Post Vitam

Chapter 159

To Izuku, the time Setsuna had been gone felt like hours, though realistically he knows that's only because he's struggling to maintain hardening and wants it to be over. Izuku should know by now that time really is sadistic like that, always stretching itself out in unpleasant circumstances.

Izuku was really considering just opening up a gate under his feet when he heard voices behind him. It was clear that Setsuna hadn't made it to anyone yet as the voices became clearer. The race was still going on given what they were talking about, and he was about to have more people than just himself to worry about. Even worse, he knows that girl's voice... Uraraka.

The very last person he wanted to see right now, if anything goes wrong he'll no doubt be hearing from her how it's all his fault. He might agree with her that he's responsible for Iida... but this? Fuck that, some random fucker shooting darts and now bullets?! No way is he taking the blame for that. Izuku wracked his brain to remember who she was paired with. He was hoping for someone he could convince to run away or maybe someone with a situationally useful quirk.

The pair rounded the corner and Uraraka screamed in surprise as a bullet took off a chunk of concrete wall next to her. Both her and a brown haired boy Izuku had trouble placing ducked down.

"What's the meaning of this Deku?! Going for the outright kill now?!" she berated him from her position on the ground.

Izuku groaned in annoyance "Oh fuck off Uraraka, now is not the time for you to stroke your grudge against me." She opened her mouth to obviously disagree but Izuku just talked over her. "Some lunatic is shooting at anyone who moves here."

It was at that point that the brown haired boy spoke up and he had a serious expression on his face. "Where's he shooting from?"

Izuku could tell he was trying to help so he subdued his rising snark at seeing Uraraka roll her eyes. "Somewhere from the direction I'm facing now, it was a dart at first but they switched to bullets after that. Setsuna split and went for help."

"Tokage? You were paired with her?" The concern in his voice made it obvious he possibly has a thing for her, or maybe they are related. Though Izuku hoped it was the first because of the look in his eyes, it would be mighty awkward if she was just his cousin and he had puppy dog eyes for her.

"She was shot but she left that bit of her behind and got away. Look uhm-" Izuku stopped not having the current capacity to remember the entirety of Class B's roster.

The other boy must have picked up on it and helpfully supplied his name. "Tsuburaba"

"Right, well I'm not very practiced with hardening and I can't do much else while focusing on this, any chance your quirk can help get all of us–'' he flicked his eyes to a still annoyed Uraraka who just rolled her eyes again. "-Out of here safely?"

Tsuburaba grew a wide smile. "Oh yeah totally dude, that's why I asked where they were shooting from, just let me know when you're ready and I'll layer some walls up."

Walls... Now there's an idea. Izuku felt entirely stupid and genuinely considered if having so many quirks was altering his brain capacity. Why in the world he thought of using hardening first was beyond him. He can use Cementos's quirk far easier than that, plus he's had plenty of practice with it back at the sports festival.

He smiled back at Tsuburaba "You just gave me an excellent idea, give me a shout when your ready and we can get started."

"Okay I'm ready, let's do it!" Tsuburaba cheered and made a motion with his hands. However if it wasn't for the slightly perceptible haze that had filled the air in front of him, Izuku would never have noticed that anything had changed. He also had no idea how strong these walls of what he assumed was compression dense air were. So not gambling with two other people's lives he stomped his foot into the pavement he was standing on, cement flowing from him.