Chapter 36 – Overcoming Terrain Manipulation
In a large training field that resembled a suburban area, both Kirishima and Sato were doing everything they could to not fail their test.
"I thought he had a handicap?!" Sato grimaced, feeling the effects of his Sugar Rush Quirk starting to wear off. He had to be careful not to use too much sugar, lest his cognitive functions decrease and make him a liability for his partner.
"I think he does, but he's really good at using his Quirk!" Kirishima leapt away as a small pillar of concrete shot at him, half-solid and half-liquid, looking to immobilize and capture the redhead.
They'd been at this for several minutes already and time was running out.
"Oh, yes." Cementoss smiled at his students from a bit further down the street, his hand touching a concrete building, allowing him to manipulate the material with his Cement Quirk. "My Quirk is rather specific in what it allows me to manipulate, you see." He used his free hand to point at the asphalt that made up the road they were standing on. "I can't manipulate the asphalt of this street. Neither can I manipulate rock or soil with my Quirk." Cementoss further explained his Quirk to the two boys. This was followed by a dozen more pillars of semi-solid concrete shooting from the building like reaching arms.
"Hyah!" Kirishima rapidly punched six of the concrete masses, splattering them around with his hardened fists.
"Oorrraaah!" Sato punched forward, a flurry of jabs and straights, like a boxer, that beat back the semi-solid mass.
"We're not getting anywhere like this!" Kirishima and Sato retreated as fast as they could around the nearest corner, making sure to stay in the middle of the asphalt road and away from any of the concrete buildings.
"We can't fight him when he has concrete to work with." Sato agreed as they both headed for where they remembered the gate to be. "Can we outrun him?"
"Not sure." Kirishima admitted to not knowing all that much about Cementoss as a Pro Hero. "You can use your Quirk to increase your speed, right?"
"With Turbinado Sugar, yeah." Sato confirmed with a quick nod. "If I use my limit all at once, I could probably make it to the gate if Cementoss doesn't block me off." He hypothesized, given the distance they needed to cover to reach the gate.
Ahead of them, a stream of semi-liquid cement flowed across the road and then raised into a wall to block their path.
"Crap! He's getting ahead of us!" Kirishima grimaced at seeing the obstruction.
Another wall appeared on their left, cutting off the side street that they could've taken as a detour. The two teens realized that they were being boxed in a half-second later when a third wall blocked off the street behind them too.
"We could break through the first wall." Sato hadn't even slowed down in his run. "He wants us to stop and second guess our path so that he can trap us!"
Kirishima bolted right alongside Sato as he realized the truth in the taller boy's words. "I'll break through the wall and keep Cementoss busy! You get to the gate!"
"Got it!" Sato grabbed the measured canister from his belt that had his Turbinado Sugar in it and got ready to flick the cap off as soon as they were through the wall.
"Unbreakable!" Kirishima activated the advanced form of his Hardening Quirk and bulldozed straight through the concrete wall in front of them. Dust went flying as he barreled his way past the obstruction, debris and grit scattering across the ground as he turned to face the direction that he thought their teacher was in. "GO, SUGARMAN!"
Sato downed the entire container of Turbinado Sugar all at once. His body bulked up slightly, but not like when he used granulated sugar. Sato's feet kicked off the ground, cracking the asphalt a bit, and the yellow-suited Hero-in-Training was off like a shot down the street. "I'll get there as fast as I can, Red Riot!" He yelled back, already at the end of the street.
"Interesting, splitting up to accomplish your objective isn't a bad idea against me." Cementoss admitted even as slabs of concrete rushed at Kirishima.
"Bring it on!" Kirishima's Unbreakable form was ridiculously durable and the concrete shattered under his fists easily. The slabs kept coming though, and Kirishima could only hold this form for so long. Ducking under the slabs, he ran on all fours, like a dog, and closed the distance between himself and Cementoss. His nearly clawed hands tore into the asphalt as he leapt up from his crouched position and swung a heavy blow straight at the teacher's midsection.
"Improvisation. Very good." Cementoss leapt backwards and swamped Kirishima with a wave of semi-solid concrete. "But you're still trying to meet force with force."
"That's what you think!" Kirishima, in his normal form, ran in the opposite direction from the swamp of concrete that had tried to engulf him. His Quirk made him durable, but it also slowed him down a bit. Unbreakable compounded that issue, and he'd been working on improving his mobility while using his Quirk, but for evasion, not using his Quirk was for the best.
"Chasing students." Cementoss sighed at the tactic. In this training area, where only the buildings were made of concrete and not practically everything like a modern city would be, the reach and range of his Quirk was rather hampered. "This is why I normally operate in the urban areas." He controlled the semi-solid concrete with his Quirk and had it lift the slab he was standing on into the air.
A street away and Kirishima blinked as he heard an odd noise behind him. Turning to look at where the sound was coming from, his eyes nearly bugged out. "WHAT THE HELL?!" His shock was warranted, as he saw his teacher practically surfing on a wave of semi-liquid cement and rapidly catching up to him.
"If you wish to be a Pro Hero, then you must think outside of the box when it comes to applications for your Quirk!" Cementoss spoke loudly to be heard over the rushing wave of muck. "When it comes to fighting, it's all about making use of your particular talents!"
"Damn it!" Kirishima knew that he hadn't bought enough time for Sato to reach the gate yet. "Unbreakable!" He activated his advanced form and used the jagged ridges of his body to hack down a telephone bow that he ran past. He did it to the next lamppost that he passed as well. The tall poles fell towards Cementoss and his wave of cement, but the teacher wasn't fazed by the ploy.
Each pole was blasted backwards by a chunk of suddenly hardened concrete that smashed into them. "You're thinking, but in this situation, is slowing yourself down the correct answer?" Cementoss questioned his student.
