NOTES: That moment when you realize Hitoshi could've been Izuku's childhood friend. 👁️💧👄💧👁️
Also, was anyone else confused by the last chapter's last segment like my daughter was? 🤣🤣🤣🤧🤧🤧
Good luck figuring it out. (;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ')🎉
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"Midoriya from the Villain Team reporting. Hero Team members Shinso, Komori, Awase, and Kaminari have been captured. They will no longer be joining the rest of their team."
The speakers in the observation room relayed the report of the greenet to the teachers present before a photo of the bound up Awase and Denki, and unconscious Kinoko and Hitoshi was received and displayed on one of the larger monitors.
The first report of defeats that day.
"I see," Sekijiro (Vlad) commented as he gave the monitors a stern gaze, "So that is why Midoriya had asked for a second option to let us know of any captures or defeats besides the cameras. It seems that he really thought this whole day through."
Toshinori looked at his coworker for a second before looking back at the monitors. He doesn't want to tell his fellow teachers but as Sekijiro had said that, he could feel his phantom stomach riling inside of him, a feeling that never meant anything good.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Shota spoke up all of a sudden, turning Toshinori's attention away from his phantom stomach and fully into reality, exactly as they received another photo, now from the hero team, along with another report.
"Earphone Jack from the Hero Team reporting in. We have apprehended Villain Team members Mines, Anivoice, Real Steel, and Emily. Twelve members of the Villain Team remains."
Toshinori perked up as he realized that his successor (Katsuki Bakugo; do not forget who he is, everyone) and his team were not eliminated early on in the day. He felt some relief and pride.
Toshinori doesn't know if he has managed to truly convey this to his successor, but he truthfully was proud of Katsuki.
(a/n: 140+ chapters later and still not used to this aspect of my own story)
The three Pro Heroes and the former no. 1 hero then turned their attention to one of the larger monitors which switched to a different camera after catching movement.
They watched as H-Group 3 hastily navigated through the labyrinth of the grounds to get to their destination quickly, only to be ambushed by vines coming up from the floors and surrounding structures, and Fumikage's own Dark Shadow trapping themselves as well.
-
"Ack!" Nirengeki (Twin Impact user) let out a slight yelp exactly as Katsuki pulled his restraints tighter, "Don't make it so tight. We won't be going anywhere, you know."
"I'm sorry." Katsuki immediately apologized, "I just- it's your leader, he's-- nevermind."
Nirengeki raised a brow at Katsuki's behavior, then he told him, "None of us will tell where our leader is, you do know that? Well, not that we actually know where he is right now-- oh! And you guys won't get anything from our communication devices too."
Katsuki furrowed his brows, then he looked over to Kyoka (Jirou/Earphone Jacks) and he gave out an order, "Ears, tell me that you've picked up something on Midoriya, if not, contact the other groups if they've seen any signs of him."
Kyoka placed her hands on her hips then annoyed, she corrected him, "Earphone Jack. My hero name is Earphone Jack, 'Dynamight'."
"And no. No one has yet to report sightings of Midoriya." Kyoka told him, then her voice went a little more serious, "Though Tentacole and his group apparently heard sounds of a fight from where Chargebolt's group should be."
"Tentacole didn't detect any enemies along the pathway of Pinky's group, so they decided to change course in the meanwhile to check on Chargebolt-tachi. I've been keeping track of them for a while now, but they've gone silent."
Katsuki immediately winced, "Is it Midoriya?"
"I'm not sure. But if it's alright, I want to send our group over to check up and even provide aid to Tentacole-tachi and confirm whether Midoriya is there or if it's just some kind of distraction. If the attacks on that side really is Midoriya's doing, we'll immediately send out a signal for Shouto-tachi to move in immediately."
(a/n: she's referring to Shouto as his hero name here)
Katsuki hummed for a little bit while he considered it, then he gave H-Group 4 the ahead, "That sounds reasonable. Make sure to keep your guards up at all times. Our group will continue on our original route."
"Ah, and about the communication pieces," Kyoka remembered to mention, "On our way here, our team were speculating about what could have happened with them."
"At first, we thought it could have been jammers, but on our way here, I never detected any kind, even now, I'm picking up nothing. When I got to check on Invisible Girl's comm piece, though, I found that it's dead. Just dead. As in, we won't be able to revive it again, or at least, right now."
Katsuki looked at her with some slight confusion in his face before she clarified.
"I think the villain team has access to electromagnetic bombs, that's how they managed to kill off our communication link." Kyoka explained.
Katsuki's eyes went wide before he gritted his teeth, Was this that guy's idea?
