ShuraZero
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Chapter 105: Individual Crucibles
🕑 Added 2025-07-31 18:27:00 +0000 UTCOn the observation deck, the rest of Class 1-A held their breath. The air, once thick with the tension of Izuku's race, now vibrated with a new kind of anticipation. His victory hadn't been a fluke; it had been a statement. And now, the question hanging in the air wasn't if their team was good, but what the caliber of its individual components was.
Kaminari leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms with an air of feigned defeat.
"Well, after Midoriya's performance, the pressure is through the roof. How are we supposed to compete with that? The guy practically flew."
Jiro, beside him, rolled her eyes, though a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"He didn't fly, idiot. He was just smarter than everyone else. And it's not about competing against him, it's about proving your own worth. Or have you given up already?"
"Never!" Kirishima roared from the other side, slamming his hardened fist into his palm. "Midoriya's run was super manly, but that just fires me up even more! This is our chance to show what we're made of!"
All Might, from his observation post, took the microphone. His smile was as bright as ever, but his sharp blue eyes, fixed on the competitors, betrayed his total concentration.
"YOUNG HEROES!" his voice boomed through the stadium. "Young Midoriya's race wasn't just a demonstration of speed, but a masterclass in strategy! He has reminded us all that the greatest power isn't always the loudest!"
The floating camera focused on the next groups, who were already gathering at the starting line. The tension was palpable.
"Now it's your turn to show us your own style! I don't want to see imitations, I want to see your essence! Show the world why you belong in Class 1-A! Prove that each of you is a pillar for the next generation! GO BEYOND! PLUS ULTRA!"
The cry echoed across Gamma Field, a labyrinth of rusted metal and hissing steam. At the starting line for the second group, the atmosphere was electric.
Katsuki Bakugo stretched his neck, the muscles in his back tensing under the fabric of his costume. A crooked smile, hungry for victory, spread across his lips. He slowly turned toward Tenya Iida, who waited in his characteristic rigid and formal stance, a silver knight ready to joust.
"Don't even try to keep up, Four-Eyes. You'll only see my back."
"Competition must be clean and honorable, Bakugo!" Iida retorted, adjusting his glasses with a sharp movement. "Your arrogance will be your downfall! May the fastest one win!"
A little further back, Momo Yaoyorozu exchanged a calm look with Tsuyu Asui. Her composure was such a stark contrast to Bakugo's contained fury that it was almost insulting. She stood motionless, her gray eyes scanning the maze of pipes and catwalks not as obstacles, but as pieces on a chessboard.
"Their rivalry will make them predictable," Momo said quietly, barely a whisper that Tsuyu caught easily. "They'll get in each other's way."
"I know, ribbit," Tsuyu replied with her usual, disarming frankness. "They'll focus on beating each other. Our advantage isn't in speed, but in our route."
The bell rang, a metallic shriek that was instantly swallowed by the roar of an explosion.
Bakugo catapulted forward, a human cannonball wrapped in smoke and fury. Iida activated his engines, the hum turning into a roar as he shot forward in parallel, a silver blur. The two leaders fought for supremacy in a display of raw power, leaving the rest behind in a cloud of dust and disdain.
Momo was the last to move.
She watched her two fastest rivals disappear into the labyrinth and, with a serenity that would have infuriated Bakugo if he could have seen it, she stopped.
Running would be suicide, she thought, her mind already a three-dimensional map of Gamma Field. A waste of energy. They only see a straight line, but this place is a web. They can have the ground. I'll take the sky.
Instead of running, she acted.
The skin on her forearm shimmered, and from it emerged an elegant grappling hook launcher connected to a spool of ultra-light polymer cable. With pinpoint accuracy, she fired the hook toward a beam thirty meters high. As the hook flew, she created a series of self-adhesive pulleys and tossed them onto other pipes with the speed of a juggler, weaving a web of shortcuts through the air.