"Maybe not!" Kirishima grabbed what had landed on the street from the toppling of the telephone pole. "But it gives me something I wouldn't have otherwise!" He threw the object at Cementoss, revealing it to be a snapped electrical wire. The sparking end of the frayed wire showed that it was still live.
The wave of cement dropped Cementoss about two or three meters downwards as a portion of it rushed upwards to form a solid concrete wall that the sparking, black wire bounced off of. A black spot was left on the concrete from the electrical discharge, but the line fell to the street without doing anything to Cementoss.
"Clever." Cementoss smiled at Kirishima's thrown together strategy. "He instantly took my words about thinking outside of the box to heart, it seems." The teacher was quickly rushing after the redhead on his moving wave of cement a second later.
"Are you kidding me?!" Kirishima glanced over his shoulder as he ran, seeing his Modern Literature teacher catching up to him again.
"Swamp Cement!" Cementoss called out and the wave he was riding on sped up, leaving behind the slab of concrete that the Pro Hero was riding on.
"Gah!" Kirishima's footing was gone as the semi-liquid cement covered the street beneath him. The thick muck bogged him down as he struggled to lift his feet from it. Then it all hardened instantly, leaving everything up to Kirishima's knees trapped in solid concrete.
"One down." Cementoss wasn't taking chances as another wave of cement wrapped around Kirishima's struggling form and then hardened to trap him completely, only leaving his head free for air. "Now for the other one." He was off on another wave of cement, surfing on it with a slab of concrete again.
-Sato-
"Gotta get there! Gotta make it!" Sato ran as fast as his boosted body could go. He felt the fog encroaching on his mind from hitting his sugar limit. His cognitive functions were dimming as he ran for the gate with all his might.
"There you are!" Cementoss called out from behind the teen.
Sato ignored the words, made easier by his rapidly falling brain power. He just kept running and running. Something splashed down behind him, but the speed boost from his Turbinado Sugar let him escape. Nothing but the gate directly ahead mattered as he rushed towards it.
"You won't get through!" Cementoss sent a wave of cement forward as fast as he could. The amount wasn't a lot, as the more material he manipulated, the slower it became, but the rushing cement rose up and solidified into a wall between the gate and Sato.
"Uuuuooooaaaahhhh!" Sato's dim mind went full charging bull and he didn't even flinch as he slammed through the hastily erected barrier. The concrete gave way under his charge and the student staggered and stumbled through the dust and debris. His speed was greatly slowed, but he crossed the gate before he collapsed.
"Team Kirishima and Sato have passed the exam via escaping the testing site!" Blared throughout the area over the loudspeakers.
"Are you alright?" Cementoss was already at Sato's side to make sure that the boy hadn't hurt himself.
"Tired…" The slow drawl and the slightly vacant look in Sato's eyes showed that his Quirk's side-effect had taken over.
"We'll get you to Recovery Girl for some rest then." Cementoss chuckled as some robots approached with a stretcher to take Sato to the nurse. "Meanwhile, I'll go free young Kirishima." He headed back into the test site to get Kirishima out of the concrete he'd trapped the teen with.
-Recovery Girl's Onsite Medical Tent-
"No injuries at least." Recovery Girl smiled happily at how the Practical Exams were going, so far. Aside from the injuries to Bakugo, none of the students had any real injuries to speak of from their tests yet. Even the explosive teen's injuries hadn't been very bad, easily healed up by her Quirk. "A few more pairs and we'll be done." She looked over to the bed that Izuku was in, the boy previously napping to recover his lost stamina and energy from his exam. "Are you sure you want to stay here and watch the rest of the tests?"
"I'm good." Izuku confirmed with a nod, a happy little smile on his face.
Recovery Girl rolled her eyes a little at the teen. "I'm sure you are." Her gaze fell onto Momo and Camie, both girls sitting beside Izuku's bed and gently fawning over their boyfriend. Her student in healing was quite the popular young man, with what appeared to be four girlfriends. 'Certainly not unheard of since Quirks started appearing; but not exactly common either.' A lot had changed in the world after the emergence of Quirks and the Quirk Dark Ages that had followed.
"Say 'aaah', Izukun~" Camie grinned as she brought one of Recovery Girl's gummies up to her boyfriend's mouth. He needed energy back and the specially made gummies that Recovery Girl handed out were packed full of vitamins and just enough sugar to help the body restore some energy.
"Aaah…" Izuku accepted the gummies with a smile. It had been surprising at first, but he'd gotten used to it quickly. Camie wasn't one to let him remain easily flustered by her affections.
"No fair," Momo pouted adorably, nearly making Izuku and Camie coo at her. "It was my turn."
"Sorry, Yaomomo." Camie apologized for stealing Momo's turn to feed Izuku a gummy.
"Aaah~" Momo's cheeks were pink as she fed Izuku, but the beautiful smile on her face when he accepted it from her nearly lit up the tent.
'So cute.' Camie and Izuku thought at the exact same time. They could practically see sparkles around Momo as she smiled.
"Seems like those two are trapped." Recovery Girl mentioned as she looked at one screen in particular. This prompted the three students to look at the same screen and watch the exam site that it displayed.
-Iida and Sero Exam-
"Crap!" Sero shot out a line of tape from his elbow and then reeled himself towards the only safe spot. A second later and the ruin of a building he'd been clinging to crumbled and collapsed. "He's keeping us trapped here!"
Iida agreed, grimacing behind his helmet at the test site. It was a simulated disaster area, filled with bare ground, destroyed and ruined buildings, and littered with large rocks and debris here and there. "I can't even run properly after what he's done to the ground."
Indeed, Power Loader had taken their Quirks into account and used the excavation power suit to make the dirt ground into a massive series of pitfalls. Iida had nearly been sucked into one when they'd tried to cross the area earlier; only being saved by Sero's Tape Quirk as the other teen pulled him back up before he could sink into the shifting soil. The Head of the Support Course had also thought ahead and destroyed every piece of stable footing in the area between their current location and the exit gate.
