MosesArk Reborn2000
patreon
Chapter 34: Tape and Vines
🕑 Added 2024-08-13 20:02:54 +0000 UTCChapter 34: Tape and Vines
"Man, Bakugo does not hold back," Honenuki noted as the match ended with Bakugo taking the victory, quite easily as he dominated the entire thing.
"It was smart of him not to, can you imagine how pissed Blasty would get if he lost 'cause he went 'Oh, she's a girl." Tokage shrugged, her opinions of Bakugo were still trash, but she was taught not to let that cloud her assessment of someone, and Bakugo was one of the best in their grade, in power, and mindset.
“You mean like she kicks him in the nuts?” Tetsutetsu asked, to which Tokage smacked his shoulder.
"Oh come on, he's a asshole, not a villain." She joked, getting Tetsutetsu and some others to laugh with her. That said, the image of Bakugo, angry and violent Bakugo, having his voice go up several pitches as he cupped his balls after a well-placed strike was still funny as hell.
"Kacchan's never been someone that holds back. Never." Midoriya added, a shiver passing through him in a moment, and then passing, but it was caught by Tokage, along with Monoma and Kendo.
"Let me guess, he believes in equal rights and equal lefts with a side of C4?" Tokage asked him, to which he nodded as he recalled the few times when girls thought Bakugo wouldn’t hit them. It didn’t end well for them. “Well, that’s not bad.”
“Why is that good?” Awase asked as Mina got up and left the field, looking quite pissed even from where they sat.
Tokage grinned over her shoulder at him. “It means then when Shiozaki or Tsunotori are the ones that beat him, he can’t bitch about how he held back and demand a rematch.” Fukidashi and Kuroiro let out barks of laughter at that, Komori giggling into her hand while Kendo merely rolled her eyes, but still smiled while Shiozaki sighed. Tsunotori did not react as the girl had already rushed off to get ready.
“You know, she’s not wrong. Plus it would be pretty funny if he got humbled like that. But maybe by someone from our class.” From the other side of the wall, Kaminari laughed at the image.
"Well, we have the chance to do just that since it's Iida who'll go up against him next." Hagakure gestured towards Iida, who looked back at them, surprised that he was the point of conversation.
"Yup, just one kick to the face and he'll be out like a light," Uraraka added, Koda and Mineta nodding at it. Iida was a little embarrassed, in a good way, about his classmate's faith in him. it helped him after his shameful opening match, but while he appreciated the faith in his abilities, he couldn’t afford to let his ego get too big.
"I doubt that someone as combat proficient as Bakugo would be that easy to strike, nor would they go down from just a single blow. That said, I won't hold back against him, I'll show the world that what Hatsume did to me last round was a fluke created by her abusing my trust!" He stated, with class B being caught off guard by how…wordy Iida could be, seeing that their sister class didn’t even react.
"He's a passionate one," Kaibara commented, with Midoriya nodding as in their brief interactions, Iida had shown himself to be quite loud, in his words and opinions which were deeply rooted in the rules and order.
Midoriya thought about Iida’s chances with this, and while he didn’t know much, he had also seen how he carried himself during the festival so far. It was still unclear how Iida only placed 9th in the obstacle race, but he performed much better in the cavalry battle. But the thing with Iida was that he was a speedster, and while Kacchan wasn't as fast, at least not with his feet, he was much more versatile.
So that left just one clear way for Midoriya to see Iida winning. “Well, Iida doesn’t need to knock him down, just throw him out of bounds. If he builds up enough momentum, he could manage a throw that can overpower his explosions.”
“Dude, how would you know that?” Kaminari asked him, Sato and Tokoyami also being curious about his statement as he was quite confident about it.
Midoriya looked Kaminari’s way. “I’ve known Kacchan since we were little. I was there when his quirk first came in and know it very well.” He had felt it more than once, though it rarely did any real damage thanks to how his body mutated to handle Volcanis.
