Chapter 15 - A Spar with a Sword
When she first used her quirk, her mother had called her a genius.
At a young age, she had already memorized the individual parts, the material composition, the assembly process, and finally the coating of a Matryoshka doll.
It wasn't notable, not incredibly so. Anyone in her family could have done it, but it was because she had been six years of age when she created it that it earned her praise.
Her family's quirk, while versatile and powerful, was inherently harder to use when compared to other quirks. Take her classmate Bakugo for an instance, his quirk only needed to be triggered to induce an explosion.
However, she was in no way downplaying the effects of his quirk, but if she wanted to also create an explosion then she would need to envision the chemical composition of a grenade, its parts, and its base shape to create, and then she would need to throw it.
Her quirk was versatile but it was hard to use. Hence, why her mother had called her a genius. Following her success of the Matryoshka doll, she had created a polearm, a gauze used for sealing wounds, and even a rocket launcher.
She was a genius, that was why she had been recommended to U.A. Not just for her quirk but for her talent, or at least that was what her parents always told her.
She did not want to disappoint their expectations, she would succeed in this exercise with flying colors.
Although, those thoughts did not change the frustration Yaoyorozu Momo felt as she listened to her teammates with a sigh.
"This sucks~" Monoma drawled within the literal third building used today. "I'm not even paired with any Class B guys."
"Come on man, lighten up!" Kirishima cheered. "We get to show off now! It's not every day we get to fight with our quirks like this!"
"Please don't talk to me."
This was getting ridiculous.
"Why do you dislike Class A so much, Monoma-san?" Yaoyorozu asked with subtle annoyance. She was a nice and kind individual, but it was grating on her nerves whenever he badmouthed her class like that.
It was also affecting her focus, which was very important for her to use her quirk. Creating barricades around the weapon room was an arduous yet important task. They were sturdy, very much so, it would take a very strong battering ram to break it.
"None of your business," Monoma said, though there was a hint of increased agitation from it.
"Seriously, lighten up!" Kirishima once more said, pushing further. "Heroes got to have teamwork, right? Arguing like this isn't going to get us anywhere."
"Fine~" Monoma drawled but he didn't seem to truly acknowledge the issue. He sighed and faced Yaoyorozu. "So, what's the plan? I know for a fact that I can't fight Shishida, I can't copy Mutant Quirks… then again, I'm not sure Jurota's quirk is completely a mutant type. Kodai's quirk is weird too, it makes other objects grow and shrink. I can only fight that Emiya guy…"
Monoma trailed off as he looked at what Yaoyorozu was doing.
"… You know that those barricades won't help much right?" He informed. "Kodai can just shrink it away and Shishida can just punch it down too."
Yaoyorozu halted her work with a twitch of her fingertips.
"A-Are you sure about that, Monoma-san?" She asked with a subtle tremble of annoyance.
"Shishida can break through solid concrete once he gets his quirk going anyway so these walls won't matter," He said as he twirled his finger around. "Kodai could also probably shrink a section of the building or something so that a kick or a punch would break it down."
Her face admittedly faulted into a frown as took in the information.
"Then that would have been nice to know a minute ago, Monoma-san."
"Although, you do have a nice quirk…" Monoma commented. "Being able to create whatever you want… Maybe I should copy it and make some weapons."
Here we go again…
Yaoyorozu sighed, she didn't really like explaining the quirks of her 'quirk'.
"I'd advise against it Monoma-san. To use my quirk – Creation – You need to memorize the molecular structure of the object before you even begin creating them. It has taken me a long time to even learn how to use my quirk."
"Really? That sucks," Monoma frowned and turned to Kirishima. "What about you?"
"My quirk is Hardening," He explained. "I can make my body really hard to withstand loads of attacks. I can probably take on the Shishida guy you mentioned."
Monoma gave him a once over. "Yeah, you probably could… though I doubt it. So that means that while you can take care of him, I can either deal with Kodai or the Emiya guy…"
"I'd advise not fighting Emiya-san," Yaoyorozu cut in. "His quirk is Weapon Creation. With it, he can make weaponry. It is very much similar to mine. He has told me that he needs to visualize the components, materials, and overall creation-process of the object."
Monoma sighed exaggeratedly.
"Great, just great. My greatest asset is copying other quirks– and I can only copy the quirks of TWO people in a battle with SIX people!" He rubbed his brow in agitation. "Okay… here's the plan. I'll copy Redhead's quirk and use some weaponry if you can provide it, which should give me an edge against Kodai. Redhead can fight Shishida – or at least stall him until I can help – and you can deal with Emiya. Your quirks are similar enough after all."
"I'm always up for a good old brawl," Kirishima claimed as he smashed two hardened knuckles together. Yaoyorozu only nodded at his words.
She now had the role of fighting Emiya Shirou… One whose quirk was incredibly similar to hers.
Honestly, she felt indifferent about that. She had the upper hand on the variety of things that they can create, so she should be just fine right?
If he makes a sword, she'll reply with a spear. If it was a shield, she'll counter with a grenade or a gun. She had the advantage of modern weaponry. She could even create a giant iron ball and let it roll down the corridor. She was sure of her victory…
… So why was it that she thought back on Aizawa-sensei's words?
Do not underestimate potential allies and enemies.
That was what her teacher had said, but Yaoyorozu was not underestimating anyone, she was sure of that.
Monoma would deal with Kodai, if his quirk can copy hers then his own natural strength should prevail against hers. Kirishima might struggle against this Shishida person, but once she or Monoma were done with their opponents then they could help out.
It was a good plan… yet his words kept ringing in her head.
… Perhaps she should start preparing more. Perhaps some long ranged weaponry or traps along the wall. A tripwire that triggers a mini flash grenade and alarm would do nicely.
With that in mind, Yaoyorozu started creating guns with rubber bullets, to the shocked and startled expressions of her teammates. She even offered to hand them a few rounds, but Kirishima declined to say it was unmanly.
Monoma certainly seemed okay with grabbing one though. He even requested something extra.
Around the weapon room's corridors, she set up traps and other hidden machinery. She also made sure to tell her teammates about them so that they could avoid them.
She should have no reason to worry now. After all, modern weaponry would triumph against medieval weaponry. It was proven already when you realize that modern day society abandoned such weaponry for guns and Kevlar.
She was fine, her prepared weapons were fine. All she had to do now was wait for the match to start. She was a genius, it was time to uphold that title.
Now if only Monoma-san would stop continually boasting about how much better his class was.
Shirou stared at the building before him. It was the most standard design for a building that there could be. However, he did notice a few differences as opposed to regular buildings.