To put it simply: They were stranded on the remains of a large fallen building with nowhere to go.
"It's not going to be that easy, kids!" Power Loader laughed as the excavation suit appeared from the cloud of dust that was kicked up by the fallen rubble. "Clock's ticking!" With a wide grin he used his powersuit to dig back beneath the ground, disappearing from the view of the two students.
"He's having way too much fun at our expense…" Sero deadpanned at the teacher's words.
"Perhaps, but his strategy is nearly perfect." Iida commented as he saw the exit gate in the distance. "He's turned the entire test site against us already."
"Every time I try to cross over to another piece of rubble or one of the ruined buildings, he tears it apart from below and forces me back." Sero sighed in exasperation, tapping his tape dispenser styled helmet. He'd made five attempts, and he'd been rebuffed each time. "I've run out of places that I can reach with my Quirk. So, how are we passing this?"
"For not having any ranged offensive capabilities, Power Loader has made the best use of his excavation suit." Iida remarked as he took in the area around them. "We can't capture him while he's below the ground, so that option to pass is unavailable. But getting to the gate has been made impossible as well. It's an ingenious way to run out the clock and make us fail."
"Less praising the teacher and more figuring out a way for us to pass, please." Sero turned his head towards Iida, lifting his visor so that his classmate could see the flat look that he was giving him.
"One moment… I'm checking something." Iida walked along the length of the collapsed building that they were trapped on. "Hmm, it would be risky… The length isn't optimal, but the gate is a straight shot."
Sero cocked an eyebrow at Iida's words as he observed the collapsed building that they stood on. "You're starting to sound like Midoriya."
"I'd take that as a compliment." Iida turned to face Sero. "Midoriya is very intelligent, helpful, and a great Hero-in-Training that I'm proud to call a friend and classmate."
"True." Sero nodded with a grin. "So, did your Midoriya-ing figure out a way for us to pass this exam?"
"Possibly… But it's not one-hundred percent." Iida looked between the edge of the ruined building and the gate in the distance. "How far can you launch your tape and still be accurate?"
"About fifty meters, if there's no wind to account for." Sero placed his hand on his chin. "My longest shot was a hundred meters, but that was just distance without aiming for anything."
Iida eyeballed the gate again and was clearly running the math in his head to try and gauge the distance. "We might be able to make that."
"Then let's do whatever you just thought up." Sero closed the visor on his helmet.
"Don't you want to know what my plan is?" Iida questioned.
"I trust you; just tell me what I need to do." Sero held out his fist to Iida.
After a second Iida realized what Sero was doing and completed the fist bump.
"I'm going to use the new modifications to my costume and all of my speed to launch us off this ruin and towards the gate. If my estimates are accurate, that should put you within the fifty meter range you mentioned."
"What about you?" Sero asked curiously.
"Only one of us needs to make it through the gate to pass." Iida stated plainly. "The goal isn't to show off or outperform anyone else. It's to either capture the teacher or escape."
Sero couldn't help but think Iida was kinda cool right now, even with how rigid the other guy usually was.
In short order, the two were at the farthest end of the collapsed building. Sero was riding piggyback on Iida as the speedster's Engine Quirk roared loudly, flaring with short bursts of flames.
"Ready?" Iida asked Sero.
"Heck yeah! Let's win this!" Sero called back with a wide grin behind his helmet. It was a crazy plan, but he definitely couldn't think of anything better.
"Recipro Burst!" Iida declared and his engines flared with blue fire, heating up to a ridiculous degree as he and Sero blurred forward and cleared the opposite end of the building in the blink of an eye.
The two partners flew through the air from the speed of their acceleration. Below, the pitfall rigged dirt flew by as they cleared an insane distance. With a belch of black smoke from both of his legs, Iida's Quirk stalled out. The partners began to descend, but Iida wasn't done yet, even without his Quirk.
"Deploying Glide Gear!" Iida activated the newest feature of his knight-like full body armor. From his back and sides, areas where Sero had to purposefully avoid holding at Iida's instructions, emerged wing-like attachments. The armor on his legs and arms also deployed similar small attachments as Iida spread his arms and caught the air rushing past them.
"We're flying!" Sero laughed as the gear allowed Iida to make use of the speed of his launch to stay airborne for longer.
"Gliding! And not for very long!" Iida stated seriously as he kept his posture stable to take advantage of their rapidly decreasing speed. "Get ready!"
"Already on it!" Sero cocked his right arm back, aiming his elbow at the large sign above the exit gate. "Just a little closer!"
"We're going to fall short!" Iida warned, having known from his estimates that they may not have had enough space for an optimal launch. The ground was coming up faster than he'd like.
"I've got this!" Sero eyed the sign carefully. If he fired now, the air resistance they were experiencing would completely mess up his launch. He had to wait until just the right moment. "A little more…"
Iida's Gliding Gear had hit its limit with the weight of the two teens and the speedster was now heading for the ground. Using all that he'd studied and practiced with his new gear in preparation for the Practical Exam, Iida angled his body to eke out whatever last bit of distance that he could get as the glide slowed to an almost crawl. "Jump!"
"Got it!" Sero launched his tape, aiming for the large sign. It wasn't exactly fifty meters…more like fifty-eight or fifty-nine…but he would hit the sign above the gate, even without perfect accuracy. The adhesive shot through the air as Sero leapt off of Iida's back and the armored teen was in a barely controlled fall straight towards the ground. The tape landed and Sero quickly reeled himself in. "YEAH!"
"Team Sero and Iida have passed the exam via escaping the testing site!" The announcement was made throughout the speakers around the Test Site.