Iida scratched his chin in thought at that. “Interesting, but what of Bakugo? Wouldn’t he attempt to turn that on me?” Iida asked as he could increase his chances of Bakugo not being able to catch himself in time by moving towards the edge of the ring, but Bakugo wasn't a fool and would surely notice and easily attempt to turn it against him.
Midoriya shook his head, recalling the times when they were younger when Kacchan won by default, or as they got older when he got first place on a technicality, and how much he hated it. “I don’t think so, Kacchan’s always wanted to win because he was better. He’ll fight you like he did Ashido and neither force you to surrender or knock you out.”
“Wait, back-up, back-up. You're saying you saw Bakugo when he was a little kid?" Hagakure asked out of the blue, Midoriya being confused by her going back to that part of the conversation.
“I mean…yeah.” He confirmed, but that only made the invisible girl all the more eager as she nearly fell over the wall.
“So…do you have baby pictures?” She asked, to which Tokage slapped her forehead with a groan.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it!” She was blind, absolutely blind as she sent her hand towards Midoriya's head, turning it towards her with a toothy grin waiting for him. “Midoriya, you gotta share the goods!” Of, the pranks she could pull with that, the juicy blackmail.
"I don't have any, maybe my mom would but I'll have to ask," Midoriya replied, but he wasn't sure that his mother kept such things as he didn't recall her taking all that much because Kacchan didn't like it even back then. Aunt Mitsuki on the other hand must have had dozens of them saved somewhere Kacchan either didn't know about or couldn't get to.
Her grip on his head only grew tighter as her head floated over, the glint in her told telling him she had bad intentions. “When you get the chance, ask. This opens up…many possibilities for us.” Midoriya let out a concerned sound, as he could tell if he did what she said, that things would get explosive as Kacchan would know how she got them from.
Line Break
“All right, folks, we’re back with the next match between these two!” Present Mic announced as the two students made their way onto the field, confident grins on their faces.
“In the one corner, he’s good, real good! But he's a plain-looking guy and needs to work on that, from the hero course, Sero Hanta!” Sero had a little sweat from embarrassment build up as he stretched out his fingers and elbows.
“Harsh, man.” He noted, not that Present Mic would hear.
“And in the other corner, she may look like a horse show gal, but looks can be deceiving as she's a Nebraskan-bred fighter! From the hero course, Tsunotori Pony!” Tsunotori continued to smile as she got the better of the introductions, maybe having Vlad-sensei in the booth kept Mic from going the other route.
Still, there was something she wanted to say before they started. "Sorry I did not know your name earlier, but I will beat your face into dirt." She apologized for earlier, which Sero was surprised, but then happy with it. What, did he think she was a bitch or something?
"Well, at least you're honest but I've gone up against some pretty tough people from my class, I'm not a pushover." Sero bragged though he left out the part where his 'experience' was little more than getting owned by Bakugo in a training fight and surviving a hero class that pit his team against one that had Todoroki on it.
“Now let the 5th match of the final…begin!” Sero reacted without pause, firing off a band of tape to entangle Tsunotori who let out a yelp as she nearly fell over, that band was immediately followed by another one as Sero swung his body around, which in turn started to swing Tsunotori towards the edge of the ring for a quirk victory, much to the awe of the audience.
“Oh, a surprise attack right out the gate to throw her out of bounds?” Present Mic commented as Tsunotori rapidly approached the edge, Midnight watching like an eagle to ensure should she step over it, she would be declared to have lost. “That was a quick attack, maybe one of the best choices he could make!”
"No way!" Tsunotori fired off two horns, one that crashed into the tape holding her, cutting nearly the entire way through, the threads that remained snapped from the strain. The other horn went towards Hero who let out a shocked curse as he ducked underneath it.
Now free, Tsunotori wasn’t out of the clear yet as momentum still carried her so she had to fire another horn which snagged her shirt and pulled her forward, but it wasn't enough. 'Dammit.' She thought to herself as she fired off another horn, which tore the tape around her body, and then a 3rd rapidly afterward, right as she went over the line, she jumped-not back into the ring, but she jumped with her momentum and was caught by her horns.
