'SLAM!'
Silence filled the room with suffocating discomfort as the four of us looked at one another.
"What was that about?" Mezo asked sternly, turning to Shoto and me. We both avoided eye contact with him, not really in the mood to explain.
"Well I'm just glad you're feeling better now," Su smiled, "you were really freaking out earlier."
"Yeah, sorry about that," I chuckled, my gaze dancing around the halls.
"We should head over to the building now," Shoto said, changing the topic of conversation, "All Might won't want to wait."
Clapping my hands and focusing my vision on Su, I said, "Right! We'll want some time to start planning a strategy, so let's go!"
I grabbed onto Su's wrist and began to dash away, waving and yelling "Good luck!" back at Mezo and Shoto as I ran.
~~~~~~~~
"Are our bunch of rookies ready?!!" All Might yelled over the speakers that surrounded us. We had just arrived at the top floor; we didn't even get to assign who was going to do what yet!
"Let the match..." I sprinted to the nearest window to see where Shoto and Mezo were, and, thankfully, they were standing right outside the entrance. "BEGIINNNN!!!"
I watched the both of the leisurely waltz onto the first level, as though they already were certain they would win.
'Do they already have a plan, or are they just going to wing it?' I wondered, walking back over to Su.
"Listen," I said as Su bobbed her head up, "Shoto's quirk could be very dangerous to you, so you cannot fight him at all. Unfortunately, it's long range, so you should avoid him at all costs."
"I doubt they'll try to stick together, so I'll just go after Mezo," she suggested.
"Good." I ran to the window again and saw Mezo standing by himself, looking around like he was bored. Looking down, I said, "Climb down the outside walls in camouflage and try to catch Mezo by surprise, I'll cover Shoto."
She nodded and slowly crept out, being careful to watch where Mezo was focusing.
'I'll just shrink and try taking Shoto by surprise,' I thought, 'It doesn't seem like he thinks he needs Mezo's extremely useful quirk, so I bet he's underestimated our abilities.'
I began to clear my mind and relax, slowly shrinking down to the size of a bug. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move across the hallway, scaring me half-to-death.
'Is he already here!?!?' I thought, panicked sending my mind into a frenzy.
My quirk went out of control just in time to save me from being frozen, along with the rest of the building.
I fell to the ground, awed at the thick ice surrounding every inch of the lot.
'So he was planning on freezing the two of us where we were standing,' I thought, 'I wonder if he'll expect any resistance.' I smirked evilly to myself, already planning my new course of action. I was careful not to land on my ankles for fear of breaking them and focused on trying as hard as I could not to slip and mess up my grand idea.
'Wait - Su's in danger!' I thought, fear and doubt easing its way into my head, 'She might be fighting with Mezo right now!'
I grew as fast as I could and raced over to the window.
'I can't see her!' My heart pounded as I frantically scanned the ground for any sign of my froggy friend. Mezo was still there, though.
'He must not have noticed her,' I thought, hope beginning to emerge, 'Did she jump off the building?'
I heard ice shatter in the distance and remembered who was walking up to greet me.
'Not the time,' I thought, 'I need to focus on Shoto. Need to give him a warm welcome, after all."
I shrank back down to the size of a fruit fly and darted out to find my opponent. Since being a good fighter while tiny was reliant on strength, speed, and stamina, my dad had helped me train my skills and hone both my mind and body, to have the advantage of tactic and power. He, after all, does have the same quirk. I smiled, picking up speed with newfound determination. I will make him proud.
'There he is!' I thought, shaking myself out of my state of euphoria as I turned a corner and found him casually walking down the hall. 'He looks scary when he's like this...'
He was staring straight ahead, not really paying much attention to anything around him.
'If he doesn't counter my attack, I can assume he didn't even consider Su and I would be able to get out.'
Using the darkness of the corner, I bolted toward him unseen. 'Like a ninja!' I beamed internally. I crept behind him and jumped up as high as I could, growing just enough to kick both of his knees in.
He fell forward, completely taken by surprise.
'I was right,' I snickered. I quickly shrunk back down until he couldn't see me, climbing up the dim wall. 'Now I'm a spider-ninja!' I thought gleefully.
I leaped out and landed on his shoulder, weighing it down immensely. He almost fell to the ground again, but he caught himself with a burst of ice this time.
'Perfect,' I thought, 'This'll just give me a better angle.'
Using as much force as I could, I punched his neck, sending him flying backwards through the air. This time, he caught himself in an unexpected way. I was at a somewhat sideways angle, so he instinctively let out a spurt of fire. He slowed down his fall and fumbled to stay on his feet.
Panicked, I ran up the wall and stuck to the ceiling, using my daggers to defy gravity.
'I've never actually seen him use his fire before,' I thought, 'I just knew he had it. It's pretty cool, first-hand! Hey ' He looked around frantically, trying to locate his attacker. 'No, I need to finish this before I do anything else.' I wasn't going to miss this chance.
I leaped down again onto his head and climbed around his figure, leaving a trail of capture tape as I climbed. Unsure of what to do, he randomly tried to shoot small, sharp pieces of ice at me, which I easily dodged.
I was aiming to finish before he was able to freeze the tape and break out of it, but it didn't seem like he was fighting back after a while.
'I'm lucky that he wasn't expecting a lot from me,' I thought, 'Next time we fight, I'm sure he'll be a lot more careful.' I was a little amused by how easy it was to capture him. 'Wait - what about Su?'
Before I could move a muscle, All Might yelled, "Great work! The villain team wins!!!"
Growing to my normal size, I took a breath of relief, happy Su was able to stay safe and defeat Mezo.
"When you're ready, wrap up everything and come on back to the monitoring room!!" All Might's voice sang, a small beep sounding once he was done.
'I guess that means he turned off the microphone,' I assumed.
I looked over to Shoto, wondering what kind of condition he was in. He was slowly unraveling the capture tape, a respectful frown frozen on his face.
He looked up and made an expression that told me all I needed to know.
He wasn't angry or upset with me at all. He was angry with himself, like he felt remorse for a wrong he didn't commit. I felt a sinking feeling as I realized this was bigger than frustration with losing. This was something else entirely.
"Hey, (Y/n)!" Su's voice called out from behind me. I turned around, startled.
"Hey, Su!" I responded, "What happened; are you okay?"
"Yeah." She turned to the window, my head following. "I saw the ice coming, so I hopped to the building across the street. Once I saw Mezo let his guard down, I stuck him to the ground and wrapped tape around him before he could escape."
'I guess there was nothing to worry about...' I thought, 'This was much simpler than I expected it would be.'
Even though my team had won, I felt so unsatisfied, knowing I sparked something in Shoto that seemed to bother him that much. He didn't exactly seem like the kind of guy who liked to talk about his feelings either, so all I could do was hope.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to focus on the person in more immediate need of help.
"Come on," I said, waving a hand to Su, "Let's start heading back."