The glass was bulletproof, which was an odd addition that Shirou could not see a reason for. The door up front was also made to resist brute force, which might be the same for every other door.
Luckily it was actually the only door, the entire inner sanctum of the building had no doors, only corridors and empty rooms for ambushes and traps.
Knowing the quirk of a certain person up there, there was a high chance that there would be traps set up.
This was going to be worthwhile training against human opponents. Fighting against superpowered demigods, witches, and some animated skeletons weren't a good comparison for him to have while against a much more fragile opponent.
He didn't want to accidentally shatter someone's skull… again.
"So, what's the plan?" Shishida asked from beside him, taking off his shirt for some reason, revealing his admittedly toned and furred body.
"I'm all for running in like madmen, but there are two reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea. First, while my quirk makes me much stronger and beast-like qualities… it gets me high, so coordination might be hard." He sounded embarrassed as he said that. "Second, we don't know what their quirks do."
One of those can be fixed.
"The redhead is named Kirishima and his quirk is Hardening," Shirou supplied handily. "It will allow him to endure harsh blows by strengthening his body. Yaoyorozu has a quirk named Creation, it's similar to mine but less restrictive."
"I see… and what does your quirk do?" Shishida asked.
"I can create weaponry," Shirou says as he traced a standard short sword. "I'm somewhat restricted. I can't make guns at all, something about their inner machinery just doesn't work with me. I can make a bit of armor too but bladed weaponry is what my quirk works best with."
It was actually frustrating. A quick ranged option like a firearm would be useful in many situations. Not that he liked shooting people with a gun.
"I see…" Shishida muttered as he rubbed his furry brown chin. "That would mean that this 'Yaoyorozu' will be creating a plethora of equipment that Monoma and this 'Kirishima' will use."
"That… or traps." Kodai supplied as if reading Shirou's mind.
Shishida frowned. "This will be troublesome… Kodai? Could you grab some debris from the building that the Bakugou guy wrecked and use it as an elevator? It'd be a great shortcut into the building."
She made to nod but ultimately shook her head.
"That might be impossible. While I can enlarge objects to that height, I'd be leaving the field area in doing so." A few moments of silence. "Also, this is an indoor training exercise."
Shishida nodded with a frown.
"Right, so that's our first plan out… we'll need to come up with another if these traps prove to be troublesome."
Shirou thought back to the villain team and narrowed his eyes as he remembered something.
"I forgot to ask, what does Monoma-san do? He wore a butler outfit but I don't know how it helps his quirk."
He was legitimately confused. Was his quirk related to pastries or tea?
Shishida blinked and smacked his forehead.
"I forgot to tell you, sorry. Monoma Neito's quirk allows him to copy another person's quirk on touch. We shouldn't run into any problems as long as it's me who engages him… Are you okay, Emiya?"
Copy… another person's quirk?
Shirou inadvertently swallowed some bile.
That… was bad.
If Monoma touched him even once… Would his 'quirk' be copied or not? Did he want his 'quirk' to be copied? It was the same dilemma with Aizawa. If Aizawa wanted to negate his magecraft by using his own quirk, would it actually work or not?
His secret could get exposed here and now.
The secret that his 'quirk' was not actually a quirk.
Kodai noticed his distress and frowned in concern.
"Is something wrong, Emiya?"
"Now, let's start the indoor combat training between Team K and Team N!"
Shirou sighed and entered the building with Kodai and Shishida trailing behind.
"Nothing, Kodai-san…"
There was no more time to properly dwell upon it now. The exercise had started so they had to enter the building lest Aizawa scolds them. However, there was one thing he would without a doubt follow.
Under no circumstances is he to fight the student known as Monoma Neito.
They found a simple corridor, it had open rooms whose doors had yet to be installed, and a stairway leading to the next floor straight ahead.
"Let's go," Shirou said with caution. "Knowing Yaoyorozu's quirk, the weapon should be on the top floor with traps surrounding the lower ones. We should be careful–"
They didn't even go up one set of stairs before seeing someone rushing out to them.
It was Monoma Neito.
Shirou couldn't even hide the surprise etched onto his face.
Were they allowed to just let one of them run out and fight them all at once at the start? This person has a copy ability, but surely he can't fight all of them at once.
Would his secret be out already!?
Shirou instantly traced a dull and non-lethal pair of swords. Even if being touched by the copy quirk was something he wanted to avoid at all costs, he wouldn't willingly cause excessive harm to him from using a Noble Phantasm here of all places.
Though, he'd still use his current traced blades to keep him away.
He could have traced his favored pair of Kanshou and Bakuya, but he hardly thought that was going to be fair… Or perhaps he should try to use them, albeit with some alteration to round the edges – to make it blunt. It would certainly take a whole load of mana though.
"Eat this!"
Luckily, Shishida rushed towards the Copy-quirk user with a smile on his face – telling Shirou that he activated his quirk and allowing him some reprieve from the surprise – with an enlarged clenched fist raised to land a devastating hook.
Alongside Shishida's rapidly increasing stature and bestial strength, it would surely damage Monoma by a significant margin, especially considering that was nearly as wide and about a head or two shorter than Berserker, which wasn't exactly small by any regard. Without reinforcement, he looked like he could crush Shirou's spine.
That thought vanished as Shirou saw Monoma grin and raise his hands to block the attack… with his skin hardening before the blow was struck. The villain team member was shot to the side by the sheer force of Shishida's attack.
However, he did not tumble across the ground as was intended, but instead, he skidded to a halt, the Hardening quirk having aided in his defense.
"He copied the Hardening!" Shirou called which caused Shishida to frown.
"No wonder my fist feels like it hit a wall… Gnarly," Jurota muttered with a goofy smile.
He really did get high, didn't he? Actually, it looks more like being drunk.
This was substantially going to be harder for Shishida to fight him, but that was fine. There were three of them, as long as they coordinated then they could restrain Monoma easily–
Once more Shirou's thoughts were disturbed. Rapid footsteps from one of the open rooms behind them. Shirou had been the first to react and raise his traced swords up in defense.
"Take this–!"
His quick reaction managed to block the downward swipe from Kirishima. The force being dispersed by the crossguard of his blades.
After seeing the two enemies in their exercise already when they haven't even stepped on a single stairway, Shirou was admittedly taken off guard. He had expected a battle but nothing this soon.
He was prepared though, he had been taken off guard before by Caster and it nearly cost him his life. It was not something he'd like a repeat of.