“What the heck, she’s out of bounds!” Sero complained as he saw Tsunotori being carried a couple of inches off the ground by her horns, before she returned to the ring, with Sero looking towards Midnight wondering how she didn't call that.
“The rules state that one need to step foot over the line, so long as no part of your body touches the area beyond the line, you're still in the fight." Midnight explained, which made Sero groan and Tsunotori smirk as it meant that he'll have to try a lot harder to win via ring-out.
“I am in it to win it, Sero so you better fight me like you mean it!” Tsunotori yelled in English as she fired her horns at him, running around the ring to make herself a harder target. Sero let out a nervous chuckle but met her challenge all the same. He didn't have anything to swing on, but he wasn't a slouch either so he could move when he wanted to. But with the fact the air was considered to be part of the ring, Tsunotori had an advantage over him.
Sero used his tape much like she used her horns, but he could use it to distract and blind her thanks to its length, and the speed that he could fire it. Using that, he tried to trip her up but when she went down, she was saved by two of her horns which picked her up and flew her over the boundary line again, increasing the distance between them.
“Oh come on, get down here and fight me fair and square!” Sero yelled at her, as with the increased distance, she had more time to see his attacks and either counter or dodge them. the same was true for her, but while this was where the other difference in their quirks came from, as she might be only limited to 4 horns at a time, that didn't mean she couldn't swap between them, so the ever-increasing amount that was scattered across the ring only made it harder for him as she randomly controlled one or two to attack him.
"There are no rules against flying, tape-man." Tsunotori laughed as she kept up her attack, Sero having to run and jump around the place to evade her random attacks from all sides, the only reprieve being that she couldn't control more than 4, and with 2 holding her up, she had only the other two to fight with.
Line Break
As the match continued between the two, the classmates were cheering them on. “You can do this, girl!” Tokage yelled.
“Yeah, another win in the back for class B!” Tetsutetsu cupped his hands over his mouth to try and make himself louder as Tsunotori had Sero on the ropes, his tape making fewer appearances than he used to as the guy was focused more on dodging her attacks from the couple dozen horns that scattered the place.
“Do your best, Tsunotori!” Midoriya cheered for his friend as well, as he didn't think that flying would be allowed if only because most of them didn't have the means to hover, never mind fly but it was a simple bend of the rules. Besides, U.A.'s had students that could fly in the past so it would only make sense that the rules would be written in a way to accommodate them.
However, while Tsunotori was winning, something even Present Mic’s commentary claimed to be the case, it didn’t mean that class A thought Sero was out of the fight just yet. "Come on, Sero! You've got this!" Mina, who had returned after a quick visit to Recovery Girl, cheered for her classmate.
“She’s begging you to win, just take it!” Kirishima yelled with her, along with some others though most kept their piece. The game of cat and mouse went on a little longer, the roles swapping from time to time but it seemed like it was close to the end as Sero, stood, sweaty and breathing heavily as he looked towards his opponent who still floated out of his normal reach.
“Good game, Sero. You are pretty good at this, had me on my toes.” Tsunotori complimented him, moving in closer but not too close.
"Yeah, you aren't bad yourself, class B really has some good fighters." Sero returned the favor, though his eyes tracked her, and then looked at the horns around him. A plan formed in his head, his last throw at the dice.
Quick as he could, he raised his elbow towards her and fired, but she easily evaded that but that wasn't his entire plan as he fired another line of tape, this one aimed towards one of the horns on the floor, a horn which he then threw at her. Tsunotori was caught a little off guard, but she easily handled the horn, taking control of it long before it could be an issue, then her eyes widened when a second came flying towards her, getting closer before she stopped it.
Those precious seconds were just enough for Sero, as he shot another line, this one wrapping around her leg. Before she could sever it, he pulled as hard as he could. "What the-!" She let out as she slipped from her horns, and a couple of seconds later, let out a grunt as she hit the ground hard.
