-Uraraka's Perspective-
To win, the heroes had to either capture the villains or touch the fake bomb. The villains had to either capture the heroes, or keep them from touching the fake bomb for thirty minutes. With the objectives set and the rules explained, it was time to start the battle trials.
The first match was pretty intense with Kaminari and Kirishima as the villains and Aoyama and Shinso as the heroes. Aoyama and Shinso just barely won with Shinso doing most of the work with his quirk, though he did a good job of disguising what his activation requirements were. Sometimes he snapped and sometimes he just moved his hands. I could only guess that it had something to do with his hands. Aoyama did get some minor injuries from his time as a distraction and Kaminari made himself vulnerable by over-using his quirk.
The second match saw Souro and Asui as the heroes vs Sato and Sero as the villains. While both teams did really well at working together, Souro and Asui excelled at strategizing. Souro also had some sort of fire quirk that seemed really powerful. From what I could tell, he probably got the heat for his fire from the spice of the peppers and hot sauce he occasionally consumed throughout the course of their battle trial. Although unusual, I'd certainly heard of stranger quirks. In the end, Souro and Asui took the win.
Next up was Ashido and Shoji as the villains vs Hagakure and Bakugo as the heroes. It was a long fight. Bakugo didn't seem very good at working with others, though he did at least try. Ashido and Shoji worked together really well, placing traps and constantly moving the bomb when Shoji heard the heroes getting close. In the end, Bakugo and Hagakure won when Bakugo cornered Ashido and Shoji on the top floor a few doors away from the bomb and held them back while Hagakure snuck into the room with the bomb and touched it, earning them the win. Bakugo looked upset that they didn't win by taking out their opponents, but he surprisingly kept to himself and simply fumed in the corner for the rest of the battle trials.
Yaomomo and I were up next against Tokoyami and Iida. Yaomomo and I were the villains and Tokoyami and Iida were the heroes. Yaomomo - or Momo as she'd requested I call her - and I used a bunch of traps made from a combination of our quirks. We strategically placed the bomb and had a bunch of back-up plans prepared. We wanted to avoid direct combat, so our plan was to keep them busy until the time ran out. Our plan worked until the last five minutes. Iida had been sufficiently distracted, but Tokoyami had stumbled across us. We struggled for another three minutes to keep him and Dark Shadow at bay when I noticed Dark shadow avoiding the light flooding in from the few windows in our corner room. I was quick to point it out to Momo and she and I took advantage of it with a high-powered flashlight. Iida arrived in the room just as the buzzer went off.
After us was Ojiro and Fai-chan as the heroes vs Todoroki and Koda as the villains. Out of all the previous battles, theirs was definitely the most intense as well as the most captivating and unbelievable. Todoroki had Koda stay back as he froze the entire building, except the room they and the bomb were in. I watched as Fai only grinned in response and talked to Ojiro who smiled and nodded. Then the two of them separated and walked around the outside of the building. It took less than five minutes for Ojiro to stop and talk into his earpiece. Fai stopped, talked into hers, and then quickly made her way to where Ojiro waited. Once there, they talked for another five minutes before Fai stepped away and began to shift. It happened too fast to process. One moment Fai stood a few feet away from Ojiro, the next there was a large brown and black owl. The owl was obviously Fai, as no regular owl would be tall enough to reach up to Ojiro's waist like this one did. The tailed boy stood in slack-jawed shock for a few minutes before the owl let out a chirp and spread its colossal wings.
Ojiro pulled himself together and spread his arms to the side, his tail wrapping around his waist. The giant brown and black owl beat its wings down to lift itself off the ground. Then it gently wrapped its talons around the blond boy's outstretched arms and slowly rose into the sky. I couldn't help but wonder why Fai went with an owl. There were stronger birds. I didn't have too much time to consider as Fai reared her talons back and tossed Ojiro through one of the open windows. Before diving in herself. The whole class was quick to whip their attention to the screen showing Todoroki and Koda. We all watched as Ojiro came diving through the window and directly into a roll. He smoothly rolled onto his feet, his tail unravelling from around his waist and held up ready alongside his fisted hands. Todoroki and Koda didn't get much time to react before a still large, but shrinking, owl dove in as well. A blink and then Fai stood beside Ojiro, clawed hands up and ready to fight. Ojiro looked to Fai who nodded to the boy with an almost feral sharp-toothed smile. He returned the smile, though his was much more tame and gentle.