Below, chaos reigned. Thrown off balance by the shockwave from one of Bakugo's nearby explosions, Iida nearly lost his footing, letting out a cry of frustration. In turn, Bakugo had to dodge a pipe that Iida knocked over while trying to regain his stability, unleashing a string of curses. They shouted insults at each other, each one an obstacle for the other.
And then, a shadow passed over them.
It was Momo. She glided along her makeshift zipline with the silent grace of an acrobat, her elegant figure silhouetted against the emergency lights of the ceiling, her ponytail waving like a banner. She landed softly on the final platform, the rescue beacon flashing beside her, seconds before Bakugo and Iida arrived, panting, covered in sweat, and staring at her in absolute disbelief.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Bakugo screamed, his voice an echo of fury. "YOU, DAMN...! THAT'S CHEATING!"
"YOUNG YAOYOROZU USED HER ENVIRONMENT WITH FLAWLESS STRATEGY!" All Might's voice boomed from the speakers, filled with euphoria. "THAT, YOUNG ONES, IS NOT CHEATING! IT'S HEROISM! THE WINNER OF THE SECOND RACE IS MOMO YAOYOROZU!"
From the stands, Ochako and Toru cheered, while Izuku smiled with the quiet pride of a coach watching his star athlete win gold.
"Wow! Momo-chan made them look like fools without even breaking a sweat!" Toru exclaimed.
"She didn't try to beat them at their own game," Izuku said, his gaze fixed on the instant replay on the giant screen. "She was smarter. She created her own path."
Ochako turned to Toru with a nervous but determined smile.
"Your turn. Ready to surprise them?"
"Oh, they're going to see a lot more than a surprise," Toru replied, and for the first time, her voice held not a trace of doubt.
The third group was at the starting line. Kirishima slammed his hardened fists together, the personification of fighting spirit. Jiro stretched her jacks with a nonchalant air. Tokoyami adjusted his cloak, his red eyes glowing in the gloom. And Toru, whose confidence was almost palpable, simply smiled.
The bell rang.
Kirishima charged straight ahead, a human battering ram clearing a path through the minor obstacles. Tokoyami melted into the shadows, using Dark Shadow to propel himself between the beams with ghostly speed. Jiro, on the other hand, stopped, plugged her jacks into the metal floor, and closed her eyes, concentrating.
Hagakure's trick is her agility, Jiro thought, her mind a map of sounds. But she can't move without making a noise. I've got her.
She felt a vibration—light but clear footsteps—to her right.
"Got you," she muttered.
She lunged toward the sound, her hands ready to grab, but they only found empty air.
What? But I was sure…
Toru's new trick was a masterpiece of misdirection. She wasn't just bending light; she was also distorting the sound waves around her, projecting the echo of her footsteps to a place where she wasn't. It was a perfect trap for someone who relied on hearing.
Sorry, Jiro, Toru thought as she ran past her, completely silent. My physics lessons also included some acoustics.
Kirishima, frustrated, thought he saw her: a flicker of her figure on a catwalk above.
"YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME!" he roared, launching himself toward the image.
But the image was already gone. She was using a "Refraction Blink," making herself visible for an instant to draw his attack and then invisible again to dodge it. Kirishima, in his haste, slammed into a concrete wall. He repeated the cycle three times, growing more frustrated and exhausted as Toru played with him like a matador with a bull.
Her true rival was Tokoyami. She caught up to him in a particularly dark area of the labyrinth, where the shadows were nearly absolute.
"The twilight is my domain, Hagakure. Surrender," Tokoyami said, his voice deep and solemn.
Dark Shadow materialized, a beast of pure darkness, and lunged at her.
But Toru didn't panic.
Who says it has to be night in here?
She didn't use a blinding flash. That would be too obvious. Instead, she revealed her ace up her sleeve. She focused all the ambient light from the emergency lamps into a single point, creating not a flash, but a sustained, intense beam of light, like a theatrical spotlight, which materialized directly on top of Dark Shadow.
