleport wherever her fog is.'
'We don't have to worry about her ambushing us from these tiny clouds. And if she tried it'd still be two on one.'
Ginger hair became visible through the mist as a grinning Kendo appeared, fog clinging to her and wafting off. Behind her, Manami walked through as well. Tsubaraba's eyes flicked down to Kendo's fist, which sat with her other palm curled around it.
She cracked her knuckles again. Manami gulped.
"Homeslice gonna get BTFO'ed in a hot siggy. I am NOT feeling it for him, bro is cooked."
Shoda nervously looked back over his shoulder at Camie, who was lounging on what looked like a deck chair made of thick green vines, interwoven and all connected to Shiozaki's hair.
"I guess?" He replied, unable to parse her dense slanguage. She threw a peace sign in response.
'Am I normal ? Or is this just what all hero students are like?' He pondered fruitlessly.
He was dragged out of his thoughts by Juzo, who'd approached the trio. "Shiozaki-san? Why are you making a deck chair for Utsushimi-san?"
Shiozaki blushed in embarrassment, not able to meet anyone's eyes. "...Technically, it's a lawn chair…"
"Mm," Juzo nodded. "Cool. Okay, why are you making a lawn chair for Utsushimi-san?"
After a suspiciously long moment of silence, she shifted on her feet and responded again. "I'd really rather not say."
"I mean, sure, but people are sorta giving you looks."
"G-Goodness, are they?" She glanced up again, flincing at Juzo and Shoda's combined gazes. Sighing, she relented. "I was victim to… a bet."
Shoda blinked. "A bet?"
"It is unimaginable, I know. Sinful though it was, I am forced to admit that I have engaged in… speculation. I suppose this is my karmic reward for my betrayal of faith."
"What was the bet?" Juzo prodded.
"...I'd really rather not say."
Camie snickered. "Barbar here yapped for a scoch 'bout her vines bein' able to make, like, literally any shape, and I was like 'not on your lizzife!' and she went 'bet' , and I went 'nuh-uh ', and she was like 'yuh huh! ' and I was like 'bet!' and told her to whip me up an epc lawn chair to rest my booty on and she did."
Juzo licked his teeth as he digested that torrent of… words. He turned back to Shiozaki, disbelieving. "You actually fell for that?"
Shiozaki slumped further. "I had befallen to the sin of pride as well."
"Why don't you just disassemble the chair now?" Asked Shoda.
"She has also bet I wouldn't be able to keep her aloft."
The two boys stared at the proud woman before them, reduced to the role of improvised seating. "You know you're still falling for the trick, right?"
"Yes."
"You don't need to keep holding her up like that."
"I'm aware."
"Then why don't you?"
She glanced away again, not meeting anyone's eyes as Camie's gleamed mischievously. The religious girl muttered something inaudible.
"What was that?" Shoda asked.
"Then I would be conceding that I cannot in fact hold her aloft."
The boys blinked at her, and when she spoke no further they turned and left to find others to talk to. Some people were just beyond help.
Tsubaraba pursed his lips, forcing all the air out of his lungs and blowing, a solid chunk of air forming to block the doorway completely. Kendo walked forward with an analytical look now, test-tapping against it a few times.
"Aiba-san… RUN!"
The hero team turned and booked it back down the hall to the stairwell. They had no plan except to get higher, to get away from the other team, to hopefully leave them in the dust - maybe even trapped in that room - and find the bomb as soon as possible. They'd just made some solid ground when-
SMASH!
Skidding to a stop, the pair turned around. Shiny, translucent pieces of solid air dropped onto the floor in shards as Kendo marched out with a massively enlarged fist.
"C'mon, dude! Run, run, run!" Tsubaraba gasped.
"It's - huff - not my fault that - huff - my legs are too short to keep up!" She yelled back at him, legs blurring with speed just to match his pace. He considered his options for a moment before grabbing her under his arm.
"You're - shit - heavier than you look!"
The angry little redhead in his arms glared back up at him. "Hey, fuck you! I'm like twenty-five kilos!"
"That's twenty-five more than I was carrying before! Look, just - wait, is that an emergency stairwell?"
