"I've got this," you breathed unsteadily behind your mask. Everyone looked so cool standing atop the cliff, looking down at the students. Everyone looked... so... cool.....
Except for you. You were on the brink of a panic attack. You were so nervous you couldn't even stand still, so you paced around the entire area while Dabi and Twice looked at the forest.
"Huh."
Spinner fiddled with the edge of his ribbon-mask. You took a glance at him at lowered your head slightly. He was definitely in no mood to fight the kids after hearing Stain's name plastered all over the news. 'Hero killer Stain strikes at a UA student!' 'Hero killer still on the loose!'
You sighed inwardly. Despite being so distracted by the news, he still continued with the plan instead of withdrawing. You swallowed and rubbed your forearm in a mixture of shame and embarassment.
Mustard -bless that middle schooler- awkwardly patted your shoulder as encouragement. You weren't sent out to the front lines, but you were still equally as important- if not more. You clutched the paper in your hands.
"We'll be back on your signal. You'll be safe," Dabi nods towards you. You took a big gulp and rubbed your jaw with the bottom of your palm.
"Yeah, yeah! Don't fret, (Name)-pon! We'll come back if you need help, but you already have... it... with you. It'll follow Dabi's commands to the very end," Toga happily tackled you into a hug, licking your cheek. You wiped her saliva away, rubbing it onto your pants.
"Thanks Toga, I'll take that to heart," you chuckled, turning your attention back towards the forest in front of you. Your job was simple- use your plants to know the layout of the area and positions of the people, then relay the messages. They would only use you for offense as a last resort- they didn't want to reveal you just yet.
"(Name), start," Mr. Compress twirled his cane and tapped the ground impatiently. Muscular hooted in agreement. You placed the piece of paper on the ground, scanning the instructions one last time, before plunging your roots into the earth. You could feel them speeding through the ground, pushing aside dirt, cutting through burrows and ant nests, until you detected footsteps.
You halted to a stop, but your hands still remain planted onto the ground. Sweat beads formed along your forehead.
"A pair of students... walking through the forest alone... no, there's a group, but they are hidden among the bushes... spread out over a range... the footsteps are shaky, as if they're scared..." You tried to make sense of the information. There was no way another group was going to attack UA instead of you guys.
You pushed your luck and barely surfaced your roots, hoping to get in a clue on what was exactly going on by sensing the vibrations.
"I...da can't jo...n us," You frowned and strained your ears. You've never had to listen in on conversations from such a far distance before. Your dominant hand pulled away from the earth and reached into your pocket, pulling out a pen.
"Shame, n...ght walk is so f...n," your hands fumbled to write down what you were hearing. 'Iida can't join, nightwalk?'
"Ah, I know! They're doing a walk of bravery- one of the classes must be trying to scare the other class!" Mustard lifted up his gas mask. He smiled and tilted his head down. "We did that before during school camps too!"
You turned your attention back to what you were sensing. With the context in mind, the pieces slowly fell together.
"Roughly 5 students inside the building, 20 or more outside. 5 pro heroes out as well, no, 6? And one pro hero in the centre. I sense very distant footsteps," you gritted your teeth and pressed your hand harder into the earth, while your other hand continue to write down the rough layout and what was happening.
Your eyes were shut tight, you couldn't see anything, all you could do was feel, but you continued to desperately strain and stretch to figure out more- be more useful, be more-
"(Name). That's enough."
Your eyes snapped open your see your palm digging into the ground. The pen your other hand was grabbing onto was bent from the amount of force that you were gripping it with.
"Eh..?" You looked down to see blood dripping onto the floor. You shakily lifted your hand to wipe off your nosebleed.
"Don't overstrain yourself, it's only been 6 minutes," Dabi took the paper and pen away from you. He calmly placed it in his pocket and took one last glance at you.
"I won't know how to answer to Midoriya if he sees you like this. Get a grip."
You laughed, pinching the bridge of your nose as you attempt to stop the nosebleed. So even something like detecting could cause you harm...
