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Chapter 14: Camp Fire Villains.
🕑 Added 2024-02-06 15:05:45 +0000 UTCHello, hello. We're back with another chapter, and one that I'm happy to say will be far more polished than the rest, and that is because for the first time in almost a year, I FINALLY for Grammarly premium working for me, you have no idea how hard it was to get the billing thing sorted out. Still, now that I have, I plan to fully use it.
Also, as I neglected to put this in for my early readers, Midoriya's nickname that Tokage gave him has a meaning, much like Deku. Simply put, Hebimi(蛇実) translates to 'Snake Berry'. I would go with something else, like strawberry, which seemed to fit. Still, all the translations I could find sounded like Ichigo, who was already referred to as strawberry in his series, so I had to change things up.
Now, with this chapter, I won't say much, but I had a blast writing it. There won't be another one next week as I'm working on another project. It won't have set release dates, as I already have my entire week booked with those, but I will try to release somewhat regularly. Once it's out, I'll announce as much on my Twitter and would appreciate it if you could check it out.
Chapter 14: Camp Fire Villains.
Looking over the floor plans they had been given, Tetsutetsu felt that the place had too many rooms, as just one floor had at least a dozen of them. “Damn, this floor plan isn’t as easy as the movies make it seem.” Would they have to check all of them?
"I wouldn't be surprised if this is the dumbed-down one for first years, so I would advise you to get used to it," Kuroiro replied, getting a groan from his teammate.
“Oh man,” He hoped that he got used to being this, but something was missing with this, even if he felt like an ass for bringing it up. "But with this class, Midnight seems pretty cool, but I kinda wish we got All Might."
Kuroiro shrugged, as he wasn't nearly as bummed about that as the others. Quite the opposite, as Midnight might have been more of a headline hero, she also made ample use of deception and other such trickery. "This may work out better for me; I'm not the type for the squeaky-clean spotlight."
“You don’t say,” Tetsutetsu replied, raising an eyebrow as he suspected the guy would be like that. However, that only led to another issue: their foes. “Hey, you know anything about them? Midoriya seems like a hard worker, so he could try and charge us.”
"Maybe, but that could be what he expects from us since you're here," Kuroiro replied, as with it being only the second day, they knew little about each other outside the most obvious. He doubted that Midoriya would use tricks, but they were tasked to be villains, so he wouldn't put it past the two. "Conversely, we don't know what his quirk can do." That was another issue.
"That's true, and his gear didn't even give much away, but we know he can increase his speed and strength with that steam. And that Tsunotori has those horns she can fire and control." He said something about transforming yesterday, didn't he? But transform into what? The best he could guess was he had become a human kettle or sentient steam or something.
"Not to mention ride, though I fail to see how that would help her in a closed space like this; perhaps she'll use it to carry Midoriya or us since we saw one of her horns is strong enough to support her body weight." Kuroiro tapped his finger on his chin. He wasn't sure of the force they could be fired at, but he was pretty confident they could escape if she tried to force them back. He also saw how she nearly instantly regrew that yesterday, so they'll need to worry about the volume of them rather than their individual power.
“So, it's a close-ranged fighter and mid-ranged support? Okay, that means they don't have the means to find us then." Tetsutetsu stated.
"The same can't be said for us. So how about you sneak? It'll blend with the shadows. That's why you can draw their attention while I look for the bomb." That seemed like a simple enough approach; there were bound to be plenty of shadows in the building, and he could approach this in many ways.
“Won’t they notice you not being there? I mean, they saw your quirk in action yesterday.” Tetsutetsu asked.
"Even if they do, it's not like they can see me while in shadows," Kuroiro replied, though that meant he couldn't enter through a different route. As if they only say Tetsutetsu, they'll immediately be on high alert, and with too many unknowns, he preferred not to take any chances.
“Seems simply enough, alright, let’s do this!” As Tetsutetsu cheered, they all heard Midnight's voice through the many speakers hidden in the area.
“Alright, boys and girls. Let's start the first battle trials with Team C as the villains and Team F as the heroes! Remember, you have 10 minutes. If the heroes can't defeat the villains or secure the bomb by then, villains win!” The two boys fist-pumped before they walked towards the building but avoided the main entrance as while they didn't see anything while they waited, it would be too obvious a route for them to take; instead, Tetsutetsu and Kuroiro walked to the side where they found some dumpsters, one of which was under a 2nd-floor window.