He skidded to a stop, turning to see Kendo in hit pursuit, hands stretched out at her sides like she was about to carve them through the air like a swimmer - Tsubaraba was not smart enough to know what sort of fighting stance it was and not adventurous enough to find out.
"An emergency stairwell?" From his arms, Manami looked up at a fast-release handle akin to a fire escape door, a placard above it depicting Dean Nedzu running through a door in white and red - EMERGENCY STAIRWELL , it read.
"Like a secret passage." She mumbled. Craning her head back, she took a look at Kendo. She was… smiling? Where was Fuwa-san?
"Hang on." She furrowed her brow.
"Nope, no time to waste!" Tsubaraba declared, throwing the door open.
And immediately being drowned by a torrent of dense fog spilling out from the tiny space.
Manami and Tsubaraba felt their stomachs lurch as the world spun around them, vertigo hitting them full-force with the strength of a hundred rollercoasters before immediately receding as if they'd never had it, instincts screaming at them to take deep breaths of air even as their bodies told them they didn't need to.
The fog around them cleared, and they were back in the room they'd tried to trap the villain team in. Manami smiled tiredly at them.
"Pretty cool right? You two wanna give up? It'll be - yawn - way easier for me. Also it's like de-escalation or something, very heroic."
"You're the villain team!" Tsubaraba shouted.
"They're training to be heroes as well." Manami deadpanned.
"Oh, right."
Suddenly, the rapid padding of footsteps approached the group, Kendo skidding into place alongside Mawata and settling into a martial-arts stance, defensive. The two of them blocked the door, their only way out.
"We can wait here all day, and my defense is impenetrable. Your move, Tsubaraba-kun."
He gave her a cocky smirk and raised an eyebrow, glancing up at the doorway. It was tall and wide, and while the pair of them covered its entire width, there was quite a lot of space above them - probably enough that even Josei could wak through.
"Damn, that sucks! If only we'd predicted you'd defend yourself. Aiba-san, remember what you said? It's time! SKYWALK !"
He shot another breath out from his cheek and bent down, hands put together as the much smaller girl dashed forward. As her boot landed on his palms he boosted her into the sky, solid air coalescing under her as she reached the peak of her arc, forming a long, thin platform above Manami and Kendo's heads. She sprinted across it, grabbing the edge as she reached it and flipping around to dig her feet into Mawata's back, sending her sprawling. Kendo turned around, reading a punch that would have her seeing stars.
"Don't take your eyes off me! AIR PRISON !"
Three concurrent puffs of air, each deeper than the last. A multi-layered cube of air appeared around Kendo before she could react, and when she tried to move her arms she found them wedged to her sides.
"Shit, do they name all their moves? Fuwa-san, get me out of here!"
"Only the cool ones! And all my moves are cool!" Tsubaraba answered. Mawata glanced around frantically, flooding the doorway with more gas again as Manami hesitantly backed away. None of the fog permeated the air cube at all.
"I can't, it's sealed tight!"
Kendo strained against the tight cube, unable to properly enlarge or get a good swing of her arms, instead relegated to squatting down and pushing to her sides with all her might. Slowly, sluggishly, at a painful pace, the air began to stretch and creak as microscopic seams and cracks started to burst along it. With a crack a solid rupture split along one of the sides, and she threw herself against it. The second layer broke.
A thought occurred to Tsubaraba. The air cube and the fog around it obscured the enemy team completely, and within Mawata's fog she was queen - she could sense anything, all people and movements. But that didn't mean she could see through her fog. And, lucky for him, he wasn't touching any fog. He gingerly, silently, took his coat off.
Mawata felt a sudden movement toward her and teleported it to her other side, feeling a little energy drain from her as her eyelids drooped more, spinning around to meet the threat before recognition kicked in. 'A coat?'
A split second's hesitation was all it took as a stunning haymaker was delivered onto the back of her head, throwing her against the wall and sending her head spinning as the fog dissipated. Tsubaraba rebalanced himself, wringing his hand.
"Man, that hurt. You got a thick skull or something?"