"Huh?" Power Loader emerged from the ground in his excavation suit. Seeing Iida stuck in a pitfall a distance from the gate and Sero standing on the other side, the teacher couldn't help but grin widely at being outplayed. "I've gotta see this craziness." He pulled up the video of the site as he moved the powersuit across the area to go dig Iida out of his previously dug trap.
Iida was rather perplexed at what Power Loader was laughing at when the teacher arrived to help him out of the pitfall.
-Recovery Girl's Onsite Medical Tent-
"Oh my, how clever." Recovery Girl chuckled lightly at the teamwork shown by Iida and Sero.
"That was awesome!" Camie cheered, raising one fist into the air. "Iida flew them to victory!"
"Only Sero could've made that plan work out." Izuku commented, really wishing that he had one of his notebooks right now. "For not having worked together like this before, they did great."
"I was honestly wondering how they were going to succeed." Momo admitted, having seen how thoroughly Power Loader had stacked the odds against their classmates.
"If you can't touch the ground, fly!" Camie laughed brightly. "That was so sick!"
"Here you go, Izuku." Momo giggled and created a notebook and a pen for her boyfriend after seeing his hands twitching.
"Thank you, Momo!" Izuku leaned forward and kissed her lips before accepting the notebook and pen. He flipped it open and began writing what he'd just seen with a blur. His thoughts and questions quickly filled up the first page.
"You're welcome~" Momo nearly swooned as she held her cheeks in her hands, a bright red blush across her face from the kiss.
"Aww, no fair." Camie teased, making a pouty face. "I want a kiss too, Izukun."
Izuku stopped writing instantly. "Okay." He leaned in and Camie grinned at him, happy that even his muttering habit was easily overcome when it came to his girlfriends. Their lips met and Camie made sure to keep it simple and chaste since Recovery Girl was in the tent too. "Happy?" Izuku smiled warmly at Camie.
"Yep!" Camie smiled, gently leaning her forehead against his for a moment. "Take your notes, nerd." She teased him lightly.
"Yes ma'am." Izuku teased right back, a grin on his face.
"Calling Izuku a nerd is mean, Camie." Momo looked at Camie flatly.
Camie only giggled. "He's a nerd, but he's our nerd!"
"Camie!" Momo was stifling a giggle of her own now. Their relationship with Izuku was uncommon, but it never failed to make Momo giggle when talking about it.
"I'm good with that." Izuku chuckled as he continued writing his notes.
Recovery Girl was still watching the various screens as she smiled from the banter she was overhearing. 'Teenagers…' The elderly woman thought to herself, not for the first time since taking up her position at U.A. about forty years ago. She'd seen the last three generations of Heroes rise up from a front row seat. This latest group was definitely a good one.
-League of Villains Hideout-
Shigaraki Tomura nearly growled as he looked at a picture of Midoriya Izuku that had been taken during the Sports Festival. He was about to turn it to dust like he'd done to so many other copies before it, but a knock on the door, in a specific pattern, got his attention.
The door opened to reveal a middle-aged man of moderate height and slight build, with round glasses over his notably narrow pink eyes. He had short gray hair worn parted to his right with side bangs hanging above his eyes, along with a small mustache and a goatee on his chin. One of his front teeth was missing, leaving a gap when he grinned. He currently had a lit cigarette hanging from the edge of his mouth.
"Giran." Shigaraki spoke the man's name.
The Villain Broker grinned at Shigaraki as he opened the door all the way and walked in. "Shigaraki." Two people followed Giran into the bar. "We've been spreading the word about you for the past few days. About how something big is going down soon."
"Well?" Shigaraki crushed the picture of Izuku and turned it to dust with his Quirk as he eyed the two new people. "Who're they?"
"In person, you're…super gross, dude." The young man on the right spoke up as he eyed Shigaraki. He was a reasonably tall, pale young man that was rather slim but had a somewhat muscular build, and appeared to be in his early twenties. He had black hair that spiked upward around his head, hanging low over his eyes, which were narrow, turquoise in color, and heavily lidded.
His most striking features, however, were undoubtedly the patches of gnarled, wrinkled, purple skin that covered much of his lower face and neck, all the way down past his collarbone and below his eyes. He has several silver piercings in both ears and a triple nostril piercing on the right side of his nose. He wore a dark blue jacket with a high, ripped collar, matching pants cut off above his ankles, and a pair of dark dress shoes on his feet. Under the jacket was a plain pale gray, scoop-neck shirt, below which a gray belt with a circular pattern wrapped around his waist, with a leather satchel attached at the back.
"This rather blunt fellow is called Dabi." Giran introduced the man that looked like he'd suffered severe burns on his body.
"Whoa! This hand guy was Mr. Stainy's friend? Really?!" The girl on the left was pumping her arms up and down like an excited child.
She was a fair-skinned girl who could easily be described as having a pretty face. Though Shigaraki had no care or concern for attraction to anyone. The girl had inward-tilting yellow eyes with thin slit-like irises that somewhat resembled those of a cat, and her mouth was also rather feline, since her canines were pointed and longer than the rest of her teeth, giving her an almost vampiric appearance. Her hair was a pale, ash-blonde color and was styled into two messy buns, with numerous wild strands sticking out, she had a straight fringe and two chin-length side bangs framing her face.
Her outfit was a plain seifuku with a Kansai collar, both the skirt and the shirt were dark blue with a double white trim, which was paired with a red scarf that she tied loosely below. Over that, she wore an oversized beige cardigan with a long hem and cuffs, and pockets on either side, the right one held a number of trinkets on either a keychain or a cellphone strap. She wore knee-length black socks and dark brown outdoor school shoes on her feet.
"I want to join too!" The girl smiled widely, showing off her fang-like canine teeth. "Your League of Villains!"
"This quirky girl is Toga Himiko; she's a big fan of the Hero Killer and his ideals about Heroes." Giran chuckled darkly as he introduced the girl.