Todoroki glanced at Koda before gritting his teeth. It seemed he was hesitant to use his quirk when he could potentially catch the rock-headed boy in the cross-fire. There were no animals for Koda to use his quirk with either. Fai and Ojiro had used the other teams tactics against them and made their advantages into disadvantages. Fai only gave them a minute to process before she was shifting into a polar bear. Fai lowered herself to the ground and Ojiro climbed onto her back with the help of his tail. Fai let out a growl before she charged the two boys, large white paws swinging. The two boys dodged the best they could, but it was obvious they were getting overwhelmed by the way the room was visibly cooling down. Frost began to creep across the edges of the camera lens and Todoroki and Koda's breath became visible as the temperature dropped. With its thick and warm fur, the polar bear was unaffected by the cold temperature. Its passenger was also unbothered from his place pressed deeply into the polar bear's long fur.
The polar bear kept up its threatening batting, but it was clear it was holding back. Not even ten minutes after the trial had started, Fai had the two boys backed into a corner of the room opposite the bomb. Ojiro took the opportunity to slip off the polar bear's back and quickly made his way towards the bomb. Todoroki, in a last ditch effort to stop the boy, stomped his foot on the ground and shot ice across the floor to trap the boy's feet. Ojiro almost fell on his face when his foot got caught in the ice and frozen to the ground but quickly used his tail to break through the ice. Todoroki moved to do it again, but Fai slammed her massive paw in the line of ice instead, her paw frozen to the ground. Ojiro took the chance that Fai had given him and slapped his hand against the bomb. The buzzer sounded and Ojiro slumped against the fake bomb.
The two boys exhaled in relief as the polar bear stopped its assault on them. Fai growled as she failed to be able to pull her paw from the ice. Todoroki took a hesitant step towards the white bear who stopped growling as soon as he got close. Todoroki took that as his invitation to step forward and he bent down towards the frozen paw. Then he held one of his hands towards the ice and it slowly began to melt. Does he have a heat quirk as well as his ice quirk? As soon as the ice was melted, Fai shook her paw out and then shifted back to human. She smiled at the three boys in the room as she talked to them and helped them out. All Might called our attention then and I had to look away from the screens to look at our teacher.
It was time for Itamie and Jiro to face off.
Jiro had been chosen as the villain while Itamie had been chosen as the hero.
"Good luck, Shio-kun." I told him quietly as he made his way out of the room. The boy gave me a small tremulous smile and a nod before he took a deep breath and his face settled back into the emotionless mask it usually was. It made me a little sad, but I was undeterred.
A minute or two after Itamie left, Fai returned and came to stand with me, Souro, and Momo - who had joined us after our battle trial when I had asked her.
"That was amazing!" I told Fai. I tried to ignore the sounds of the other students chatting around us while we all waited for Itamie and Jiro to get to the arena and set up.
"Thanks, Ako-chan." she said with a smile. I was surprised to see fangs in place of her teeth.
"Fai-chan, your teeth." I pointed out. Souro just huffed a laugh from beside me as Fai touched her tongue to her teeth in confusion.
"Oh, that." she said as her tongue found the points of her fangs. "I guess you haven't seen me directly after I use my quirk. I usually retain a few physical characteristics from the animals I shifted into. They usually last for about the same amount of time as I was the animal for."
"But you can still keep your wolf ears in place, even while dealing with the drawbacks?" I asked, slightly confused. "I can't even use my quirk on a pencil if I've overused it and am dealing with drawbacks."
"It's not really a drawback and more a secondary aspect of my quirk?" Fai said, voice questioning. "It's not a symptom of over-use and I can still shift, even if I still have aspects of other animals. It's also because I've been using these ears since I was a kid."
"So what does happen when you go through quirk over-use? If you don't mind me asking." Momo spoke up from beside me. I nodded in agreement to her question as I waited to see how Fai would respond.
"I don't mind. It's like with most quirks and I just can't use my quirk at all for a little while. My body reverts back to its natural state."
"That's super cool." I told her excitedly. Souro chuckled.
"Right? That's what I'm always telling her."
Fai blushed in response to the compliments.
"Alright Jiro-kun. You have ten minutes to prepare before young Itamie-kun will be allowed to enter the building." All Might said into the intercom, calling everyone's attention back to the screens.
We all watched with hushed whispers as Jiro looked over the blueprints she'd been given and then moved the fake bomb to the highest floor. She probably assumed that, since he was quirkless, he wouldn't have a good way to get up there without searching the rest of the building for the bomb. Especially since he didn't have a partner to search the top while he searched the bottom. That was a dirty move, but I'd seen Itamie in action. I knew that he was smart and more than capable. He'd surprise everyone in this battle. I couldn't wait to see what tricks he had waiting in his arsenal and what support items or weapons he had as part of his hero costume.
Speaking of his hero costume, I was really impressed with the practicality of it and I could definitely tell he was going for underground heroics, like me and Fai.