CRACK
The final seam in a set of three broke across the surface of the triple-layered air cube. A sense of urgency dawned on Mawata and she forced herself back up, slamming her palm against the rupture and forcing as much fog as she could through before her legs were knocked out from under her with a sliding kick from Manami. She tried to teleport Kendo to no avail.
"Get me out, Fuwa-san! The stairwell!"
"I can't, it's too thin now!"
Mawata raised an arm to force more fog out, fighting exhaustion, when she felt the hard edge of a gun's barrel between her eyes. Lying on the ground, the diminutive Manami stood above her, white tommy-gun pointed directly at her with a mean grin colouring her face.
"A hint of fog and you're seeing Jesus."
Time stood still for a moment as Mawata held her breath, terrified. Tsubaraba held his breath, too, albeit moreso because he was pleading in his head for the gambit to work.
"Surrender." Manami pressed.
Manami gulped, throat bobbing.
"Fuwa-san, it's a bluff! If they really could use that gun they would've done it already!"
Manami sneered. "Wanna test me?"
For a moment, the pink-haired girl and the red-headed girl's eyes met, tired gray meeting spiraling pink. No sounds but their laboured breathing.
An explosion of fog erupted from Mawata's arms, coating the hall walls beside her as Manami threw herself back, avoiding it like lava.
" FUCK! They didn't fall for it! Run!"
"Run where? She can teleport !"
"Oh, you wanna stay and fight?"
"Like running helped us sooo much before!"
Nemuri shifted on her heels - yes, they were heels, thank you very much, and they made her legs look fucking smoking. Heels for heroes were… controversial, but this particular recent release of Detnerat's was a lifesaver - the heel collapsed into the flexible sole, able to shift into something more akin to a pair of sneakers or flats at a moment's notice. Supposedly the design was originally created for transformation-types with variable foot shapes before it was modified for the wider market, the ability to change between flash and substance. Let it never be said that Midnight didn't have function, flair, and a nice derriere.
Ishiyama leaned towards her. "They're quite remarkable for the first lesson, aren't they?" The two stood side by side, perusing smaller observational screens before them as the students around them were captivated by the far larger display screens.
She shushed him. " Quieter . Some of them have hearing quirks. They are, but don't bloat their egos or Aizawa'll have our heads off for it. Not my idea of giving head if you ask me."
"You're incorrigible." He brusquely replied. The fully-grown woman beside him snickered behind a manicured hand. He rolled his beady eyes.
"You're meant to be teaching me modern lit, not them." She joked again. "But yeah, especially compared to last year… shockingly good crop."
"Anything would be compared to last year." He reminded himself of that sad excuse for a cohort, where Aizawa had expelled an entire homeroom. Vlad King was complaining about it for ages. Rumour was that Vlad was still parading about the teachers' lounges drunk on victory now that Aizawa, Kayama, and he were saddled with forty. He wouldn't know, the three of them hadn't had a break in eons. The amount of reworking lesson plans they'd had to do to accommodate the class's exorbitant size provided him a rare opportunity to break bread with Aizawa, if only to lament that it was a bold and effective new form of torture levied upon them by The Dean.
Idly, he remembered the list. "By the way, Kayama-san, anybody we should add to or confirm for the watchlist?"
She hummed. "Shuzenji notified me that she overhead Aiba in the infirmary saying some things that basically confirm Nedzu's suspicions. We don't have proof, but it's likely she's the anonymous hacker who the Hero Commission put out a notice for. The one who dipped into their servers for five minutes two years ago, remember?"
Ishiyama tutted under his breath. "Hero students these days."
Kayama nodded sagely. "So energetic! Apart from her, I'd keep an eye on Bakugou, Monoma, Kamakiri, Intelli, Todoroki, and Toga. The first couple just don't mesh well with their classmates, they've got coarse personalities. Todoroki in particular is very closed-off, in particular towards his quirk. I don't think he's mentioned he can even manifest fire once."
"Then again, you never know about their backgrounds. He does have that burn scar…perhaps an accident caused by an odd manifestation of his fire? We'd best not presume. And if I recall, during Aizawa's assessment Toga, Shinsou, and Aiba all wished to keep their quirks private too." He rhythmically tapped a tablet idly with his blocky fingers, the touch not registering at all.