For every step that Heroes take, the Villains of the world take a step as well.
That was simply the way the world worked since the emergence of Quirks.
Chapter 37 – Overwhelming: Volume and Range
-Forest Training Field ~ Jiro and Koda Exam-
"COME OOOONNNN! I'M GETTING BOOORRRREEEED!" The air shook from Present Mic's voice, a nearly visible wave of sound blasting through the forest. The sheer volume had long since scared off all the animals, and the range of the man's Quirk covered the entire training field. "Man, this is why I'm a city guy." Present Mic sighed, shooing away a bug that was flying around his head as he stood in front of the gate. No way was he walking through the forest to track the two students down. "Feels weird to be in costume without my gear." He touched his neck, the lack of his directional speaker gear being the only thing different about his costume.
But limits and handicaps were needed.
Deeper in the forest, both Koda and Jiro grimaced as the sound died down again; removing their hands from their ears.
"Damn… And that's without his gear?" Jiro grimaced at the volume that Present Mic could manage with just his Quirk alone.
Koda nodded in agreement; the perpetually shy teen rarely spoke at all…except to animals.
"Hey, can't you tell some animals to go attack him?" Jiro questioned curiously of her partner. "We're not getting anywhere like this."
Koda made a few motions with his hands, pantomiming his explanation as to why he couldn't do that right now. "His voice is so loud that all of the animals have already run away."
"Damn…" Jiro tsked but couldn't say that she was surprised. Her hearing was super-sensitive and Present Mic's voice alone was nearly rattling their bones, even from this distance and with a forest separating them to absorb a lot of the sound. "He's going to run out our time at this rate."
"HELLOOOOOOOO?!" The distortion of air from the soundwave was even stronger this time.
"Gah! FUCK!" Jiro clapped her hands over her ears again, along with Koda. "Gotta…drown him…out!" Her jacks quickly attached to her new speaker gear on the back of her hands. The two speakers detached and Jiro used her Quirk's ability to lengthen her lobes to set her speakers just above the canopy so that her sound wouldn't be weakened by the forest as much.
BRRRRRNNNNNNGGGGGGHHHHH
A loud guitar riff from one of Jiro's favorite bands was amplified by her Quirk and passed through her gear. The air distorted to the powerful vibrations and blasted across the training field, briefly overpowering Present Mic's voice.
At the gate, Present Mic let the sound (less than half of what it had been when Jiro had unleashed it) wash over him. "Hmm, could use a better amp. Maybe a subwoofer for more bass?" He critiqued Jiro's new gear after experiencing it firsthand. "The decibels are passable at least." He chuckled while giving the two students time to collect themselves before he blasted them again.
Jiro rubbed her ears for a moment as she sat behind a large mound of dirt with Koda. "Shit…" She grumbled, hearing a ringing in her ears still. "He's going to deafen us for real if this keeps up." Having studied her own Quirk and the science of sound, at both Izuku and Momo's recommendation, Jiro knew just how dangerous sonic weapons could be. Present Mic was practically a walking death amp! "Koda, do you have a plan?" She looked at the Anivoice user hopefully.
Koda shook his head and clenched his fists. He was feeling useless right now. "Without any animals around, my Quirk isn't going to be able to help." He pantomimed to Jiro apologetically.
"LET'S MAKE SOME NOOOOIIIISSSEEE!" Present Mic's voice tore through the forest again, making Koda and Jiro cover their ears in pain.
Koda felt nauseous, like his insides were vibrating from the volume of Present Mic's Quirk. He leaned against the mound of dirt to try and let the nausea pass, but saw something on the dirt mound that made his eyes widen. "AIIIEEE!" Koda screeched, louder than any of his classmates had ever heard him vocalize before. He scrambled away from the dirt mound in a panic.
"What's wrong?!" Jiro looked at Koda in confusion. Koda pointed at the dirt mound where he'd been sitting, making Jiro curious. "An ant?" She looked at the small black insect. "You don't like bugs, huh?" Jiro looked at Koda, getting a rapid nod of confirmation from the boy. Seeing other ants crawling around on the dirt mound, Jiro had a brainwave. "Hey… They're not running." She turned back to Koda. "Can you talk to bugs? We might be able to use that!"
Koda was now farther away from her and the dirt mound, hiding behind a tree.
"COME OOOOOUUUUUTTTTT!" Present Mic bellowed, shaking the entire forest in the process. Every time he used his Quirk, he was steadily increasing the volume, making the test harder for the two students as the time ticked down and the intensity of his attacks picked up.
"SHUT UP!" Jiro roared out, raising her speakers above the canopy again, switching the audio on one of her watches, she passed the sound through her system and blasted it out through her gear.
BWWWWWWWOOOOOOOHHHHHHH
The vocalization of a blue whale, one of the loudest sounds on the planet, was blasted out from the support gear. The massively amplified sound overwhelmed the teacher's voice and cleared the air. The two jacks slumped afterwards as Jiro fell on her butt and cradled her ears.
"Fuck…" Jiro grimaced, knowing from the muffled everything that she'd taken real damage to her hearing. She felt warm blood on her fingers and was certain that her eardrums were at least torn now. "Koda…" Jiro looked over at the boy covering his ears and looking lost. When he looked back at her, she gave him a reassuring smile. "I know you're scared; everyone has things they're not good with, but you want to be a Hero, right?"
Koda nodded, remembering how proud his mother had been when he'd gotten his acceptance to U.A. and how proud he'd been of himself for getting into the Hero Course. He knew he wasn't the most reliable person. He was shy, had some social anxiety, and often preferred the company of animals to people. But he really did want to help others and be a Hero! He noticed that Jiro's ears were bleeding and nearly cried at seeing how much worse this test was for her. 'She had to fight because I ran away…' He'd been a terrible partner so far, but he was going to make up for it now!