Getting on top, it was easy for Tetsutetsu to help Kuroiro reach the window, which he silently opened before climbing inside. Once done, he helped his teammate into the building. “Alright, we’re in.” Looking around, they saw that the interior differed from the exterior as the walls were featureless panelling, possibly reinformed, or maybe that was just what buildings looked like when not painted over.
"We're starting from the top going down; odds are they didn't set up any traps up there." Kuroiro quietly stated to his teammate; the white-haired boy nodded as they started to move, cautiously looking around every corner while Kuroiro checked rooms behind him, turning into a shadow and going through the cracks between it and the door. The rest of the class and Midnight watched them as they went, the woman stating that they had a solid enough approach as they got deeper in.
A couple minutes later, they had roughly finished checking the 3rd floor but found neither the bomb nor the villains, which made them a little anxious as they could have been on the ground level or at the very top. "Maybe we'll find the bomb before they find us." Tetsutetsu hoped, as they didn’t have much time to mess around, only for him to pick up a weird smell as he turned the corner.
"What the" He looked at the stairs that led up to the 4th floor and saw that black smoke was flowing down them, slowly filling the area.
“Is that smoke?” Kuroiro asked. “Where’s it coming from?”
"I bet that Midoriya is the culprit," Tetsutetsu replied, as unless Tsunotori’s horns were flammable, they couldn’t have been the cause of this. "What is he burning to make all this smoke?" Wasn’t his quirk steam or something?
“Only one way to find out, give me a second to slip on passed, then engage him.” Tetsutetsu nodded as Kuroiro faded into the shadows, the smoke helping with this as he went up the stairs after taking a deep breath. Getting up to the 4thfloor, he found the smoke-filled place. Midoriya stood in the centre of it all, billowing out enough of the stuff from his mouth that he might as well have swallowed a campfire.
Koharu secured around his neck. He finished releasing enough smoke to slow them down; with a smile, he wiped the soot away from his lips as his innards regenerated from being used as fuel for the first part of their plan. "That should be enough; no self-respecting villain lair should be without the ominous smoke." Midoriya thought aloud, not knowing he had an audience. Midoriya took a breath, and with as hammy a voice as he could pull, he yelled out.
"I know you're here, heroes, but let it be known that I, Ignis, the tormentor, will not let one of you through. For the gold and princess is mine, mine I say!" He could hear Tsunotori barely holding in her laughter at how corny he sounded; Izuku was the same as it took everything; he had just to keep a somewhat straight face. He continued to make loud declarations that they'd win. Afterwards, they'd use their super weapon to force the world to give them 100 billion dollars.
‘He’s really getting into character.’ Kuroiro thought to himself but tried to move on anyway, not noticing that Koharu spotted him trying. Midoriya jumped towards him, his fist nearly hitting him in his shadow as he pulled back and emerged. “Crap!”
Pulling his fist free from the wall, Midoriya turned to his foe and kept up the act, acting like an evil All Might. "Nice try, hero, but none escape the sight of my trusty minion!" He pat Koharu's head, enough for Kuroiro to realise that he might have fooled the boy, but the snake had seen him trying to sneak through.
“Pretty impressive you trained your animal familiar to track your targets.” Looking around, Kuroiro saw that he needed to buy time for Tetsutetsu to get up here and for some more smoke to dissipate.
Midoriya broke the act at the compliment, bouncing on his heels in joy. "Oh, I didn't train her; she's got that good hunting forest critters and all the vermin in the apartment-I mean," He coughed, a little red to his cheeks as Koharu gave him a look that screamed, 'Are you serious?' “Yes, only the finest may serve Ignis!” Kuroiro saw that the snake rolled her eyes at her master's goofiness but knew she didn't have time to keep playing with them.
Midoriya saw this and moved to block the way forward, as was part of the plan. "I see that you're shadow quirk is weak to my awesome power; what do you say you surrender and become my…my," He hadn't thought of that; what did villains like making their enemies do? Suffer? Die-Serve them, yes! “Butler, yes.” He giggled, though with far less menace than his role required, as he pictured that image in his head.
“Your team might be powerful, but it can’t touch me when I’m one with the dark.” Kuroiro tried to retreat into the shadows, deeper this time to avoid his attacks, but leapt back out, his eyes wide as dinner plates as Midoriya spat a fireball at him, dousing the area in flames.