"On the subject of Toga, she and Tokage had an odd reaction during their trial, but it wasn't clear what happened on the cameras. Tokage seems well-adjusted, and Toga is quite social as well, but the design of her costume and her skill with a knife is concerning."
Ishiyama glanced towards the girl, who was talking animatedly with Midoriya and Uraraka, Asui standing a little off to the side. "I can see it, but it could just be training. Especially with a non-physical quirk, it makes sense she'd train before UA with a weapon."
Midnight grimaced. "You haven't been in the underground scene like I and Aizawa have. Those kinds of movements… they aren't trained in a dojo, or self-taught. I've seen their type before, in Crawler, in Stendhal. My guess? Vigilantism."
Ishiyama frowned. "A serious accusation for a hero student."
Kayama shrugged. "It's happened before for students here, a couple of times. Usually they restrain themselves once they're in the Hero Course. If not… that'll be my job."
Ishiyama sighed. "I just don't like making a list of all the… 'problem children' in the class. It feels dirty. We're profiling them before their first days are up."
She barked a laugh at him. "Suck it up, we've got tons of extra work already! 'Sides, you can blame Aiba for letting Nedzu catch wind of what she did. Bad luck for her and for us."
"Could be worse." He countered. "She could've been caught by the Commission itself. She's lucky Nedzu despises them, there isn't a chance he'd, well…rat her out. I suppose we can be thankful for the little things in life."
"I'm more a fan of the big things!~ "
Ishiyama sighed. "I'll bring up those changes with Aizawa later then."
He swept his gaze over the class once more, seeing little groupings of students chatting, watching the footage, in the case of Kirishima arm-wrestling… "They're quite a diverse bunch, aren't they? You get all sorts. I admit, it's been a while since I've taught homeroom for any hero class. I hope the hairline fractures you see don't become full ruptures."
"We'll be there to rein them in." She cooly replied. "Aizawa's been on patrol a lot more recently. I've been seeing Nighteye and Tsukachi a lot more too. They all agree that things are moving in the criminal underground. By the time all these kids graduate, they'd better be ready for what's coming, whatever it is."
"They're all adults. I think they'll do fine."
"Oboro was an adult too. He still died far too young."
Ishiyama let the moment rest, unwilling to speak and break the tense silence. Kayama stood silently. She spoke again. "I couldn't help but wonder why exactly All Might wanted to teach here. Then, he showed us his limit. He's going to have to retire soon." She turned to him with a serious, hard look. "Aizawa and I both agree. As soon as he's gone, it'll be a shitshow, no two ways about it. A complete orgy of criminal misdemeanor the likes of which hasn't been seen in decades."
"I can't remember a life without All Might around," he agreed. "I don't think most people can. I don't think they want to. A world without the symbol of peace? It's a world without peace."
"A world without a symbol," Kayama reminded him. "There isn't peace now."
Ishiyama shrugged his chunky, blocky shoulders. "But there is calm."
"Not for long, and all the more reason to keep the kiddies safe. And hey, we've got that list. Maybe it'll help keep 'em in line if they start getting frisky with each other or the law."
"Sexualizing everything, I'll never understand you."
She gave him a coy smile. "You know, they say people fear what they don't understand… And they also say when some people get scared they get horny~ "
If Ishiyama could slam his head against something without worrying about chipping it, he would.
Tiredly leaning against the cracked air cube, Mawata studied her opposition. Manami had by now discarded her useless gun - dead weight - and stood behind Tsubaraba. Kendo walked out of the fog around her, stretching and cracking her joints. She sauntered forward with a determined frown.
Tsubaraba threw up another air wall. Kendo's arm inflated to three times its size, the girl clearly so practiced the sudden change in weight didn't throw her off; in fact, she leaned into its weight, swinging her arm around and pivoting on her leg.
SMASH!
It shattered into pieces instantly. Cowering behind him, Manami spoke with a shaking voice: "T-t-throw up another one! Quick!"
"I-"
He had to time to respond as Kendo darted forward, ducking under a hurried swing of his left arm before easily slapping aside his right, twisting it and holding his wrist in a vice grip. He swung his left back again, and she grabbed it as well, forcing it into her other hand, now-enlarged. His arms were now trapped together, wrists bound.