“Tsunotori is out of bounds! Sero progresses to the quarter-finals!” Midnight snapped her whip, Tsunotori having fallen a couple of meters beyond the line. Tsunotori was none too happy about her loss.
"Dammit, I got cocky." She cursed as she sat up, rubbing her head before a hand appeared in her vision, looking up, she saw it was Sero, still sweaty from the fight, but his smile was genuine.
"I meant what I said earlier, you're not bad at all. If you didn't slip at the end, I would be toast right about now." He told him, Tsunotori looked at his offered hand, and then his face a couple of times before she let out a scoff and smiled.
Accepting the hand, she allowed him to pull her to her feet. “I won’t make the same mistake twice. When we fight next, I’ll be taking the win.” She told him, Sero chuckling at the challenge.
“Maybe he can train together after this, I need to practice fighting flying enemies and you need to practice attack from those….horn platforms of yours.” Sero gestured to the ring, which was started to get cleaned by some robots
"We'll see about it," Tsunotori replied as they walked off, but not before Midnight made a comment.
“Oh, how cute, you’re such an adorable couple!” She gushed, which got both red in the face as they turned to her.
“Couple?!” Sero repeated, his face as red as Kirishima’s hair.
"We're not like that!" Tsunotori added to the rebuttal, but Midnight only waved them away as they grumbled, turning to leave the field as others laughed at the joke.
Line Break
“Yeah, one to one, baby!” Hagakure cheered as Tsunotori's name was darkened with a big ole 'eliminated' printed over it, meanwhile, Sero's was bumped up to the next round.
"Could have been 2 nothing if Tsunotori had landed when she had the advantage," Shoji added, as while he was happy, he didn’t want them to have the wrong idea of how it happened.
“I win’s a win, so I’ll take it.” Kaminari waved it off.
"We can make it 2-1 in our favor in this next match. Yaomomo's up." Jiro directed her gaze towards her friend, Mineta keeping his piece thanks to the look that Asui was giving him, a silent reminder that he was still on the hook, him and Kaminari.
“Yup, if you need a tool-any tool, she’s your girl. I’m sure she has a plan to handle Shiozaki.” Uraraka added, with Yaoyorozu graciously smiling as she got up, patting her lap to get rid of any dust.
“I’ll keep your faith in mind and do my best to live up to it.” She told them, meanwhile on the other side of the wall, Shiozaki was also getting up.
"You're up next, Shiozaki," Shishida noted, to which she nodded as Midoriya got up as well, hugging her for good luck, one she gratefully returned.
Breaking it off, she looked him and the rest in the eye. “I am, I’m not a fan of a battle, so I’ll do my best to end things as quickly and harmlessly as I can.” With that, she turned and walked off to get ready. Once she turned the corner, along with Yaoyorozu, Monoma leaned close to Midoriya.
“What do you think are the odds?” He asked, keeping it down as to prevent class A from hearing them.
"Shiozaki certainly has the reach advantage, and she can make and control a lot of her vines, so getting the drop on her would be hard. Maybe she can even anchor herself to the ring to prevent any attempt to win via ring out." Midoriya replied, as Shiozaki was one of their best people in class, and while she never tried to harm, that just meant she spent more time focused on ways to disarm and capture.
“Yaoyorozu also can create what she can to fight her, possibly some sort of herbicide to use against her vines, but unless she can make an extremely potent one, she'll struggle against such a number of them," Monoma added, though he wasn't sure if that would even work, as one way she could try would be if she thought Shiozaki felt pain from her vines, which wasn't the case as she could detect through them, but pain wasn't one of them.
Midoriya looked over to him, a frown on his face as he saw that something was troubling Monoma. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”
The blonde signed, the cheers of the audience masking his confusion and if Midoriya wasn’t reading him wrong, his concern. “Not sure, so I won’t stand by it, but Yaoyorozu in that last round, she seemed...like she was slow.”
“Slow? How?” Midoriya asked, as Yaoyorozu certainly seemed smart, and Tsu mentioned that she was from one of the best middle schools in the country. Even if she was rich, surely her grades would need to match such prestige.