However, both Monoma and Kirishima had completely rushed out of the weapon room and into the first-floor hall – which meant that Yaoyorozu was inside the room alone – but why? Surely they must have planned to account for her safety?
Shirou pushed with his footing as leverage to shove Kirishima away. He took the chance and bolted him, ready to take him out of the fight with a swing of his blunted blade to his cranium.
He had a hardening quirk so he would survive it–
Shirou's instincts worked on overdrive as he stopped his charge, swords raised to block what his combat-hardened instincts told him.
The sound of a gun echoed the hallway. Kirishima looked mildly shocked but regained his own footing, and eventually faced his own teammate, Monoma… who had a pistol held out towards Shirou, smoke whistling out of the red-hot barrel.
That was, without a doubt, made by Yaoyorozu, which only meant that either Monoma or Kirishima had more up their sleeves.
Wasn't this supposed to be a simple exercise!?
"Don't worry," Monoma said with a smirk. "It's got rubber bullets so it won't kill you, but it'll hurt a lot!"
"Just try it, pansy!" Shishida growled loudly at the proclamation and rushed him. This prompted the Monoma to leap to the side in order to avoid him.
Kodai took a separate approach from the beast-man and simply grabbed some broken debris from Jurota's initial attack. She raised it like a baseball, and threw it, increasing the size of the debris to a substantial degree, almost as large as Monoma himself.
The incredibly accurate pitch, with the added size and momentum, the newly created boulder soared in order to crush Monoma into the wall.
"Dodge, Monoma!" Kirishima called.
His warning came a second too late as the boulder impacted, sending the tuxedo teen flying into the nearby wall, leaving an indent of himself on it. Monoma shrugged it off with only a single stretch of his neck and rushed towards Shishida, most likely having taken barely any damage.
It was unfortunate that he would be fine with the quirk that he had copied. They could have taken out one of the villain team members early.
Kirishima was about to jump to help him, something that Shirou approved of, but even so, he would not let him.
Shirou was still in front of Kirishima, so he used his position to his advantage as he shuffled and leaped… right in his fellow redhead's path, surprising the teen with his agility.
Taking advantage of Kirishima's momentary surprise, Shirou quickly threw both swords at him, which prompted him to harden as much as he could. Shirou's own blades either bounced or slid off him.
Shirou de-traced the blades as soon as they did. The light from doing so momentarily blinded his classmate. With this minor opening, Shirou closed the distance and kicked him away, causing some surprising amount of damage, likely due to it being a surprise attack and his boots being tipped with metal.
Kodai, after also taking advantage of the opening and grabbing several handfuls of debris, re-positioned herself away from the bulk of the fight to let Shishida take point as the vanguard. The bestial boy growled as he bolted forward and attempted to knock the copy quirk user out of the fight.
With Kirishima still in the process of recovering, Monoma wouldn't be able to deal with Shishida's charge with Kodai's long ranged support.
Or at least, Shirou thought so.
The moment that Shishida's enlarged fist met the Copy-quirk user, he cried out in pain.
From where Shirou stood, he could see the faint flicks of light from behind Shishida's silhouette alongside the smell of mildly burning fur. Shirou was confused, though. Where would that last smell be coming from… unless–
Shishida backed away, screaming profanities due to his high-state, which allowed Monoma to slip by under him and rush onward. In his grasp, Shirou finally understood why Shishida felt that way.
There was a taser in Monoma's hands.
A standard issue police officer's taser, obviously prepared beforehand with a certain someone's quirk.
Yaoyorozu again!?
No doubt weakened in order to be as non-lethal as possible, but the electric shock would no doubt stun the bestial boy for a few seconds.
More than enough time for Monoma to make his way towards Kodai.
With her quirk, her disposition as a close-ranged fighter was not optimal, or rather somewhat non-existent as a whole. She wouldn't be able to deal with Monoma, who had both a taser and Kirishima's quirk.
Shirou ignored any further musings and traced a pair of nameless yet sturdy blades. He spun his body for momentum and threw both blades towards the rushing copycat.
The blades whirled like windmills, eager to sever any and all that came in its path. However, they would be unable to do so with Shirou purposely using Alteration and dulling them.
The spinning blades provided enough of a distraction for Monoma to notice them and harden his whole body to deny the assault.
When the blades bounced off of him, the Copy-quirk user let out a wide smirk.
However, in that moment many more events occurred.
Shishida shrugged off the faint feeling of electricity and got ready to charge towards Monoma again.
Kodai threw small bits of debris before her and enlarged them until they became rolling boulders.
Kirishima got onto his feet and surged forth to aid his teammate with his hardened head and forearms as if the prongs of a beetle.
However, his charge would not lead anywhere, as Shirou hooked a newly traced Egyptian khopesh around his forearm like a hook and spun, using his own momentum to send him crashing into one of Kodai's rolling boulders.
While Shirou did so, a charging Shishida and the other rolling boulder were close to impacting the Class 1-B student...
... but he wouldn't be done in there.
The pistol he used earlier still had some rubber ammo in reserve. He quickly raised the weapon and shot a quick and dirty blow to Shishida's chest. Whether it was luck or skill, the bullet impacted the exact area where the distance between Shishida's furry hide and heart was thinnest.
The sudden jolt of shock stopped his charge as he stumbled and rolled over belly up. He was definitely fine because a second later he'd be back on his feet.
However, the same could be said for Kirishima, who recovered from being driven into the ground from his own charge and immediately tried going for a leg sweep on Shirou.
It would hurt, seeing as Kirishima had his quirk, but his form wasn't right. Shirou stepped closer in and avoided being hit by the heel of his sweep. Instead, he was hit with Kirishima's thigh, which didn't provide nearly enough damage due to lack of overall momentum.
The closer you were to a strike, the less time it had to generate any momentum. Shirou's own personal spars with Saber had proved it to him better than any manual would have.
However, with Shishida and him both occupied, Shirou widened his eyes in realization as he tried to aid Kodai, but Kirishima's painfully hard grip around his ankles prevented any of that.
With one Hardening-quirk powered punch from the Copy-quirk user, Kodai was sent flying back as if she was a mere paperweight.
She roughly rolled on the floor, scrapping her arms on the cement, but she managed to drop a few pieces of debris and formed a wall between him and her as she rolled by, isolating her away from the physically superior foe.
A few bits of debris flew above the haphazard wall and surrounded Monoma, growing until the debris surrounded him completely from the bottom to the top of the bottom floor ceiling.
However, in doing so Kodai had hastily dug through her pockets for the said debris. That haste made something fall out of her pocket and be quickly torn asunder by the momentum.