“Oh, you foolish hero, shadows might dance in the light of flames, but they bow to them all the same.” Somehow, Midoriya’s smile was far more ominous than it had been just a few moments ago, the smoke obscuring most of his other features and highlighting how his emerald eyes seemed to glow like distant suns.
Line Break
Watching this, the class felt that the villains had made good moves in their plans as Midoriya faced off against someone naturally disadvantaged. Throw in the fact he had a snake to spot him where he couldn't like moments prior, and Kuroiro was in a real bind. "I didn't know he was that versatile; he can increase his power with steam, create smoke and use fire?" Komori noted.
Shishida scratched his chin, as while impressive, he felt that there was something more, but then he recalled what Midoriya told him the previous day. "It's not a full transformation yet, so he still has something up his sleeve." That reminder made the situation all the more dire for the hero team. Not only could Midoriya make the path dangerous by flooding the area with smoke, but he still needed to show his true power.
“Either way, he has Kuroiro cornered. He won't be able to escape via shadows when Midoriya is a human flame thrower." Kendo pointed as Kiabara looked towards their teacher, who had kept silent this entire time.
"Quirk question, Midnight, but why is Midoriya allowed his pet?" He asked as the woman hummed.
“He got permission for it from the principal, arguing that they’ll always ways together, including in hero work so it wouldn’t make sense to practice without her.” Truthfully, she felt it was somewhat unorthodox. Still, it wasn't the strangest request a student had been granted by U.A., but there was the mystery of why Nezu seemed almost giddy. He knew something they didn't.
"Tsunotori's on the move," Honenuki noted, drawing their attention to another of the screens.
Line Break
On the 3rd floor, Tetsutetsu saw that the smoke had cleared up, but he hadn't heard anything from his teammate. “Kuroiro, hey, can you hear me? What's going on? Why was Midoriya yelling earlier about money?" He asked again, but only heard a clearer audio of fighting from up the stairs, allowing with what sounded like…fire being used? What the hell, Midoriya, could do that? “Dammit, he must be fighting, I gotta go-!” Before he could react, two horns shot out from around the corner and hooked his shoulders, carrying him to the end of the hallway where they pinned him to the wall.
Jumping out from her cover, the horse girl smiled as their plan to divide and conquer had worked great, as she had used the fight above them as a distraction to sneak up on them. With two more horns ready, she smiled at Tetsutetsu and, following her partner's lead, became a complete Saturday morning cartoon villain. “Sorry, good two-shoes. But you won’t touch our princess bomb.” The only thing missing was a moustache to play with as she spoke.
Breaking the horns pinning him, Tetsutetsu was left confused by her words, princess? What the hell did a princess have to do with this. “What the hell is a princess bomb?” He asked her, but she only laughed at him, sounding like an arrogant princess.
“I won’t fall for tricks, hero.” Tsunotori kept the act up as she reached for her com link. “Midoriya-I mean, Ignis, I have the other one here. We’re on the 3rd floor.” Tetsutetsu heard that and smiled, as that meant he was close. Sure, his partner wasn't here, but that meant he was distracting Midoriya.
“You're too close to the room; don't let him near it," Midoriya replied over her com, the girl able to hear him letting loose fireballs in the interim as the line cut so she could focus on the task at hand.
“Sorry, Tsunotori, but I’m not letting you villains win this!” Tetsutetsu covered himself in steel and rushed her, the girl firing horns at him, but they shattered on impact with the boy laughing at it. "Haha, your horns can't do anything against my steel."
“Tough nuts still crack.” In the volley, two horns broke from the stream and went for his limbs, the one hooking his right and the other his left leg, throwing him off balance with a yelp as she smacked face-first into the floor, the American snickering at his situation, as villain role or not, that was pretty funny. “But good guys can be tripped too!”
Rising his head, he spat out the piece of the floor he accidentally chomped and grinned at her, a little bit angry but eager to win this as this was turning out to be fun. “Oh, you’ve done it now, come here!”
Line Break
On the 4th floor, the area they fought in was covered in emerald blaze, keeping the dark-skinned boy on the defensive as he couldn't jump from shadow to shadow like he liked. It wasn't that the flames didn't cast them, but Midoriya would send another fireball his way almost as soon as he entered them.