His costume consisted of a pair of black pants and a long-sleeved, tight-fitting, black shirt. His costume had accents like mine did, though his accents were a dark forest green rather than the pink that mine were. He had a dark green belt that had multiple pouches hanging from it. There were knife holsters strapped to his thighs and two swords strapped to the back of his waist. There was also a mask and goggles. Though all of the material looked thin and tight, from what I'd learned of Itamie so far - though it wasn't much - I had a feeling that the material was probably some type of flexible Kevlar or some other type of protective material. With how paranoid and cautious he seemed, there was no chance that he wouldn't at least request some type of protective material.
"Time's up! The hero may now enter the building. Good luck to both of you." All Might said, his voice booming and echoing throughout the room.
Itamie took a deep breath before he dashed off to one of the buildings beside the one that Jiro was waiting in. It was slightly taller, but it only took him a couple minutes before he was emerging on the roof. Then he did something that none of us were expecting. He ran to the edge of the roof and jumped onto the roof of the building that Jiro and the bomb were in. He rolled to soften the impact and a quick glance at Jiro on one of the other screens showed that she hadn't even picked up on the sound, even though her jacks were in the ground. Maybe she was too busy concentrating on the lower floors? Or maybe she was only focused on the sounds actually inside the building.
Itamie opened the roof access door and stuck a rock in between the door and the jamb, probably to keep the door from closing all the way and making more noise than opening it had. He then made his way quietly inside the building. The monitors were completely silent as neither hero-in-training made any noise, one trying to listen for the other and one trying to keep the other from hearing them. After Itamie had searched the entirety of the top floor, he made his way to the stairs down to the next floor and paused at the top. He then pulled out the - less detailed - blueprints that he'd received and scanned them for a minute before tucking them away and making his way silently down the stairs.
Jiro was still unaware of his presence on the top floors and her not hearing him yet seemed to make her antsy. Then she paused, seemed to reason with herself, took a deep breath, and relaxed. Itamie had searched half of the floor that Jiro and the bomb were on when he paused again and reached into one of the pouches on his belt. From them, he pulled out a couple of small round balls. He gently set them on the floor and then rolled them down the hallway. Once they were a decent distance away from the boy, he filled with something on the side of his goggles and pulled something else out of his pouch. It looked like some type of detonator. Are those little balls actually bombs?! I worried. All Might looked panicked as he pressed the button to speak into their earpieces.
"Young Itamie, don't-!"
All Might didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Itamie pressed the button and the small metal balls exploded with a loud and echoing sound. Everyone in the room covered their ears and Jiro staggered, quickly pulling her jacks out of the floor as she covered her ears and clutched her head. Itamie quickly rushed into the room, however, Jiro recovered quickly and intercepted him in his dash for the bomb. They met in the middle of the room and Itamie greeted the girl with a punch to the stomach. She doubled over and Itamie used that opportunity to push the girl back. She regained her breath and her footing then tried to throw a punch at Itamie. Itamie grabbed Jiro's wrist and threw the girl over his shoulder. She landed on the floor with a wheeze and could only lay motionless as she struggled to regain the breath that had been knocked out of her. Itamie wasted no time in pulling out the capture tape and tying her wrists together, then wrapped her ankles. Then he stood over her and waited.
All Might could only stare in disbelieving silence. Itamie looked confused and walked over to the bomb before looking around again. That seemed to snap All Might out of his daze as he cleared his throat and pressed the intercom button.
"The hero wins." All Might said, though he couldn't keep the confusion and surprise out of his voice and it came out sounding more like a question than a statement.
Itamie seemed to let out a breath of relief at the words before he pulled out one of the knives strapped to his thighs and moved over to Jiro. He made quick work of cutting the capture tape and pulling it off the girl. He also seemed to have a brief conversation with the girl before he stood from his crouch and helped her stand up. She smiled at him and he returned it with a small, shy upturn of his lips. All Might shut the screens off and that was the que the class needed to start talking to each other. I tried to listen in on any of the conversations, but there was just too much noise to pick out anything specific. I looked over to Fai and could see her furry ears twitching towards the different groups.
"What are they saying?" I asked her quietly. Fai grimaced at my question.
"A lot of disbelief. Some people are saying that it was luck or a fluke and that he couldn't do it again. One or two people think he cheated." Fai said to me, though I could tell that the rest of our little group had heard us. I could see Momo huff.
"Well I can tell it's not. The way he moved, he looked like a professional. I've only seen pro-heroes and masters of martial arts move that efficiently. His use of those sound bombs and the strategy of starting from the top of the building and making his way to the bottom was smart. It was probably based off of watching the other battle trials and seeing how most people put the bomb closer to the top." Momo pointed out. I grinned at her as Souro smirked and nodded along.