Her capture tape.
Shishida saw this upon getting back up and grabbed Kirishima, dragging him off of Shirou's legs after kicking him once to loosen his grip.
"Go! Emiya!" Shishida shouted with sudden vitriol. "Go get the bomb!"
Shirou blinked. "Why!? I can help here!"
Kodai was the next one to shout from behind her make-shift wall. "We've wasted three minutes already! We won't beat them anytime soon! GO!"
Shirou thinned his lips and nodded to Shishida. "Good luck."
The bestial boy nodded as Kirishima got back onto his feet.
"T-That was a manly kick you got there!" He complemented with a smile. However, he held something in his clenched hardened fist. "But I'm way more manly than you! I got his tape, Monoma!"
The moment he opened his palm, Shishida's capture tape, having been grabbed by the Hardening-quirk user before he was kicked away, fell to the ground ripped to shreds.
Shishida actually giggled. "Are you sure that I'll need that!?"
A smug laugh echoed out.
"Don't underestimate us."
Before Shirou could even get a running start, Monoma's voice cut through loudly from behind his prison of rocks.
"Kodai-san, thank you for buying me time– and for breaking your capture tape!" He stated from behind. Even without seeing his face, Shirou could already imagine his expression just from spending a few minutes with him. "I would have struggled quite a bit if you still had it!"
Then a single segment of the wall of rocks surrounding the Class 1-B student shook, before suddenly... shrinking.
He copied Kodai's quirk.
Shirou narrowed his eyes. He really should have gone up the stairs by now, but copying Kodai's quirk without anything to shrink or grow was almost– no, completely pointless.
Something was wrong.
"Are you sure you guys don't want me to stay?" Shirou asked tentatively.
"Monoma and the redhead ain't gonna let us leave," Shishida stated with a grunt. "We'll keep these bastards down here. Go get the thing!"
He really couldn't spend another second to think about it, so he puckered his lips as if tasting something particularly sour, and rushed up the stairwell.
Time was ticking, and Shirou didn't want to waste a single second of it…
… but he wasn't going to leave his team behind without something to help them out. He wouldn't need it anyway.
Aizawa calmly inhaled and checked his wristwatch.
Before the class had started, Yamada Hizashi or more commonly known as Present Mic had invited him to go to a cafe. He didn't know why his friend asked, but he mentioned that it was getting popular for pro-heroes to go to for their day off.
He didn't get a reason why it was so, but he chose to humor him and accepted only if this joint exercise ended on time.
Based on the way the match was developing, it looks like the match was going to.
Team N, or the Villain Team, had rushed them instantly and confronted the Hero team in the first hallway. He couldn't fault them though, it gave them a small element of surprise to use which overall helped.
"Is that allowed? All-Might-sensei?" Ashido Mina asked as she looked at the big screen. "I thought we were supposed to wait in the weapons room until the battle started…"
"Yes, it is! I'm surprised not many of you thought of doing that," He said with an ever-present smile. "In fact, I'm surprised that young Bakugo didn't do it in the first place. You were required to defend the weapon, but as long as you battle inside of the building then there's nothing wrong with it!"
One could argue that the explosive brat already went to the Hero team instantly, but the brat waited in the weapon room before the match started whereas these students chose to wait near the entrance for an ambush.
Aizawa would give them points for thinking outside the box, ambushes early on do exist during indoor villain encounters – ignoring how rare they are – so this will be a necessary experience for the brats to have.
On the other side of the spectrum, Aizawa eyed the weapon room camera, noticing how Yaoyorozu was leaning on the weapon in the center of the room, gathering her thoughts and resting her head on the barrel of a machine gun.
She had ammo packs strapped to her waist, most likely having been made by her quirk at a relative speed. She had used her preparation time well, better than any of the other Villain teams at least.
Her eyes trailed to the wall and Aizawa's own widened at what he saw when he followed her gaze.
The girl had created a monitor that tapped into the security camera footage they were seeing. She knew what was going on down back at the lower floor.
Well played.
"Are guns allowed? Aren't they dangerous?" Kendou Itsuka voiced out, with reasonable concern.
Aizawa himself sent a glance to the weaponry Yaoyorozu and Monoma Neito held as he answered. "Not in this case. If they were real guns then yes, but those are rubber bullets, so they should be fine." He said.
It'd do good for these kids to gain a little pain tolerance. Recovery girl could heal the superficial wounds anyway.
Despite his musings and mild admiration for the tactics that Yaoyorozu developed, Aizawa's mood admittedly dropped as he frowned when the Kodai destroyed a segment of the wall with debris in an attempt to hit a now more bestial Monoma. The hole was up till the ceiling in height.
Luckily there were no cracks that spread across the entire building, she must have held back enough so that it wouldn't do much damage. Or, Cementoss had built this particular building to be sturdier than the rest, which was another likely possibility.
Wait… wasn't that brat the one with the copy quirk?
He was proven right when Monoma Neito crawled out of the wreckage. He didn't even appear mildly harmed, no doubt due to a certain student's quirk, also ignoring any possible childish innuendos.
In the back of his mind, Aizawa was reminded of a certain fellow professional hero that would have laughed her gut out at any possible innuendo she would have found.
Aizawa's eye twitched.
Great…
Just thinking about that hero made him irritated.
Aizawa decided to shrug off the thought and narrowed his eyes on the scene before him.
More specifically, the scene of Monoma shocking the Shishida kid with a taser.
Smart.
With a taser, no doubt produced by the Yaoyorozu girl with Monoma's orders, the Copy-quirk user had a major advantage when facing Shishida Jurota due to the student's tendency to lower his guard in battle… something that his homeroom teacher, Blood King or Sekijiro Kan, should work on.
In theory, his own student, Kirishima Eijiro, should have a taser too… yet from what he could see, the boy must have turned down any unmanly weapon, in favor of his quirk.
It seemed that the brat though, wouldn't allow his teammate, Kodai Yui, to be under siege for long. He distracted the Monoma brat long enough for everyone to recover in a large scuffle.
By the end of it, Monoma wounded up trapped in a circular wall of enlarged debris and most of the hero team lost their capture tapes. The advantage laid with the hero team… but time was already wasting away.
If Aizawa measured this right, then if the three on two situation continued, it would take far too long for all of them to reach the bomb at the top of the building… especially considering the traps and wires surrounding the entire floors between them.
Well done, Yaoyorozu.
It looked like the villain team's victory was almost a hundred percent assured.
… If only Aizawa was as naive as to believe that.
The brat's team noticed how much time they lost and sent him up the stairway to face Yaoyorozu Momo alone.