"Here," Kyoka told them as she removed her comm piece, followed by Jurota (Beast user), "We'll give you guys half our teams' comm devices. It probably won't be any use once another electromagnetic pulse is sent out, but maybe we can use these as indicators for any incoming attacks."
Jurota then added, "If your group are ambushed or attacked and the comm channels are out again, immediately send out a loud signal to inform us. We will be doing the same."
Katsuki and Togaru (the hotheaded lizard one) both removed their dead communication devices before accepting and wearing the ones being given by their respective classmates.
"We'll be going on our leave now." Tenya informed his teammates, "Everyone, please be careful."
-
Izuku looked at his right hand after putting away the reporting device, as he made his way to where his two squad members had headed to a few minutes ago to deal with the four heroes that tried to head to the aid of Hitoshi and Denki's group.
They have defeated Hitoshi's group for a while already actually, but it took Izuku a little while before he could report the hero team's first defeat due to a distraction.
It might have been crippling for their squad had he not reacted quickly, but thankfully he had already predicted a second group's advancement towards them, so he sent his two squad members ahead to go deal with anyone incoming while he tried to get his thoughts together.
He was yet to fully process what had happened when he hit Hitoshi with his attack earlier, and it was that exact moment that was making him distracted.
Izuku felt a weird sensation when he fired his attack at Hitoshi. He couldn't fully understand it but it was a feeling that made him almost tear up.
He felt so much suffering, anger, regret, and sorrow at that moment from his friend, that it just made him want to console the purplet.
After a short while of moving through the labyrinth of a ground, he'd finally arrived to where Shihai and Ibara were struggling to keep the hero team members' mouths shut so they could not alert their teammates, but Izuku knows that another group will be coming soon whether they shout or not.
Izuku had finally noticed how quiet the other side of the grounds had become, but he didn't pay it much mind.
Izuku acted quickly and put all the captured hero members to sleep, all with just one hit at the back of their heads.
He also gave one strong strike to the back of Dark Shadow's head to put it to sleep, letting Shihai finally let go of his grip on the creature.
Shihai stretched out his body a little then he scolded their leader, "You took too long. Any second longer and our grips might have loosened costing us our position."
Izuku just gave him a glare, "Is it my fault that you two lack the endurance? Plus, you two managed. That's all that matters."
Shihai furrowed his practically invisible brows at Izuku, but the latter didn't give it much mind.
Izuku then heard a message coming on from one of the heroes' earpieces, "H-Group 3, this is Earphone Jack, I haven't heard any activities from your side. Have you met with Chargebolt and the others yet? What's their situation?"
"...hello? Chargebolt-kun? Tentacole?... Do you copy? You've been unresponsive for too long already. We're heading over there now." Kyoka informed them after a few seconds of silence.
As I expected. Izuku said in his mind.
He then looked over to the general direction where the remaining team who has yet to move from their home base is located.
"Come on, we're moving out." Izuku told his squad members, which made Shihai perk up and protest.
"Moving out? Aren't we going to wait for the next hero team to come near us and ambush them again?" Shihai questioned the greenet's decision. He may not have heard exactly what was said in the message sent through the heroes' comm piece, but he still understood that another team has decided to head towards them.
"No. We already pulled that trick once. They'd probably be more cautious now so we can't do it again." Izuku explained to him, "Just follow my orders and we'll have this victory."
Then with a denigrating glare, he looked back over his shoulder and asked the 1-B student, "Or do you actually want to lose, Shihai?"
Shihai winced and his shoulders went tense as he just silently looked down, making Izuku scoff at him.
"I thought so." Izuku said in an insulting tone before turning his head forwards again and beginning to walk away.
Shihai gritted his teeth as he grimaced, then he gave Ibara the signal, "Shiozaki-san, now."
Izuku was about to turn around to ask what Shihai had meant by that, but by the time he managed to have an idea of what it truly meant, he was already being wrapped around by metal rods and metal pipes which Ibara's vines ripped out from the surroundings and bent to serve as restraints before having her vines wrap around him as well, making sure to shut his mouth up and raise him up from the ground.
Izuku's eyes were wide at what just happened, and he could only look at Shihai and Ibara from his levitated height with a slight shock and deadpanned expression.
"Izuku Midoriya," Shihai referred to the greenet, "You are hereby ousted from your position as the Villain Team's leader."
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NOTES: This thing took so many days to publish coz I had to heavily edit it after I was unsatisfied by the initial final draft.
There are probably lots more I need to correct, but I'm too impatient. :p