As he fought, Midoriya found the experience to be relaxing. Granted, he couldn't risk using flames there were above what he always did as Izuku didn't want to hurt the boy, even if Izuku didn't quite get why burning was terrible, and because he didn't like to damage the building too much as this was meant to be their base. Koharu pointed out their foe through the smoke and fire, and he sent another fireball his way, hearing a quirk curse.
Kuroiro, the boy, found himself cornered and sweating as he barely dodged that last attack, looking around for something to try and escape as he knew that he couldn't Midoriya in such a cramped space. Kuroiro saw that he had landed next to a window, which gave him an idea. He had already heard Midoriya confirm that Tetsutetsu was fighting Tsunotori below and that she was close to a room that neither villain wanted them near.
Standing still, he moved, "Is that all you have, Midoriya? Come on, bring on the heat!" He yelled out through the smoke as he heard Midoriya stomping his foot in anger.
"I told you, I'm Ignis, the tormentor! And you want the heat? Just remember you asked for this." Midoriya replied, though he couldn't see it; what he could see was the giant fireball fired towards him; right when the last shadow retreated the face of the bright flames, he acted. With Midoriya, he waited to hear something but was met with only the crackling of his flames as his brow creased in confusion.
“Where’d he go?” He asked as he walked forward, but he found the spot empty as Koharu offered a suggestion. “No, I didn’t kill him! That flame was far too weak to instantly cremate someone.” He replied as he looked over the place; there was plenty of soot on the floor from the flames, some shadows, but wait!
"The window! But wait, there aren't any shadows here; where could he have gone?" He rushed towards it, but outside, it was bright, with not a single cloud in sight. If he had escaped through this, wouldn't he have had a rough landing? Looking at the entrance, he didn't think it was used, so where-Koharu yelled for him to duck, which he listened to without hesitation.
“I never left-” Looking, he was surprised to find his opponent had snuck up behind him and nearly wrapped his capture tape around him. But how did he do that? Was he hiding in the shadows again? "Bye, Midoriya! I have a bomb to find." Kuroiro smirked as he fell back, right into the soot-covered floor, vanishing as Midoriya was left stunned; he wasn't restricted to shadows but also his soot? Was it just the colour black that mattered, or did any dark materials count?
Again, Koharu yelled at him to figure out his quirk afterthey caught the asshole as he chased after where he thought he went, which was downstairs, to either get to the room or help Tetsutetsu. "Dammit, Ignis, get with the program, you cheating hero!"
“Why would a villain complain about that? You cheat all the time!” Kuroiro asked, speaking from the soot as he jumped out of it and into a shadow over the stairs, dodging the fireball Midoriya sent his way.
Midoriya growled at him, smoke bleeding from his open jaws. “Exactly, that’s my thing. You stick to saving puppies and stand still!” He yelled back as he reached for his com-link. “Bad news, Stallion, the pesky hero I was fighting escaped and is heading towards the room!” Tsunotori said something similar as he chased after Kuroiro, who made excellent of the shadows, dark spots and black lines between the wall panels to jump about, dodging his attacks with a smile as he moved.
‘Dammit, he’s persistent!’ Avoiding another attack, this one larger than the rest, he kept smiling as he could taste victory. ‘But that only means that I’m getting close, good thing too, time is running out.’ Rounding a corner, he saw a single door in the distance; by the other bend, Tetsutetsu slid into view, running for it even as Tsunotori's horns battered and shattered against him.
“Haha, better luck next time, Tsunotori!” He yelled over his shoulder, as he figured out that even if Tetsutetsu could beat her, why waste the time when they were after the bomb, which clearly set her off as she'd been trying to provoke him since he rushed past her.
"Dang it, stay away from there, metal guy!" he yelled at him as he reached the door first, not even bothering to punch or kick; he merely ran through it like a human battering ram, Kuroiro close behind him as the shadow walker landed in a roll, both standing with smiles of victory on their faces…to see an empty room.
“Wait, what the hell? Where’s the bomb?!” Tetsutetsu asked, as there wasn't anything in here as Kuroiro realised what had happened.
“We’ve been had!” He yelled, Tetsutetsu being stunned that they had been duped so easily.