Now… let's see how you handle the brat.
Aizawa sighed and rubbed his sorely tired eyes. He hoped that this would end quickly. He had forgotten to eat lunch.
It was from this short second that he didn't pay attention that he didn't notice what the brat had left behind.
Yaoyorozu raised her rubber bullet filled machine gun and leaned on the weapon. There were trip wires everywhere. If she had more time, then she could have sealed the weapon in a cage of iron.
However, she was more than content with the horde of wires in the floors between the top and bottom. Hard work courtesy of Monoma-san and Kirishima-san.
When the tripwires triggered, she would know which corridor Emiya walked through and activate the previously made knockout gas canisters, less effective of course to lessen her overall lipid consumption.
She was glad that she had a full main-course breakfast and lunch. She still had enough lipids stocked up for a full frontal fight left.
Everything was going according to plan.
Kirishima was stalling with Monoma. Together they stopped more than half of the enemy team from entering the building. Only Emiya was permitted entry.
She could see from a miniature camera the fight occurring on the lower floor.
Monoma was struggling at first, but he showed proved to be very flexible. They had the advantage in the battle, Monoma had already managed to copy Kodai's quirk, which opened a door for him. With Shishida in his own quirk-induced high, they'd be less likely to be able to formulate a proper counter-attack, especially if Monoma continued to pressure Kodai, the only one with enough brains to formulate a plan.
If that continued, then her teammates would win without a single doubt. They would be able to return here and take down Emiya together.
Everything now hinged upon her making sure that the weapon was not obtained before the right time.
It was hinged on the battle between her and Emiya Shirou.
The silence was deafening to her ears. She gripped her machine gun tighter, looking for any sign of sound–
A shuffle of footsteps to her left dragged her attention.
How!? He should have triggered some tripwires, at least one!
Yaoyorozu got to her feet and leveled the machine gun towards the entrance. She remained silent as the footsteps echoed from the corridor. They were faint, but definitely there.
Sticking to blind faith, Yaoyorozu fired the machine gun. It was deafening and rattled her eardrums, but she was used to that.
Her faith paid off, Emiya having leaped behind a pillar quickly. She could see the sword he made poking out from behind the pillar. She was honestly expecting him to come more prepared. She had already given Monoma a gun so it wasn't unreasonable to assume she'd have one too.
She reached into her pocket and went with the next plan, seeing as her hail of bullets were doing nothing but scrapping the pillar and leaving some minor rubble in its wake.
How will you handle this one, Emiya-san?
From behind the pillar, Shirou contemplated his options.
He was actually lucky that Monoma chose to ignore him completely to deal with both Shishida and Kodai, but he supposed that they were the bigger threat when compared to him.
From their perspective, all he could do was make swords, which were ultimately futile to use against Kirishima's quirk. Which was technically true, but he didn't want to reveal the fact that he could bypass his quirk, either through black keys or some other weapon in his reality marble, because then they'd target him instead.
He had avoided the tripwires, which were easy seeing as he noticed them glint in the light and with a little help from structural grasping. She had not hidden them well, in fact, they were hidden rather hastily, most likely from time constraints.
However, they were definitely numerous. It took quite a while to weave his body around them all and finding unconventional ways through the hallways, like through some open hall windows or even leaving the building entirely to scale the side of it.
Fortunately at the time, with the added fact that Yaoyorozu had provided Monoma a gun, Shirou assumed she would have one as well, which made entering from the window and entirely too risky venture to undertake.
Unfortunately, it meant he had to take the long route, which lost him a minute or two. It left him with five to finish up the round.
So here he was, behind a slowly deteriorating pillar, being pelted with a torrent of bullets, which would hurt like hell if he stepped out and into the Creation-quirk user's sights.
The pillar was holding steady, but that wasn't going to be true for long. She was going to continue firing anyway, she wasn't going to run out of bullets with her quirk. In fact, he saw a few ammo packs strapped under her legs, which would definitely last her for five minutes straight, or possibly even more than that.
He wasn't safe however, he was under a time limit and needed to get to the 'weapon'. He couldn't do that while under heavy suppression fire. Underestimating her ingenuity wasn't going to help him win the exercise.
What was her next move?
The sound of a rolling canister was covered by the gunfire, but he noticed it nonetheless.
He raised both worn swords and leaped out from his cover as he saw the canister roll out from the other side of where he had escaped. It was a flashbang.
Shirou frowned and tossed his blades her way, hoping that she would stop her rain of bullets so that he could take new shelter.
Throwing the worn-down swords had created the intended effect. The gunfire had stopped as Yaoyorozu dodged away from it, she didn't stumble whatsoever but her eyes were semi-shut.
He managed to worm his way behind another pillar as the flashbang went off. It didn't affect him at all as it was completely out of his line of sight. Yaoyorozu was fine too, having created a quick blanket of steel to cover her vision.
Guns, tripwires, grenades, steel sheets, and of course tasers.
She was versatile indeed.
He was about to trace two more nameless blades when the rain of gunfire returned. He needed a permanent way to get rid of those before she created another flashbang, he couldn't just do the same thing again, she would counter it somehow.
… Shirou sighed to himself and traced Kanshou and Bakuya, dulling them slightly for non-lethal attacks.
He had faced worse in the Holy Grail War.
Shirou leaped from his cover the moment the gunfire stopped in time to see a grenade canister held in her hand to be thrown. Yaoyorozu seemed surprised at his decision and tossed the flashbang behind her, this way, only he would be affected by the flash.
At the same time, she raised her gun to fire at him.
When the flash of light came, Shirou closed his eyes to prevent any damage from coming forth.
He quickly opened an eye slightly in time with the resuming gunfire. He saw a bullet fly close to his head, which he avoided. Luckily she was using a machine gun, which wasn't as effective at the range he was at.
He had enough vision to see what her eyes were focusing on, her line of sight, what she stared at, and where she aimed.
His current situation could be compared to his final battle in the Holy Grail War. The King of Heroes' barrage of Noble Phantasms were extensive and hard to maneuver around, but he managed to do it all the same.
Those phantasms were shot at him faster than what he was experiencing now, somehow shot with a bit more precision, and strong enough that he had to strain his reinforced body to parry or block them.
However, he had an advantage in this battle when compared to the one he had months ago.
Bullets were just weaker versions of the Noble Phantasms that King of Heroes fired.
Compared to that life-threatening situation?
This was almost nothing.
Shirou rose Kanshou and with perfect timing, bent his blade just enough that the bullet flew off to his side, deflected.