The creature of darkness shrieked in agony and writhed, pinned by the pure light. Tokoyami, deprived of his main weapon and momentarily blinded, was left completely vulnerable. Toru ran past him, a victorious smile on her visible face, and crossed the finish line with a considerable lead.
"SPEED AND STEALTH WEREN'T ENOUGH! LIGHT HAS TRIUMPHED OVER DARKNESS! THE WINNER OF THE THIRD RACE IS TORU HAGAKURE!"
In the stands, Kaminari's jaw was open.
"Dude... did you see that? She created... a beam of light. Since when can the invisible girl do that?"
"Since she understood that her power isn't 'being invisible,' but 'controlling light'," Izuku said calmly, a deep satisfaction in his voice. "She's one of the heroes with the most potential in the class."
Ochako gave him a gentle nudge.
"Your plan worked. Now everyone really sees her."
The fourth race was the most anticipated of the group: Ochako versus Todoroki.
The bell rang, and Todoroki, without a moment's hesitation, unleashed a massive wave of ice, a repeat of his festival strategy. The cold spread across the floor, devouring all sound in a frozen silence.
But Ochako smiled.
"I've seen that trick before, Todoroki."
She slammed her hands on the ground.
The entire initial section of the track, a twenty-meter concrete disc, ripped from the floor with a groan that shook the stands. Todoroki's ice formed on floating debris, creating an unstable ramp that crumbled into a shower of harmless hail. His overwhelming power was turned into a useless spectacle.
The race became an aerial duel. Todoroki created bridges of ice to slide on, his face a mask of concentration. Ochako, with an almost divine grace, used the floating debris as her personal platforms, leaping from one to another in a three-dimensional environment he couldn't control. She didn't just dodge; she counterattacked, unleashing pulses of high gravity that caused Todoroki's delicate ice bridges to crack and collapse.
Frustrated, Todoroki unleashed a combined attack of ice and fire, an elemental storm that roared toward her.
Instead of countering it, Ochako did something that left the entire stadium speechless.
I can't stop it, she thought, Izuku's voice echoing in her mind. I don't have to fight the force, I have to redirect it. Space isn't fixed, it's malleable.
The air before her warped, distorting like asphalt under the summer sun. The elemental torrent didn't hit a barrier but was caught in a spatial distortion, folding in on itself until it formed a contained sphere of unstable power that hummed like a miniature sun.
"Impossible... She's contained my attack!" Todoroki exclaimed, his composure finally broken.
Ochako didn't throw the sphere at him. With a gesture, she sent it flying toward a section of pipes just above the finish line. The controlled explosion blasted a perfect shortcut open, while the falling debris blocked Todoroki's path. She crossed the finish line just as the detonation echoed behind her.
"VICTORY GOES TO OCHAKO URARAKA! IN A DEMONSTRATION OF POWER THAT HAS REWRITTEN THE LAWS OF PHYSICS!"
The fifth and final race was a flash of unexpected brilliance. All Might enthusiastically announced, "AND IN A SURPRISING DISPLAY OF STRATEGIC GENIUS, THE WINNER OF THE FINAL GROUP IS YUGA AOYAMA, WHO USED HIS NAVEL LASER TO PROPEL HIMSELF IN A STRAIGHT LINE TO VICTORY!"
With that, the Symbol of Peace concluded the day's event.
"AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, YOUNG ONES! OUR FIVE WINNERS, WHO HAVE DEMONSTRATED EXCEPTIONAL SPEED AND INGENUITY, ARE: IZUKU MIDORIYA, MOMO YAOYOROZU, TORU HAGAKURE, OCHAKO URARAKA, AND YUGA AOYAMA! A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR ALL OF THEM!"
In the stands, Izuku closed his notebook. He looked at the three winners from their respective races, gathered and celebrating together, laughing and hugging. A smile of pure pride lit up his face. They had proven their worth, not as a team, but as formidable individuals, each with their own devastating style. And he, the coach in the shadows, couldn't be more satisfied. The next trial, whatever challenges it might bring, would find them stronger than ever.