"Then I need you to help me." Jiro locked eyes with Koda. "Can you talk to bugs?"
Koda clenched his fist tightly and gave her a firm nod.
"Great! Let's use that then!" Jiro smiled at her partner. "I've got an idea."
-Present Mic-
"Woo~ Those were some crazy decibels she hit." Present Mic lightly cleaned out one of his ears with his pinky finger after being blasted from across the training field with whale song. "I knew she had all sorts of audio stored in those watches, but damn…" Even his ears could be overloaded if the sound was loud enough.
Bzzzzz
"Eh?" Mic grimaced and shooed away the flying insect. "Seriously, can we finish this set already?" He really wasn't a fan of the wild outdoors. "Some people may have arbor ardor, but I'm not one of them!"
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Multiple buzzing insects were now flying around Present Mic, making the Pro Hero wave his arms around.
"What the hell?! Go away! Shoo! Shoo!" Present Mic tried to scare off the bugs.
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
"Aaaahhh!" Present Mic ran from the gate, not too far, of course, but still ran as he tried to get the sudden swarm to leave him alone. "Go away! Go away!" He ran back and forth in front of the gate, annoyed and freaked out by the persistent pursuit of the flying bugs. "BACK OOOOOFFFFF!" He unleashed his Quirk on the swarm and watched them scatter from the way the air distorted from his sound. "Hah…hah… Damn bugs…" Mic was not, had never been, and would never be a fan of bugs.
"Heartbeat Distortion!" Jiro yelled as she burst through the tree line, being helped along by Koda as her damaged ears messed with her balance. She slammed her twin amplifiers onto the ground and unleashed a massive shockwave of sound into the dirt.
BOOM
The dirt exploded upwards, the soil coming apart as the powerful soundwaves traveled through it, hitting resonant frequencies with multiple materials within the dirt. This Super Move was the result of her studies into sound and how it affected matter: whether it was solid, liquid, or gas.
'Got to remember to thank Midoriya and Yaomomo for the help later.' Jiro thought to herself as Koda took over for the next part of their strategy.
"Go on, tiny ones, hear my call! It's time to take out the man making all this terrible noise! Swarm, crawl, you can do it!" Koda belted out rapidly, surprising everyone that was watching the test.
-Recovery Girl's Onsite Medical Tent-
"HE CAN TALK?!" Momo, Camie, and Izuku all exclaimed in unison. They'd never heard Koda speak before! It was one of the reasons that Izuku hadn't been able to help his classmate, simply because he wasn't asked and Koda's Quirk was still mostly a mystery to him.
"Of course he can talk, why wouldn't he be able to?" Recovery Girl looked at the three of them like they were odd.
-Jiro and Koda-
From the shattered dirt, a wave of crawling bugs emerged. The softened soil making it all too easy for them to swarm and surround Present Mic.
"Hey, hey, hey! That's not cool!" Mic cried out as he flailed and tried to keep his feet off the ground, stepping around the swarming bugs as best as he could. This only delayed the inevitable as the swarm of flying insects returned a moment later.
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
Bzzzzz
"This is why I HATE the woods!" Present Mic cried out in panic as he waved his arms around to try and keep the flying bugs away, while crickets, centipedes, and beetles all started crawling up his legs. "AAAIIIEEE!" His eyes rolled up and he collapsed to the ground, the panic having gotten to him.
Koda helped Jiro as they both ran over to the downed Present Mic, Jiro pulling out the cuffs they'd been given even as she stumbled a bit from her loss of balance. With Koda there to help keep her steady, she could still move this much at least.
Click
The cuffs were latched onto the insensate teacher's wrists.
The sign above switched over from 'Do your best!' to 'Congratulations!' as both students relaxed and let the tension fall off their shoulders. Jiro sank to the ground in relief while Koda spoke to the swarming bugs, telling them to return to where they'd been before he'd called on them.
"Team Koda and Jiro have passed the exam via capturing their instructor!" Blared throughout the area over the loudspeakers.
-Recovery Girl's Onsite Medical Tent-
"They did it!" Izuku smiled happily for the success of another pair from their class.
Recovery Girl looked annoyed. "He lost to some bugs?! Pitiful!" The old woman scoffed at how Present Mic had been taken out. "And he injured the poor girl's ears. I'll swat his shins for that!" She raised her syringe-themed cane into the air threateningly.
"Damn…that's one way to win, I guess?" Camie shivered slightly after seeing all of those bugs crawling on Present Mic.
Momo rubbed her arms in phantom discomfort. "Yes, a valid strategy, but still unsettling."
"Harsh move, Koda." Izuku wrote down what he'd seen in the notebook that Momo had made for him. He'd share his thoughts and ideas with Jiro and Koda later.
-Toru and Shoji vs Snipe-
Bang Bang Bang Bang
Four rounds were fired in a quick burst.
"Damn…" Shoji cursed as the concrete pillar he and Toru were using for cover began to shatter. "I can't get closer like this." His job was to stall Snipe and let Toru head for the gate with her new costume's ability to go fully invisible.
Unfortunately for the two students, Snipe had been prepared for that. The masked, cowboy-themed Hero had tossed smoke grenades all over the testing area. Toru may be invisible, but she was still tangible and her movements made the smoke move as she passed through it. She'd taken a shot already and was holding her left arm with her right, a purple bruise on her left bicep where the rubber round had slammed into her thanks to their teacher's Homing Quirk.
"What's his range, anyway?" Toru asked with a pained hiss as she gently held her injured arm.
"I think it's like six-hundred meters or something." Shoji grimaced, knowing that encompassed the majority of their test area.
Bang Bang Bang
The concrete pillar broke away further, and Shoji could barely shelter behind it now. Toru was behind him, the larger student putting himself between their teacher and his partner.