If he had used a regular sword then they would have bent from the force of the bullet – or shattered if enough bullets managed to hit it – but these blades were Noble Phantasms, something with no conceptual weight like a bullet let alone a rubber one, was not going to damage it in the slightest.
Although, his arm shook slightly from taking the recoil of the bullet, which was honestly expected. If his arms trembled like weeds with reinforcement against Gilgamesh's treasury, then his arms without reinforcement were obviously going to do the same with the mundane projectiles.
Shirou ignored the small victory and proceeded to focus on the next bullet that would have hindered his charge. He didn't even register the shock on her face as he used Bakuya to deflect another that came his way, and another, and another, and another.
In a flurry – a magnificent display of both skill and agility – Shirou weaved through the hail of bullets, his eyes solely focusing on her form and where her eyes were directed, much like what he did against a certain heroic king.
That success didn't last for long. Even he didn't come out of the King of Heroes barrage unscathed, a few bullets scrapped his forehead leaving ugly scratch marks. He would have been injured more had they been metal bullets, but because they were rubber, he survived that particular blow.
He ignored the pain as he deflected another which would have hit his kneecaps, another which would have injured his collarbone, and another that would have injured his eye.
He rose Kanshou ready to block another when the machine gun clicked.
Yaoyorozu stared in confusion and pulled the trigger, Shirou still a few meters away, but widened her eyes. Shirou noticed it too.
The gun had jammed.
"What!?" She blurted out in surprise.
The only conclusion Shirou had as to why this happened was that Yaoyorozu hadn't fully memorized the structure of a machine gun yet. It worked long enough to be functional but it failed after what seemed like several minutes of consecutive fire. Which was astounding in actuality.
However, it provided a window of opportunity. He would not waste this chance.
Yaoyorozu only had a moment to create a polearm with her quirk before Shirou was upon her. Apart from her being surprised at the speed of his step-in, Shirou noted that the polearm was made well despite it being barren in design.
She managed to block a single blow from Kanshou – with the Noble Phantasm digging deeply into the polearm halfway regardless of being dulled– but Bakuya was still available to use.
Shirou made to slap her arms away with the flat of the blade, but she leaped away and created another polearm.
The hail of bullets had ended.
"H-How were you able to last through the hail of bullets?!" She shouted in confusion as her grip tightened on the polearm. "That's not normal! You should have at least flinched from the pain!"
Shirou remained silent and approached her slowly.
After all… to speak in a battle was a sin. Even if it was just training.
… Team battles don't count.
Shirou bolted forward and used both Kanshou and Bakuya to cleave through the well-made polearm, something that Yaoyorozu seemed to expect after seeing the indent that just Kanshou made alone.
She had let the polearm snap in two but took out something else from her pocket.
A taser.
Again!?
Shirou admittedly did not expect to see one of those and leaped away when she used it – sending the apparatus flying at him. It almost clipped him but Shirou managed to sever the connection with Kanshou quickly enough that he only felt just a bit of shock but not the full brunt of it.
Even if the taser that Monoma had used before was of a different model, Shirou was lucky that he had seen it before, otherwise, there was a chance that he wouldn't have thought to expect it.
Yaoyorozu grimaced as she dropped the now used up taser and once more used her quirk to create a polearm, but this time there was a blade at the end of it.
A spear.
Shirou admittedly did not have fond memories of spears. He was killed by one after all.
… However – in comparison to the Noble Phantasm that tore his heart – this was just a run of the mill spear. Nothing notable, nothing surprising, and certainly not able to deal with a Noble Phantasm.
… But beating her without much trouble wasn't worthy enough to be called training. That was why he enrolled in this school. After all, he wanted to become a Hero.
To do that, Shirou needed training.
By the looks of it, Yaoyorozu needed training too. Her legs weren't spaced evenly, her arms weren't gripping the proper places for normal spear usage, and even her eyes were focusing on his blades rather than his person.
He might as well challenge himself a bit.
He let the Noble Phantasms dissipate and traced something else.
A shinai.
As soon as he did so, Yaoyorozu's brow twitched rapidly.
"What are you doing!?" Yaoyorozu exclaimed as she echoed his thoughts. He certainly could feel the disbelief that Yaoyorozu had in her eyes. "A shinai!? Are you underestimating me? Those other two blades would be better than that!"
She was right… but he wouldn't consider this a simple shinai.
"This is a training exercise," Shirou informed. Yes, it was no longer a battle. "I won't improve if I keep doing the same thing over and over… and by the looks of it, you need training in spearmanship."
A miasma started to appear around the shinai. A dull glow, visible only to those who were admittedly prana-sensitive enough to notice it… which, at the moment, was limited to just Shirou.
A cursed shinai by his big sister figure – even if she was a failure as an adult – demanding to be used, wanting to taste the blood of the enemy. Known to those who fought against it as the Torashinai.
Not that it was capable of drawing blood in the first place without bludgeoning. Even if it could, Shirou would not let it. This was only a training exercise, after all.
Yaoyorozu admittedly widened her eyes at his claim and looked at her spear. Her gaze narrowed as she sent another off-put glance towards him. "Are… are you making fun of me?"
"Not in the slightest." He replied honestly.
That honesty seemed to have the wrong intent as Yaoyorozu tightened her already far-too-tight grip on the spear and focused on him alone. Shirou winced inside as he saw her teeth grit against each other.
His act of using a training weapon against her fully lethal one seemed to not be well-received.
Although, Shirou remained stalwart in his decision. This was training for when they would inevitably put their lives on the line against villains, so training was what he would provide.
"Fine! Suit yourself Emiya-san!" She shouted.
She drove her spear towards him.
Shirou didn't even move as he used Torashinai and bat it aside effortlessly.
"That lacked power," Shirou informed, habits from the shinai in his hands dictating him to do so, habits of his dear elder sister. "Steady your footing. Your back heel is too far back."
She gritted her teeth in annoyance and swung the spear towards him. He dodged it a few times, which prompted the Creation-quirk girl to resume that attack and swing the spear once more.
The second time it happened, he admittedly just used his wrist guard to catch the spear. "Spears are primarily thrusting weapons, you shouldn't swing with them around unless you have a firm grip spread across the shaft."
"Are you making fun of me!?" She shouted, frustration somewhat already reaching its peak as her eyes focused on him. "Take this match seriously! This isn't a game!"
It wasn't a game, he knew that the most. It was training, something that would aid them in surviving future battles.
However, training was useless when your emotions were high on emotions and you're close to frustration. Taiga had at least taught him that much when he was younger.