“Yup!” Tsunotori replied, a sound that Kuroiro had gotten used to following as he jumped to the side; Tetsutetsu was too slow and was hit by a fireball in the back, sending him face-first into the dirt. At the same time, another crashed into the sole window, blocking that way out. Stepping into the room, Midoriya and Tsunotori looked incredibly smug about this as he set fire to the entryway, trapping the group inside until the flames either died out, or he stopped them. "Sorry, heroes, but your princess is in another castle!” Tsunotori couldn’t help but laugh as she finally got to say that in a situation that worked!
Seeing the black-skinned boy speechless by their charade, Midoriya giggled into his sleeve, Koharu as smug as he was. “I did tell you, Kuroiro, that we villains are the ones that get to cheat because we're bad guys!" He high-fived Tsunotori as their plan had worked flawlessly. “We didn’t know what to expect, so we played it safe and moved the bomb to the most secure place in the building, but since that would be obvious,” He opened for her as Tsunotori explained the rest.
"We act like it was here, make you not look for a real place." Two of her horns shot out and floated to her sides, ready for round 2, only it would be 2v2 this time. “Now you stuck with us, you going down.”
Growling, Tetsutetsu got up no worse for wear, now more than a little angry that they were played, as they had wasted more than half their time looking for and then battling them. "If it's not here, I'll keep looking in another room!" He ran for the side, getting ready to punch his way through to another room, but Midoriya, like the previous day's 50m and 800m showed, was far faster than him. He intercepted him halfway as Tsunotori aimed her horns towards Kuroiro.
"Oh no, you don't, Koharu, restrain!" Landing a powerful kick to the steel-covered boy's head didn't hurt him as much as he sent him back. It also opened for Koharu to leap from her place on his shoulders towards Tetsutetsu, her body bursting into emerald flames much like its master as it grew till she was a behemoth at 6m of flaming serpent skeleton. Tetsutetsu was caught off guard by this as she wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides as she tightened her hold.
Falling onto his back, he tried to fight her off but found, despite lacking any muscles, that she was stronger than she looked, as it was like trying to fight your way out of the death grip of a constrictor. “What the heck?! Since when could she do this?!” He yelled as his partner couldn't get close enough to help, even though he, too, wished to know what had just happened.
Line Break
“Since when could she do that?!” Tokage yelled, losing her composure as the snake her friend kept became a serpent from hell.
“Hell, if I know!” Kamakiri, like her and the rest, was just as caught off guard by this new development. Shiozaki found herself in a moral conundrum by the sight.
“I flaming serpent, but one that fights for justice…what a contradiction.” She knew snakes weren't inherently evil, merely standing in a living metaphor for it, but that wasn't helped by the fact that the animal burst into what looked like hellfire.
"She's one powerful quirk animal; I can see why they suit one another," Honenuki uttered, his eyes narrowing under his helmet as he wondered about just how rare this sight was as Tetsutetsu continued to struggle against it, but its grip only seemed to tighten.
'No kidding, I can see why Nezu allowed her entry as a 'biological support item'; it's rare to find quirked animals with any meaningful quirk, doubly so one with the intelligence to make use of it and be reasoned with. He must have been eager to see her in action.' Midnight thought to herself, as she could count the number of times she had seen a quirked animal on one hand, and except for her boss, not a single one had been anything more than that, animals with powers they barely knew how to use.
She and the rest continued to watch as Midoriya walked towards his down and restrained foe, pulling his capture tape from one of the pouches hidden in his robes. “I wouldn't struggle too much; you're made of metal, which takes a while to heat up and cool.” She was the only one who could hear him, courtesy of the com-links. Seeing that he was about to be eliminated only made Tetsutetsu double his efforts to escape. Still, it didn't get him anything as Midoriya wrapped part of it around his leg.
Seeing that, she lifted the mic to her lips to make the announcement. “Tetsutetsu has been captured, he’s eliminated!”
Line Break
They heard it loud and clear on the field as Tetsutetsu reluctantly stopped struggling with an angry sigh. With him out of the fight, the still-burning Koharu retreated back to her master, her new size too impractical to ride him; she instead surrounded him, raising her head to face the still-fighting Kuroiro, who saw that he was outnumbered and trapped. “And that leaves us the one,” Midoriya noted, patting Koharu's burning skull with no signs of burns on his skin; why would there be when her flames were his?