"You're running out of space and time, partners." Snipe drawled out, a gun in each hand. One loaded with rubber rounds, the other with half-rounds that he'd personally modified to be weaker than a normal round. However, even they could break concrete with enough concentrated fire.
"If the smoke wasn't in the way, I could try to blind him with a refraction." Toru looked up at the lights on the incredibly high ceiling. A thick haze of smoke hung in the air between her and the lights, meaning her refraction wouldn't work.
"His mask also has tinted lenses." Shoji reminded Toru with a sigh. "It seems like he was fully prepared for you, specifically, Hagakure."
"What?" Toru blinked, though Shoji couldn't see it. "Does he really see me as the bigger threat?"
Bang Bang Bang Bang
The concrete pillar broke more, almost leaving Shoji exposed.
"Wouldn't you?" Shoji looked at his invisible classmate. "For most people an invisible opponent is a nightmare. Humans are a sight-based species and when we can't see something we have a greatly reduced ability to react to it."
"Well, I guess I'm flattered; but that doesn't help us much here." Toru felt good at being taken seriously by Snipe, but that was severely hampering their ability to pass the exam.
"If he focused so heavily on your abilities, then I doubt he's as fully prepared for mine." Shoji smiled at Toru from behind his mask. "Stay here and run towards the gate when you see an opening."
"Got it." Toru nodded, still unseen, but Shoji understood just from her tone of voice.
"Gonna really have to thank Midoriya for the help with my Quirk and studying anatomy and biology." Shoji flexed his multiple arms and before Toru's eyes did something none of his class (outside of Izuku) had ever seen before.
Dulpi-Arms was a Mutant Quirk with incredibly strong Transformation subset abilities that allowed Shoji to grow and shape any body part from them in mere seconds. That included both internal and external features, like a diaphragm so that his extra mouths could speak, optic nerves so that formed eyes could see and transmit their vision to his brain, and even ear canals to capture sounds and let Shoji comprehend them.
With help from Izuku putting him on the right path, and occasionally working on some ideas together, Shoji had realized that for his entire life, he'd barely been scratching the surface of his Quirk's abilities. His eyes had been opened by a simple question too…one so simple that Shoji had never thought to ask it himself.
"Can you do separate parts of your biological structure?"
It was a question that on the surface seemed odd. But had almost limitless possibilities if one thought about it. Dupli-Arms could automatically form any biological structure that was present on Shoji's body, even complex structures like mouths with fully formed teeth, tongues, and diaphragms; multiple tissue types all in one and done with barely more than a thought on Shoji's part. So, breaking down those individual tissue types and focusing on them consciously allowed Shoji to transform his Dupli-Arms in new ways!
"Dupli-Bone Shield!" Shoji's three left arms (and the membrane between them) shivered before transforming. White growths formed at first, before lengthening and widening into overlapping plates. In a couple of seconds, Shoji now had a large shield of incredibly thick and dense bones on his left side.
"Holy shit…" Toru gasped in surprise at the new ability and move that Shoji had come up with.
"Dupli-Muscle Whip!" Shoji's three right arms all lengthened considerably as he focused on the parts and tissues that he wanted to replicate. Learning about the anatomy of flexibility had led him to discover just why and how joints moved and what made muscles flexible. He created new joints and replicated them over and over, but with more synovial membranes and articular cartilage than normal, allowing for much greater flexibility in the new limbs' range of motion. He now had three 'tentacles' on his right side, all much longer than his normal arms.
Bang Bang Bang
The concrete pillar cracked and then shattered under its own weight, collapsing to the floor in a rain of large chunks.
Toru went right, heading further away from where Snipe was.
Shoji went straight ahead, towards the cowboy-themed Hero.
"Don't be rash, kiddo." Snipe fired eight rubber rounds in rapid succession right where he could see Shoji's silhouette charging towards him through the smoke.
Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang
What he didn't expect was for his shots to hit, but do absolutely nothing to the charging student.
"Huh?!" Shoji emerged from the smoke and Snipe could finally see just what Shoji had done with his Quirk. "What in tarnation?!" He'd never heard about this student being able to make a shield out of his Quirk!
"Yah!" Shoji lashed his tentacles at Snipe, trying to ensnare the Pro Hero.
Bang Bang Bang
Snipe's trigger finger was faster though, and he nailed a rubber round into each of the lashing tentacles, briefly stalling them as Shoji felt the sharp pain through his transformed limbs. "Nice try, you surprised me, partner!" Snipe complimented Shoji as he leapt backwards to make some distance.
Bang Bang Bang
Another burst of three rounds were fired at Shoji, but he easily guarded against them with his bone shield.
"Dupli-Muscle Whip: Thrashing!" Shoji, from behind the safety of his shield, launched his three tentacles forward again, but this time he activated the fast-twitch nerves and muscles, sending the long limbs into wild spasms that changed the direction of all three.
"Well, damn…" Snipe backpedaled further to dodged the first, had to drop into a crouch to avoid the second that swung wide when he was certain that a split-second ago it was heading straight. The third knocked his cowboy hat off his head as it jerked upwards after hitting the ground; Snipe barely had time to jerk his head back to not take an uppercut from the tentacle.
Clank
Shoji looked down at his feet to see another smoke grenade. "Shit!" He jumped back just as it detonated, blasting a large cloud of thick smoke nearly into his face.
Bang
Snipe fired again, but not at Shoji. In fact, the man was facing the opposite direction entirely. What he'd shot at was made abundantly clear a second later.
"OW!" Toru's loud yelp filled the air from near the gate.
Snipe was a Pro Hero, even being surprised by Shoji's new display, he wasn't about to lose focus on the gate that he was supposed to be guarding. Having seen the thin smoke moving oddly, he'd locked onto the person moving through it and fired, letting his Quirk lock-on and ensure the hit.