"W-what are you doing?"
"Making sure you can't block."
A ferocious CHOP met his neck, burning and throbbing as he sputtered and choked on his own spit. Kendo tossed his unresisting body at the short girl behind him, who threw herself aside to avoid getting crushed. Impressively, the brunette boy stood up again, rubbing his wounded throat, tears leaking from his eyes.
"I gotta say, I'm impressed you're getting up again since I can tell you're not a fighter."
"Ohhhfuckkk- huff- and you- hurk! -are?"
"Dojo-trained!" Kendo replied with perfect pearly whites, and never in his life did Tsubaraba want to make someone taste their own teeth more than that moment. She flexed an arm, the qipao showing off rippling, corded muscle from her shoulder to her forearm. "So, got any tricks left or just gonna run?"
"Running sounds fine! " He rasped, bolting away again, grabbing around the waist Manami and booking it to the end of the hall.
"Fog incoming!" His luggage yelled, and as he ran with his back to the enemy he pushed air out, stretching his neck back and making wall after wall after wall, his neck burning in agony. The fog outpaced the first, second, third - stopped on the fourth! - before Kendo charged forward at full speed and rammed it with her shoulder, without her quirk , the wall splitting cleanly in two.
"Shit! Forget the bomb! Use the tape!" Manami wriggled out of his grasp, landing low on the floor and rushing into the fog towards Kendo, who tensed her leg, ready to kick. Manami realized too late, horror dawning on her face, but before she could change course her leg sprung out like a trap and with a THWOCK she received a blow to the nose that was entirely shin, blood gushing out like a faucet.
"Oh shit! You alright?" Kendo squatted down concernedly, the exhausted Mawata behind her giving the short girl a sympathetic frown as well. Tsubaraba, previously split between helping his partner or making a break for it, took the window of opportunity while Kendo's guard was down to rush through the fog toward her.
As it turns out, the window of opportunity was never open. In a split second her leg darted out as she transitioned seamlessly from her squat to a low stance, Tsubaraba's legs flying out from underneath him as he fell forward right past her, catching himself with his arms. His impressive save was rewarded promptly by a chop to the back of his head, throwing him on the ground again. She wrapped the capture tape around him.
"Tsubaraba is out of the exercise." Cementoss stated over the PA system. Kendo turned her head as the low pitter-patter of Manami's running was heard, drops of blood on the ground leading away before being obscured by thick clouds of white.
"Hey, Fuwa-san? Y'know how they've been using named attacks? We should come up with a finishing move of our own." Kendo stood up, dusting herself off and stretching an arm back.
Mawata nodded, better rested than before. "One -yawn - more for the road then."
Manami dashed through the thick fog as she heard Kendo's voice echoing off the walls around her: "Combination move : Clothesline Express!"
The fog shifted around her once again and the ground disappeared beneath her feet, though not before Kendo's arm appeared suddenly. Manami ran full blast, face-first into her extended arm, nose throbbing in pain as it endured another beating, momentum carrying her forth as she fell on her back, knocking the breath out of her and forcing her to taste her own blood and phlegm.
Finally fully exhausted, Mawata slipped down the wall and onto the ground, a snore ripping itself out of her throat. The only one not lying on the ground squatted down next to Manami again, wrapping capture tape around her arm.
"You two should really get some martial arts training. How's your nose?"
" Hurdsch ."
"Aiba is out of the exercise. Villain team wins!"
'
"Excellent showing, you two! There's a lot to learn from matches like these. Regardless of who we choose as the MVP I believe we can say for certain that the Hero Team punched above its weight class. Anything to add, Kayama-san?"
"Just to capitalize on opportunities you're given rather than waiting for a plan to pan out, and to build a good rapport with your teammates to make sure you're working in sync. Both teams tried to split their opponents up, and when Kendo and Fuwa separated Tsubaraba and Aiba towards the end, the Hero Team's plans fell apart and they were beaten. Remember - in a battle, any small slip-up could mean losing dominance ~"
Tsubaraba and Manami didn't look particularly amused by that last joke, Manami holding a rapidly darkening scrap of cloth provided by Kendo up to her nose and Tsubaraba generally looking miserable, every part of his body aching from the beating he'd been given.