"Right?! You should have seen him in the practical portion of the entrance exam. I heard he got first place and even broke the school record, which also means he got a higher score than All Might did when he took the entrance exam. And he seemed so calm when he saved me and he was performing first aid for my leg. He did it with such expertise, too! He also told me that he got really high on the written portion of the entrance exam. He wouldn't tell me what his score was, but I know it had to be pretty high."
"Wait. That's the guy that saved you in the exam?" Fai asked. I beamed and nodded at her. "Then I'll have to thank him." she said with a smile and a wink. I blushed in embarrassment, but couldn't and wouldn't wipe the smile off of my face.
"Thank who for what?" a voice asked from behind me. I whipped around to see Itamie standing behind me.
"Shio-kun! That was amazing! I knew you could do it!" I cried, throwing my hands up in the air to try and keep myself from throwing them around him. He blushed and gave me a shy smile.
"Thank you Ako-chan. That means a lot. I was a little worried when I captured Jiro and All Might didn't say anything. I guess that, since it was a one-on-one battle, he just wanted me to capture her and touch the fake bomb." the black-haired boy said with a shrug. I looked over to the rest of our group and could see them frowning.
"I guess so." was all I said, not wanting to tell the boy about just how disbelieving All Might had looked when Itamie captured Jiro. Like he'd been waiting for the punchline of a joke to come. Like he didn't believe that Itamie could actually win.
"Well I think we should celebrate after school." I said after a couple minutes of awkward silence in our group.
"Celebrate what?" Itamie asked, sounding confused.
"Us winning, of course! We all won our matches and I think that deserves some celebration. Besides," I said as the class started moving towards the locker rooms, All Might having dismissed us and immediately rushing off without going over the trials. "I think it will be nice to hang out and get to know each other outside of school. If that works for all of you, of course."
My question received a round of nods and agreements. I beamed as the boys separated to the boy's locker room while Fai, Momo, and I continued on to the girl's locker room.
-Aizawa's Perspective-
Itamie Nashio is something else. I couldn't help but think as he helped Jiro out of the building. While his hadn't been the flashiest or the quickest battle, it had definitely been one of the most impressive. He'd had a good strategy, his parkour had been impressive, the use of support items was promising, and his martial arts had been impressive. Take into account his exceptional stealth skills - the boy had been silent enough to bypass super hearing - and he was a force to reckon with. I also had to remember that this was the kid that had impressed Nezu with his intelligence and had just recently become a personal student to the smartest being on earth. This kid is going places.
"Wow! The little listener sure is impressive." Hizashi said from beside me. I could only nod in agreement. "You've got a lot of potential underground or twilight heroes this year. I bet that makes you pretty happy." Hizashi continued, probably pushing for some kind of verbal response. I sighed before indulging him.
"I suppose. It sure will be an interesting year." I said as I closed my laptop and set it on the coffee table in front of the couch. Just in time, too, seeing as Yin made one of his rare appearances. "Hello, Yin. Would you like your monthly attention?" I joked as Yin jumped up into my lap.
"It would seem so." Hizashi said with a quiet laugh. Then he stood up with a stretch. Well, while you give Yin some attention, I'm going to clean up, check on Hitoshi, and get ready for bed. It's getting late and I'd like to actually get some sleep before school tomorrow."
"Alright." I agreed as I pulled Yin to my chest and started scratching behind his ears.
"You don't have patrol tonight, so you should use this chance to actually get some sleep." Hizashi continued as he gathered our empty cups. I hummed in acknowledgement. "Which means that you shouldn't stay up late with Yin just because he decided he was ready for some human interaction."
My only response was to turn to look at him with an exaggerated pout. Hizashi let out an amused huff at my expression before he shook his head with fond exasperation.
"You can always bring him to bed with you and just leave the door cracked so that he can get out at any point." Hizashi pointed out as he rinsed out the mugs and made his way to the hallway. I thought it over for a minute before deeming it an adequate solution to my conundrum.
"Fine. I'll join you in a few minutes."
"Alright, Shou'. I love you."
"Love you too, 'Zashi."
A/N - Hello everyone! It's been a while. Things have been pretty busy for me lately with work and the holidays, but I figured that finishing this chapter was a good way to help me stay up until midnight tonight for New Year's.
I'd like to do a shout-out to two of my biggest supporters. Thank you MaggieFox147 and Echoing_Devil for helping me stay motivated and for being two of my biggest supporters. I love you guys!
Also, if any of you, or anyone you know, is looking for an editor, I'd be more than happy to help. That's all.
Shill, out.