Shirou remained silent and pushed the spear away. He gazed into her eyes and frowned at the fire he saw in them.
She was dedicated, that was for sure, but she didn't seem to realize the situation that they were in.
She wasn't considering his advice, which would undoubtedly save her down the line should she be in a pinch.
Ultimately, Shirou sighed to himself.
This training exercise ends here.
He gazed at her prone and tense form, awaiting any sign of movement on his part.
"Fine," He said. "I'll end it here and now."
Yaoyorozu couldn't even react when he stepped in her guard and kicked her gut with steel-tipped boots.
This… wasn't going well.
The moment that Emiya had left, Monoma left her impromptu prison of stone through the use of her own quirk. The whole situation had gone downhill.
He used her quirk on several napkins from his pocket and created a thick and malleable sheet to trap Shishida in the moment he tried to charge towards the Copy-quirk user.
He could get out, but not while Monoma threw a rapidly enlarged single ring of a chain. He shrunk it around her bestial classmate and essentially locked his arms away. Not to mention, the lack of vision.
Which meant he had, for all intents and purposes, been captured by the enemy.
Which also meant, that for the last few minutes, Kodai had been running around the first floor, creating numerous walls with debris in order to throw off her pursuers.
It worked, even when Kirishima would destroy the walls whenever he could and Monoma would simply shrink them.
However, what they didn't notice was the fact that while she had lost them, she climbed up and used her quirk on a very specific part of the ceiling. If done at the wrong place, she could destroy the whole building through destabilization.
Fortunately, all that happened was that she crawled up into the second floor by making a widened hole, thanks to a wire that poked its way through from the said-above floor.
While the villain team searched for her below, Kodai weaved her way through some surprising amounts of tripwires. Those must have been placed there by Monoma, as there seemed to be no way that a brawn-over-brain person like the Class 1-A student would have done it.
"… Damn it!" She heard Kirishima tiredly shouted in frustration from below. "Where did she go!?"
"Be quiet and let me think…" She heard Monoma mutter as he began thinking.
That wasn't good. It meant that Kodai's window for action was closing and she needed to hurry.
With where she was currently, she could get a head start and rush over to help Emiya. It would be a risky play, seeing as they'd be down to a two versus three when Monoma and Kirishima followed her up, but they were running out of time anyway.
Only three minutes remained, and Kodai didn't want to squander it–
… "To become one, I will save as many as I can."
…
… Damn it.
A few seconds later, Monoma managed to spot the hole in the ceiling.
"Damn it! She's going for the weapon!" Monoma came to a realization. He hurriedly tried to flee towards the stairs. "Hurry! Kodai could be helping that sword boy by now!"
It was a reasonable conclusion.
However…
"W-What is this!?" Kirishima shouted in rightful confusion.
Upon attempting to head to the upper floors, the villain team found themselves unable to ascend.
The reason for being unable to do so was simple.
Kodai had sealed the stairway entirely with previously pocketed debris, which was obvious seeing as they were her only method of attack so far. This left her a lot more time to do what she intended.
"This isn't going to stop me!" Monoma declared as he proceeded to use her own quirk to shrink the debris away. The wall was haphazard and highly unstable, which meant that Monoma had to only shrink the ones that wouldn't cause it to fall all over them.
Kirishima aided him in doing so, using his quirk and own physical strength in order to drag away lodged debris when Monoma couldn't.
In the process of doing so, the two of them had been hyper-focused on the wall, so neither of them noticed when Kodai crawled down from the hole she originally escaped from.
Luckily, there where tripwires upstairs. It wasn't hard to change the size of the wires, lengthening and widening it in the process so that when she pulled, there would be no tension to detect whatsoever.
Which left her with the tripwires, free for her to swindle at her leisure. They were also surprisingly durable, at least for tripwires. More than perfect enough to make a way back down.
Without so much as a sound, Kodai landed on the debris-filled landscape of the ground floor.
Both teams were so going to lose points over the destruction, it wasn't even worth saying otherwise.
What was worth mentioning, was the still struggling Shishida trapped by a large link of a chain, wrapped in a blanket and oblivious to what was occurring outside. Even with his bestial strength, he hadn't made much headway with breaking that chain link.
Really, she should have sealed the stairway and made her way up in order to help out Emiya. She had more than enough shrunken debris in her pockets to prevent the villain team from ever using the stairway…
However…
"You look afraid, so there was nothing else I could do but help out."
Sometimes, Kodai wondered if she was infected by the Emiya's asinine mentality in some way.
After sneaking her way around the villain team, Kodai gave a few taps to the downed Shishida's arm – alongside a very subtle 'shush' whispered to his ear – her bestial classmate stopped his struggling.
"I'm going to get this off of you," Kodai whispered. "But gently carry it, don't make a sound, okay?"
She saw Shishida nod in confirmation. He was probably going to vocally reply first, but she managed to cover his mouth before he uttered anything.
With nothing else to wait for, Kodai grew the chain link so that Shishida could use his arms and gently push it off of him. He didn't shove it onto the floor though, but instead, maintained a sturdy grip on it.
"Damn it!" Monoma cursed once he saw the numerous debris lining up the stairs, not a single hint of headway being made. "I'm so stupid! Hey redhead, we're going to use the hole that Kodai made earlier. Follow me!"
Kirishima nodded after pushing a piece of debris away from himself. "Alright! Let's go–"
In that single split second where Monoma focused on his reply, he didn't notice the cloth being draped over him by Kodai. By the time he did, he was already covered with it from head-to-toe, with a chain link, carried by Shishida, shrinking around him shortly after.
In that split second, Shishida's prison became Monoma's prison.
"Monoma!" Kirishima shouted.
He burst forth, ready to punch the living daylights out of either of the hero team students. However, with Shishida leaping away with both Kodai and Monoma in his arms, Kirishima wouldn't be able to catch up.
With that short time – and knowing that Monoma wouldn't be able to do anything because either shrinking or enlarging the blanket around him would be a dumb idea – Kodai reached into her back pocket…
Thank you, Emiya.
… and dragged out Emiya's capture tape.
Without wasting another second, she wrapped it around Monoma Neito's body. Monoma noticed and let out a muffled cry of confusion, but by then it was already too late.
"Monoma Neito from Class B, captured!"
Kodai huffed in relief as Shishida placed Monoma gently onto the ground. She did so once again as she sent a pointed glance to the other student, Kirishima.
"What the–" Kirishima blurted out with his eyes widened in surprise. "Didn't we wreck your capture tapes!?"