You saw the leaves rustle as Mr. Compress leapt from tree to tree, allowing you to gauge where they were going without using your roots. You took a deep breath in as you concentrated on the task ahead, clutching the ground in front of you.
The moment the rustling stopped, the rest of the villains charged ahead to where it vanished. The plan had begun.
You were so nervous you felt like you couldn throw up at anytime. Your back suddenly felt cold and exposed, and the dead silence made you uneasy.
"I'm all alone now."
You took a deep breath in. Just as you were letting it out, a growl came from the bushes and the leaves rustled aggressively. You felt the hairs on your arm shoot up and goosebumps formed all over your skin.
"Right. Noumu."
Only the whirring and clicking of the tools on it's arms responded to you.
You bit your lip nervously and leaned back, closing your eyes as you placed your hands on the ground again. You heard footsteps pound against the ground, recognizing Toga's light and soft ones, Dabi cool and calm ones, and Twice's loud, aggressive footsteps that suddenly became nearly undetectable, before returning. The rest of the crew must've already split up.
Your eyes darted to the paper with morse code beside you. Communicating through morse code, huh. That was a tactic you would've never thought off.
All of a sudden, the footsteps ceased and your heart thumped noisily against your chest. You clutched it as you felt your entire body tense up.
The tapping came soon after.
C-A-N Y-O-U F-E-E-L U-S
Your breath hitched. You closed your eyes and made the bush beside them sprout flowers, as a way of saying yes. The footsteps shuffled a bit, and then the tapping began again.
G-O-O-D
A smile crept to your face. You breathed in, and began to shift the tree roots to mimic the tapping sounds.
R-E-A-D-Y
A muffled voice sounded out, and you noted that it was most likely Toga. She excitedly jumped around, and there was another pause, before the footsteps split up.
You felt a rush of cold air as the Noumu's whirring paused for a moment. Then it continued, and you sighed.
The motive that you all were behind was to create chaos and rough up the Yuuei students, possibly harming the teachers, and capturing a student- Kirishima.
He was Bakugou's closest friend, and the villain alliance was convinced that Bakugou would be able to entice him to join- even Bakugou was in on it. In fact, he sounded slightly happy to know that Kirishima could join them.
(N-A-M-E)
You snapped out of your daze, and located the footsteps.
R-E-A-D-Y
Dabi was ready. Just as the message spelled itself out, it was interrupted by another set. And another. And another.
A-L-L S-E-T
Dabi was the first one to get to his location, and you kinda expected it. You let out a chuckle, and your roots bummped against the surface of the ground.
G-O
The plan was in action.
Footsteps began patting, and a scream sounded out from the forest. You could see smoke already rising from the corner where Mustard was at- the night walk.
Dabi sneaked up on the teacher, and you could almost hear his snarky remarks.
Mustard's gas rapidly diffused through the chilly night sky, the deep violet surrounding the area and obscuring the dark green trees and navy blue sky.
Toga quitely walked up to a tree, looking at two girls who were oblivious to their surroundings.
So far, everything was going as planned. Fire erupted and trees fell- loud cracks resonated as logs were snapped and angry cries sounded out.
Your head whirred, and you noticed that Twice was lazing around, letting Dabi's clone do his thing. You wrapped your vine around his ankle and dragged him to the ground.
H-E-L-P T-H-E C-A-P-T-U-R-E
Twice stepped on your root, causing it to retract in pain. For a moment, you were sure he was about to start hurtling curses, but his personality did a swap and he headed straight to Mr Compress's direction.
Your nose twitched as you dug your hands deeper into the ground. Your nerves were calming down and you could finally comprehend the situation happening around you. Chaos erupted from all sides and yells as the heroes were knocked out.
A loud snap, as if someone stepped on a branch, suddenly sounded from the bush and you nearly jumped out of your skin. The damn Noumu! You whipped your head around angrily. You knew he was just going to distract you again-
But the Noumu was nowhere in sight.
And in front of you, was Yaoyozoru Momo, her face full of disbelief.