“What the hell did I just see?” Kuroiro asked, backing away from them till his back was to the wall, the three watching him with all the menace of villains he used to watch in cartoons. Still, the still-burning surroundings and demon snake made that a bit more terrifying.
“Oh, what do you say, Stallion? Shall I explain our powers to the hero?” Midoriya asked his partner in crime, who made a show of thinking it over, as they could just waste time as it couldn’t have been that much left.
“Maybe,” a pair of her horns on the floor that had gone forgotten by Kuroiro sprung to action and shot towards him from the sides, pinning him to the wall by his shirt. In contrast, she shot out another pair that pinned his shoulder in place. “But we can do that after we get our boatloads of money.” Why waste time when they could end things now.
Midoriya shrugged as Tsunotori approached the pinned hero, her capture time at the end. "Fair enough, now, will you resist soon-to-be butler?" Midoriya asked, with Tsunotori giving him a weird look at that last part while Kuroiro weighed his options and saw he was screwed.
“…No.” he lowered his head as Tsunotori wrapped his wrist, Midnight announcing their win moments later as she turned to her teammate, her eyebrow raised.
“Butler?” Midoriya had the sense to appear flustered by that question as Koharu reverted to her usual self, slithering up his leg back to her rightful spot on his shoulders.
“What, I didn’t have anything else, all right?” He tried to defend himself as Tetsutetsu got up now that things were over. At the same time, Tsunotori retracted her horns, pinning Kuroiro and letting him drop to his feet, where he dusted himself.
"He could ask he is a fighter." She suggested as the four left the room, Midoriya sucking in his flames, blocking the door like there was a quick snack.
“Oh, another minion? That’s better!” Tetsutetsu and Kuroiro shared a look of confusion and slight concern as they weren't sure if the victors remembered that it was an exercise and that neither was gonna serve them.
The quintet hadn't even had time to speak upon their arrival to the monitor room before they were swarmed by their classmates, eager to learn more about what had happened.
"Dude, your quirk lets you spit and eat fire?"
“What the heck was that with the snake?”
“When could she grow like that? Is it part of her quirk?”
Midnight snapped her whip, drawing their attention away from the five crowded students plus the snake. That last one looked ready to bite one of them if they didn't stop getting too close. "Settle down; they can't answer if you talk over them, but for now, let's discuss why was the MVP. Any ideas who?"
Tokage was the first to raise her hand. "It might have been a group effort, and Tsunotori more than carried her weight, but in the end, it was Midoriya as it was his flames and smoke that kept the heroes contained, and his pe-friend," She corrected herself when Koharu sent her a glare. She didn't want to insult the animal that demonstrated it could become an infernal. “That managed to get the jump on Tetsutetsu and increase the pressure on Kuroiro so he would choose to surrender rather than fight on.”
Midnight nodded at that, as she made a good point, but Honenuki raised his hand in objection. "Hold on, I won't deny that Midoriya was an important asset for his team, but he also seemed to forget his role more than once and needed to be reminded by Koharu to get his head back in the game. Also, there is the fact that his quirk damaged the building, which isn't ideal for a villain trying to protect their base." Midoriya couldn't deny that, even though he held back, he did get a little too distracted, which his opponent used against him; if not for Koharu, he would have been the one who got captured. "On the other hand, Tsunotori made ample use of her quirk to follow her role in the plan and kept focused the entire time."
Midnight smiled, pleased she could see a healthy, logical debate between her students so early in the air as she drew attention to herself again. "You're both right, and this is one of the rare cases when both members can be considered MVPs," Koharu hissed, which she laughed off. "Forgive me; all three were considered MVPs." The serpent was pleased, which got some laughs from the students as they never thought they'd see a day like this.
Tsunotori wasn't one of them as she was too busy celebrating their win and performing so well that she came in a 3-way tie for MVP. “Yeah, we all the best.”
Honenuki wasn't finished as he turned to them, or more accurately, to Midoriya and his snake companion. "That still leaves the question of your quirk and Koharu's."
With so much attention on them, he felt a little nervous as he reached for Koharu, petting her as she calmed him down. “Well, what you saw was my quirk, Volcanis. My body can generate large amounts of heat, which can take the form of steam or fire. The smoke is more a by-product of my innards burning away-" He was grabbed by Tokage near the end, the usually collected girl now looking as concerned as one would upon hearing a loved one had cancer.