Kendo, by contrast, looked unperturbed, exertion barely visible - though this was probably more due to the still-snoring Mawata she held in a palm of a hand, depositing the sleepy woman into a stretcher to be delivered to the medbay.
"Cab ah go see Recubbereh Ger bow?"
"Of course, dear. Sit on the robot, it'll take you there," Midnight replied kindly. Manami and Tsubaraba walked over to a waiting robot equipped with seats and the stretcher Mawata slept on, the small girl having to take a large step to climb onto it, and the three of them were off, leaving only Kendo remaining.
Midnight redirected everyone's attention back to her with a crack of her flogger, posing dramatically. "Right then! Enough dallying about, we don't have all day! MVP, go! And remember… wrong answers may get you punished … and right answers rewarded …"
Cementoss clipped her on the back of the head, eliciting an annoyed yelp. "I can't believe I'm younger than you, you're more immature than the students." As she rubbed her head, glaring from behind her mask, her turned back to the assembled students. "Alright then. Would anybody like to guess who the MVP of this match is? New people this time."
Josei raised a hand hesitantly. "U-um! I think it'd have to be the hero team, even if they lost… Or, I guess Tsubaraba-kun specifically? His team was at a disadvantage and he still fought really hard… even Kendo-san was impressed by it! He kept trapping the enemy team and trying new things, and using new moves, and-and-um… yeah."
Cementoss nodded. "All good points, if a bit lacking in specificity. If you want to get a little extra practice in, think of these MVP-selecting exercises as something like a field debrief or after-action report. Would anybody else like to nominate someone?"
Pony hopped up on her hooves, the tall girl's hair bouncing as she excitedly waved for attention. "I think it was [Mawata] ! Her quirk was what let them choose where the bat-bateru- [choose the terms of engagement] ! She teleported [Itsuka] around and sensed where they were, and they never even got close to the bomb! And she was a great teammate and she broke [Itsuka] out of the air square thing!"
Kamakiri scoffed. "It was clearly Kendo. She beat the shit outta both of them and they couldn't land a single hit on her except try that cowardly box trap and she got out easy."
"I would land on Kendo as well, though not just for her combat ability," Cementoss agreed. "While she was able to subdue the two Hero Team members, before that had happened she displayed the qualities of a good leader. She understood her teammate well, intuiting that the sensory aspect of her quirk would allow her to detect the enemy team, and when face-to-face they worked in concert to effectively defeat the heroes, despite some setbacks."
Midnight nodded sagely. "You have to be on the same page. There's no safewords in a fight!"
A few students blushed at that, but Cementoss ignored her. "She was also mindful to understand her teammate's limits, and in the final confrontation picked up the majority of the slack and let Fuwa rest due to quirk-induced exhaustion. While I'd deduct points for relying on her teammate's abilities so heavily early on that she wasn't able to participate too much by the end of it, it's still a good score overall, and it netted them the victory."
Strutting over with her high heels clacking against the floor, Midnight lifted the tablet. "Wise words, Ishiyama. But now, what you've all been waiting for! Bam, money shot!" She pointed at the randomly scrolling numbers and portraits before four settled in groups of two.
KUROIRO SHIHAI AND SHOUJI MEZO - HEROES, VS. YANAGI REIKO AND TOKOYAMI FUMIKAGE - VILLAINS.
Kuroiro chuckled darkly. "Well, well, well. It appears we've been fated to clash, and with a kiss to fate's hand I welcome the opportunity to duel the both of you and exit victorious."
Yanagi frowned, pulling up her black facemask. "Not so. Your defeat is inevitable, for your heart is an impure well of blackness. Perhaps you'll learn when you suffer at our hand.
Tokoyami crossed his arms, standing at her side with a frustrated look. "Indeed. I may chafe at the prospect of working with a poser, but nonetheless your destiny is one of consignment to your imminent consumption by the darkest shadows of the night - us villains!"
Shouji drew a suffering breath. "This is going to be painful," he remarked.
Dark Shadow popped out from beneath Tokoyami's cloak. "You said it, flesh brother."