What DID shatter his focus was what Toru said next.
"My butt!" Toru cried out in a mix of pain and anger. "Mr. Snipe! You pervert! You shot me right in my butt!"
"What?! No! I couldn't see you! My Quirk doesn't work like that! I swear!" Snipe denied that he'd intentionally shot the female student in the butt.
-Recovery Girl's Onsite Medical Tent-
Jiro, Camie, and Momo all deadpanned at the screen where Snipe was quickly trying to explain how his Quirk worked to an angry Toru from across the large space between them.
"Huh…so that's how Snipe's Homing Quirk works." Izuku wrote it down, both out of his normal Quirk fascination and from his embarrassment at the situation that was happening on the screen right now.
"That fool…" Recovery Girl sighed, having just finished healing Jiro's ears. "He knows his Quirk doesn't land on any specific spot on the target, just that it hits the target." There was a low chance of the rubber round hitting anywhere debilitating or 'inappropriate', but that chance was never zero. With Toru having been running for the gate (meaning that her back was to Snipe) the chance of her being hit in the bottom was greatly increased.
-Toru and Shoji's Exam-
"Gah?!" Snipe, having been in the middle of trying to explain to Toru that his Quirk only hit the target and not specifically any part of the target, was suddenly grabbed from behind by Shoji's three transformed tentacles.
"I've got him!" Shoji lifted the teacher off the ground, preventing him from running away. "Does this count as a capture?"
"Not quite, partner." Snipe's guns were still in his hands, and with his Quirk, he didn't really HAVE to aim.
Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang
The rubber rounds left the gun, flew straight for a short time, and then curved around to all fly at Shoji.
"Nnnrrrnnn." Shoji raised his bone shield to block the incoming rounds as best as he could. But multiple of them continued to drill into his legs and a few even went around his shield to slam into his sides. "Toru! Go!" He yelled out to his partner.
Toru had already been heading for the gate, but now she was hobbling forward with a limp from the bruise she could already feel forming on her butt. "I'm almost there!" She staggered forward as fast as the pain would allow, her leg locking up as the muscle in her buttock had nearly seized up from the impact.
"Will you let go?!" Snipe fired more rounds, letting his Quirk take over and have each one land somewhere on Shoji's body. He tried to turn his head, needing to see his target and lock his Quirk onto them before he fired so that he was guaranteed a hit. But with the way Shoji was holding him off the ground with his tentacles, he couldn't turn his head enough to see where the invisible Toru was moving through the smoke close to the gate.
Shoji wouldn't let go though. Even as his legs, sides, and even his three tentacles themselves took shot after shot from the hail of rubber rounds. He could feel the bruises forming and was extremely glad that he had his bone shield, otherwise his entire body would already be riddled with bruises from the hail of gunfire.
"Team Hagakure and Shoji have passed the exam via escaping the test site!" Was announced over the speakers, bringing an end to the exam.
Shoji set Snipe back on his feet and lightly hissed as he returned his Dupli-Arms to normal. "Ow, ow, ow…" The bruises stung like hell.
"You alright, partner?" Snipe checked on the student first and foremost.
"I'll be okay, sir." Shoji nodded as he straightened up to his full height. "I can feel the bruises forming."
"Yeah, rubber rounds will do that." Snipe walked with the boy as they made their way towards the gate. "I'm gonna need to write Miss Hagakure a formal apology." The Pro Hero sighed at the accident that had happened. "Hopefully she forgives me."
"I might." Toru huffed, having been in hearing range as the two men approached the gate. There was clearly a pout on her face, given the girl's tone. "Shoji, I hate to ask, but could you carry me to Recovery Girl? My leg is almost locked up from that hit."
Snipe could feel the glare directed at him. "Sorry… You'll have my written apology tomorrow." He bowed to the seemingly empty costume of the invisible girl.
"Piggyback or princess carry?" Shoji asked Hagakure how she wanted to be carried.
"Princess carry," Toru chose as Shoji carefully picked her up. "Not sure my bottom would be okay with piggyback right now."
The three headed for Recovery Girl's tent to get Toru and Shoji some treatment for their injuries.
-Unknown Location-
The beeping of medical devices was heard as the person hooked up to them laid back and searched for those adequate enough to gently guide Shigaraki's way.
"No… No… Potentially…" All for One looked through the database of Villains that were currently on the run, listed as 'Whereabouts Unknown', or were currently skulking about in the underground, looking for 'jobs' to make ends meet for themselves. With his Electric Imaging Quirk, he could 'see' the monitor in front of him, even without eyes. "He'll need people that he can hope to control and work with, so there are some that can't be guided in Tomura's general direction." While he was all for letting Tomura develop on his own and lead the League of Villains as he saw fit, there were limits to how much he could be so hands-off with his successor.
"Serial Killers, huh?" All for One looked at two profiles in particular. "Death Row for one, the other still on the run." He moved those two to the list of Villains that he'd ensure headed towards the League.
Having gotten a report from Kurogiri about Tomura's less than proper meeting with the first two potential recruits for the League of Villains; All for One had decided to be slightly more direct (if still subtle) in making sure that his protégé got some true firepower on his side. If left purely up to the young man, only a handful of people would join up, and the quality of their Quirks would be questionable at best.
"Having lost four Nomu now, I'll refrain from giving him any more until after he matures a bit." All for One knew that Garaki was angry, even if the old doctor didn't directly express it. The man saw the Nomu as his masterpieces, and the loss of them, especially the two Near-High Ends, had upset the doctor. "This will be a good test for you, Shigaraki Tomura." The old Villain grinned at the upper-lefthand corner of the screen where the pictures of Tomura and Izuku were. "Nature or Nurture? Science or Natural Development? Which path is the correct one for Quirks and the future?"
All for One was very much looking forward to seeing the results.