“Wait, hold on, what is that about your innards burning away?!” She yelled in his face, the rest just as white-faced, with not even Midnight being sparred as she looked at him with worry, which he couldn't comprehend. When he nodded, his fellow green-haired girl let go of him, nearly losing strength in her legs at the implications he just so casually revealed.
“Don’t you have a resistance to your quirk?” Monoma asked as Midoriya returned the look with one of his own. Now, they needed to make more sense.
“Sure I do, else just increasing my temperature could lead to hyperthermia and heat stroke.” Honestly, what was the problem with his quirk? A fire burnt things. That was a commonly known thing. Did they think his body was somehow the exception…Oh…OH! Recalling what he had talked about with his therapist, he tried seeing it from an outside POV and realised why they were so pale. “Oh, you’re concerned about the burning thing.”
"Yes, yes, we are!" Kendo was the one that grabbed him, shaking him so much he started seeing stars, his head resembling a bobblehead.
Through the shaking, his vibrating voice could be heard. "Don't worry about that; it’s part of my quirk. I don't feel a thing…or I do, and I just don't register it as pain; the doctors aren't sure which." Kendo finally let go of him as he took a moment to regain his balance; blinking away the dots, he continued to explain it. “Either way, part of my quirk is a healing factor, so nothing it does me is a real concern; my insides were good as new like a couple minutes into the fight."
Kuroiro recalled seeing him releasing all that smoke and gagged when he realised that it was produced by him setting fire to his insides. He knew there was darkness in the world, and they'd see some messed up things, some of which he was looking forward to, but this was far more than he had expected or wanted.
Yanagi, the girl who already looked like a ghost, more so in her costume, asked another critical question. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but is it the same for Koharu?”
Midoriya looked at his shoulder, where the snake’s head rested as he scratched it. “Her? Yes. Her quirk is called Assimilation, and while it increases her intelligence to what it is now, it allows her to absorb not just my increased body heat, explaining why she's larger than average. Still, it allows her to incorporate my quirk's abilities into her own for a limited time." They had learned that a while back when she had got pissed with a rat, she was tracking and let out a fireball.
He had been lucky he was close by; Izuku had just repaired that storage the week prior, and he didn't want to repeat it after it burned down.
Monoma stepped forward to observe the snake it did him. “So, we have similar quirks?”
"Maybe her limit is that she needs to 'refill' herself, but whatever she has in the tank remains for hours, if not a couple days afterwards. If not used in that time to say, transform like you all saw, it’s used as regular energy by her body.” He didn’t know the specifics of Monoma’s quirk, only Koharu’s.
"So that whole 'hell serpent thing' is something you can do as well," Awase asked, and when he nodded, the boy added to that question. “Dude…you are scary.”
“How am I scary?!” Midoriya looked offended by that question.
“I’m lost.” Tsunotori had only caught bits and pieces of that, enough to know something was seriously wrong.
“Allow me,” Honenuki bent over and whispered the details in her ear in English. While she would generally be pissed to learn he knew her mother tongue and still left her to flounder, she was more focused on whatshe learned rather than the how.
“Midoriya, you scary!” She pointed at him as he turned to her with a comically betrayed look.
"Not you, too!"
"Alright, you can talk about this later; we have a class to continue!" Midnight would need to speak with Nezu and Recovery Girl about what she heard later, as she suspected that the principal knew that little…detail about Midoriya’s quirk beforehand and chose not to share. "The next match will be Team D vs J. D will serve as the villain and J the hero.”
Line Break
And that is, depending on how the editing process goes, this chapter will barely be within or a little over the word limit. There was more to it, but I can see why the anime split the first fight into two episodes, as that wasn't meant to be as chunky as it was, but…well, that was how it turned out as I wrote it out. Onto the fight itself, you can see what I called the chapter the name I did as I wanted it to be a little more fun and have Midoriya and Tsunotori just act like campy villains like Gentle would in this situation, and I'm pretty satisfied with how things turned out.
Again, there won't be a chapter next week as I'm working on another story. I want to maintain my upload schedule by taking time away from work like this and posting late, so I'm postponing the entire week. When it's up, I'll announce as much on my Twitter, the link to which will be below. You can find other info and links from there, which I encourage you to look into. Don't worry; none of the links are viruses, but I can't say more without violating the rules.