Monoma shook his head, thinking for a moment how he could phrase it better. “Like, she’s smart, I’m confident she’s smarter than you and I, but book smarts don’t translate to battle smarts.”
Midoriya hummed as if that was true. Hado-sempai and Togata-sempai had told him that more than once when it came to training. Even at the USJ, he found himself less thinking about how he'd fight, and just…fighting. “Yeah, that could hinder her with how Shiozaki fights.” Shiozaki was the same, or at least, she would understand that better thanks to their experience at the USJ.
“Either way, we can’t be sure. She could pull off a victory so it’ll be best if we watch. After all, you could end up facing her and she’ll just need a freezer for you.” Monoma added, ending it with a little joke as Midoriya pocked his side in irritation.
“I’ll have you know that I trained in the cold winter nights, a little ice won’t bother me.” He was quite proud of that, as he knew his weaknesses, and sought to correct them. now, maybe Todoroki could hit him with something similar to what he used against the 0-pointer earlier, but he was confident his stupid ice couldn’t slow him down, not at all.
‘Still, Yaoyorozu must have some sort of plan of attack.” Midoriya frowned, as while versatile in her own right, Shiozaki’s quirk centered around her vines, if Yaoyorozu could target those…
"Hey," Both turned to Komori, the girl's eyes peaking out from underneath her hair, filled with confidence in their classmate. "I wouldn't worry. Shiozaki's tough as a mushroom in the wild, and her hair's even tougher—she gets her sunshine fix whenever she can, especially when we garden. She's really spore-tacular like that!"
“Yeah, you’re right. We can only have faith in her and cheer.” Monoma stated, Midoriya in agreement as they turned back to the field and waited for the match to start.
Line Break
“Man, that was an exciting match, wasn’t it? Well, we got more where that came from with another match set to start!” The bonfire pits came roaring to life as the two combatants stood facing one another, Shiozaki looking near expressionless, as her level of calm control was something to be admired, meanwhile, Yaoyorozu found herself a little worried, and it showed in how she held herself.
“It's another match-up between hero classes, a true competition! From class B, we have the assassin in green and the mistress of the forest! From the hero course, Shiozaki Ibara!” Present Mic introduced her opponent first, which Yaoyorozu noted had her eyebrow ticked just a bit, her frown growing deeper but not by much.
“And fighting for class A, we have app purpose creation! She was admitted through recommendations, so she's not a pushover! From the hero course, Yaoyorozu Momo!” For herself, she wasn’t too sure she liked that there was special attention put on the fact she got in through a different exam. It made it seem like she was some figure greater than her classmates, but she knew that many were at her level, if not higher.
“Now, let’s have another super flashy battle, I need to see your students give it 110% and-!”
“Excuse me,” Present Mic was interrupted by Shiozaki, who had walked over to the edge of the ring and raised her hand to speech, a worried frown on her face. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have a question to ask. Why was it that you referred to me as an assassin in green? I bear no ill will for evil intentions towards my opponent, or any else here and have no desire to take her life.”
“S-sorry!” Present Mic apologized while Vlad only shook his head. He had told the guy that Shiozaki could be a bit too literal at times and she wasn't afraid to voice that.
“Moron.” The bandaged man replied, leaving Present Mic to deal with his mess.
With their attention on her, Shiozaki continued. “I chose to attend U.A. to train to become a hero as to save people from those with such wicked ways and ensure that peace and understanding reign over the world, and I'll strive to achieve that goal while hurting the least amount of people possible.” As she spoke, Yaoyorozu was sure that the sun shined just a little brighter on her foe than just a moment ago.
“I said I was sorry; I didn’t mean to offend!” Shiozaki smiled at the apology given.
“I understand, I just wished to make things clear.” She bowed once more before turning back to the match, her smile and earlier appreciation draining and returning her to a serene, battle-ready expression, another thing that Yaoyorozu found herself envying.
‘Despite Present Mic’s backtracking, Shiozaki’s as deadly as any assassin, I’m up against someone that from what I recall has a quirk that gives them extended reach, defense, and offense wrapped into one body.’ Yaoyorozu studied her foe, who didn't react to being scrutinized, perhaps she was doing the same but she couldn't get a proper read on the girl.
‘I should use a herbicide, one of the milder ones, and test to see how strong her vines her. Once I have that, I can then create proper countermeasures.' 'But does she have a time lag? I don't know for sure, and she can summon quite a large number and regenerate what she used without issue, so I can't afford to let this turn into an endurance match.'
That was trouble for her, as even if she made a lot of herbicides, even the best quality formulas she knew, made to be as potent as possible, would take time to eat through her vines. Acid perhaps, but that ran the risk of harming herself or Shiozaki should a covered vine get near her.
‘Should I get close to her? She might be like Tokoyami, and not need to move in a fight, but even if I do, that won’t remove the vines as a factor-’
“Start!” Present Mic started the match, jolting Yaoyorozu out of her thoughts, though Shiozaki was well and ready for it. Her hair came to life, rising into the air before shooting into the earth, smashing and digging through the concrete like it was nothing as it then broke the surface like green whales in the ocean, the masses of vines heading straight for her.
On the back foot, Yaoyorozu created both a large sprayer filled with herbicide and a machete in her offhand. Dodging the first attack, she sprayed the vines with the stuff but grimaced when she noticed how little damage it did, when she swung her machete, she managed to cut through several of them, but with such a number gathered into, her weapon soon got stuck, forcing her to abandon it.
She retreated as fast as she could, trying to think of another strategy, perhaps she would need to use the acid after all if Shiozaki was going to attack from a distance. Sadly for her that fell through as the ground beneath her crumbled, and a horde of vines shot out and grabbed her, Yaoyorozu struggled, but more just kept coming till she was wrapped up tight and held 4m in the air.
All the while, Shiozaki hadn’t moved from her spot, instead with the same serene look to her face, she asked. “Do you yield, Yaoyorozu?”
Yaoyorozu, in a rare fit of anger, wanted to tell her to shut up, but she held it in, if only barely. She continued to struggle, making saws and other blades through her clothing to try and cut through, but Shiozaki's vines were thick, and the blades got stuck in it all. She couldn't make any power tool when she was this close to the target, the same was true with her acid.
She lowered her head. “I…I yield.” With that admission, though painful to say, Midnight made the call.
"Yaoyorozu has surrendered! Shiozaki moves on to the next match!" As Shiozaki left Yaoyorozu down, the crowd cheered for her quirk victory over a student who came in via recommendation.
“Overwhelming, an overwhelming victory for Shiozaki! That might just have been the second-fastest match so far.” Present Mic hyped her as Shiozaki bowed to her, Yaoyorozu returning the gesture, but more out of habit than anything else as her mind was trying to unpack the match, trying to find any spot where she could have been better.
“Shiozaki and her vines are a force to be reckoned with folks! I feel bad for Sero who has to face them in the next round!” Shiozaki turned to leave the field, as serene as she had been when she entered. As if the match wasn’t even worth a change of expression to her. Yaoyorozu knew that wasn’t the case, but she still felt like it was salt over the wound.
“Shiozaki made excellent use of her quirk to control the flow of battle, and move her opponent into an ideal position to strike and restrain her, that said she should take care to limit damage to the surroundings," Vlad added that piece of information nearly shattered her.
"She…led me? So, the entire time…I had no chance?" She asked herself, barely keeping the tears at bay as she turned and hurried off the field. The cheers of the crowds sounded less happy for Shiozaki's victory, and more mocking of her loss. "Was I that powerless against her?"
Line Break
Internet was slow earlier, so I didn't try to upload, but it's cleared up now and well, I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to get through 3 of the opening matches in the last chapter, this one the other hand doesn't cover as much it came out shorter than normal but seeing how I oppositely break word limits, I can get away with a shorter chapter now and then.