At receiving no reply, a frown developed on his face. "Well… that wasn't apart of the plan… Two on one isn't very manly, but a man doesn't back down! Come and get me!"
His head hardened and rammed Shishida on his chin when he tried to charge, which caused him to gasp and reel back in pain.
"I got more where that came from!" Kirishima shouted as he ran towards Kodai. "Take this–!"
"Hero Team K, WIN!"
Kodai managed only one blink as Kirishima stumbled at the sudden proclamation. He fell to the ground near her with noticeable confusion.
"What." Kirishima blurted out.
Kodai sighed.
"Good job, Emiya-san."
In more ways than one.
Aizawa sighed while rubbing his forehead.
The damn brat did it again.
Running into a hail of gunfire was a straw they wanted to cut off the moment it appeared. The only reason Aizawa didn't go and stop the match instantly was that the bullets themselves were made of rubber. The threat level of it was overall lowered.
Aizawa wasn't sure that mattered when a rifle was used but semantics. What really drove his brain into overdrive was the fact that Emiya Shirou did something incredibly stupid.
That brat had run into a hail of gunfire.
That alone was almost enough for Aizawa to call the match. He was going to do it too… that was until he saw the brat deflect a bullet.
That had been the first instance he widened his eyes. He widened them further when he saw him deflect all the other bullets.
Granted he didn't deflect them all, there were a few left behind when you considered he let some bullets hit him in non-lethal places. A good idea considering he only needed to close the gap to achieve victory…
… Except that he didn't even flinch upon taking a hit.
He ignored the stray bullet that scratched his forehead barely, even the one that managed to hit his chest. It was as if those bruises weren't even painful enough to consider.
Like with the beast.
Aizawa frowned at that. The brat had willingly chosen to ignore the pain, all because he had already felt pain worse before.
How much pain was his body in before he and the other Professional Heroes arrived to save him?
Aizawa didn't know but it was probably more so than a gunshot, which brought a frown to his face.
The skill he had upon deflecting the bullets was much better to focus on, rather than the perseverance he had in battle resulting from the– stopping that train of thought.
The brat had to have been trained to see things coming at him at something comparable to bullet speed. To be able to even accomplish the feat of deflecting a bullet required strenuous amounts of training and concentration, an amount that should be impossible for a teenager at his age.
Not to mention the methods that such training should entail.
Hell, it would be impossible to even attempt when you realized that the only recorded moments when someone deflected bullets were when they had quirks that aided them in the act, or knew exactly where the bullets were coming from.
A machine gun was too imprecise to predict and the brat's quirk – when dumbed down – was basically to make some weapons. The brat didn't fit either category.
This led again to his mysterious trainer, one that the brat must have met recently. One day Aizawa would discover who he was. Perhaps then he could learn the full backstory of the brat, Takeyama Yu would probably want that.
He still didn't understand why she didn't force the answers out of him, something about trust between parent and child or some other thing. He wasn't truly interested in that.
He was interested in hard logic and facts. Those very same facts now told him that the brat can deflect gunfire or at least something at a lesser scale. That spoke of his reaction speed in battle greatly.
Though, that didn't remove the suicidal nature of attempting something like it.
Aizawa took a glance at his students, all of whom had fallen silent upon witnessing the brat deflect a bullet, or rather multiple. Granted he missed a few, but the fact remained.
Seeing something like that – deflecting bullets – wasn't something someone just got over instantly. Especially for the brats before him, who have probably never seen someone do something like it before.
Then again, they lived in a world where feats such as teleportation, summoning monsters made of earth, and telepathy was possible.
It was certainly interesting to see the loudmouth Bakugo fall silent. He surely would have maneuvered around using the pillars as cover, throw some debris her way in hopes that the bullets would stop before rushing her down with swift and painful explosions.
What he was seeing in the screen surely told him that he was outclassed in battle skill. However, if the two of them fought then Bakugo would have an edge with some ranged attacks and a powerful focused explosion to knock the brat out, or at least away.
Then again, there was always that conjecture Aizawa had that the brat would never take anything seriously unless lives seemed to be at stake.
When the brat began toying with the she-brat, Aizawa admittedly did his best to lip read. Thankfully he had just a little training in it to discern one word he used.
Training.
He was going to fight in a simulation for indoor encounters between heroes and villains, and use a simple training Shinai.
Aizawa really tried hard not to feel annoyed… He failed two seconds later when he remained stalwart in his decision.
That complete idiot.
His conjecture was correct. He didn't see this simulation anywhere close to the real thing. He didn't see it as something to put his all into. He didn't even seem to care that his actions in that current moment deducted points from his overall score.
He was using that moment to try to train Yaoyorozu in battle.
That thought both enlightened and sickened Aizawa. He was supposed to give his all in this training and yet here he is, fobbing around like a fool trying to help others again at the cost of some points in his own individual score.
Luckily, Yaoyorozu didn't have the patience to be manhandled, which prompted the brat to take her out in seconds with a kick. When he went to grab the weapon, Aizawa knew it was over.
He knew he was right, even more so when he saw the brat's teammates take out the Monoma kid in a commendable way. Although, the fact that they did so with the brat's own capture tape, did leave a slightly bitter taste in his mouth.
The brat must have left it on the way to the upper floors for his team. That's the only answer.
He turned on his heel and made to the exit, All-Might did not stop him as he was too busy trying to make sense of the match that he had just seen. The display of gun and weapon usage would without a doubt tingle his 'hero bone' in the wrong way like it would in any kind of media.
Aizawa sighed in annoyance.
It was time to drag the other brats back in.
… and give the brat a sorely needed talking to.
Shirou admittedly rubbed the back of his forehead in embarrassment. He had gotten ever so slightly annoyed near the end of the exercise and just knocked Yaoyorozu out with a kick to her gut.
He would have to apologize to her later, Shirou didn't really want to have somewhat negative relations with any of his classmates.
After 'retrieving' the weapon – which just amounted to him simply placing a hand on the papier-mache imitation – All-Might declared his team's victory.
Shortly thereafter, the rest of the students entered the training room after Shirou had propped Yaoyorozu upon a pillar. He had initially tried to awaken her, but his kick seemed to have proved more damaging than he thought.
Then again, his boots were steel-tipped and he didn't exactly hold back in his attack.
"You guys really did a number in this place…" Kirishima muttered as he took in the damaged pillars and stray items across the floor. He widened his eyes when he saw the taser a short distance from them. "Oh… she made two of them."
Monoma was standing beside him, an annoyed expression barely being held back. "Didn't you pay any attention in the preparation rounds at all?"
He was surely frustrated at technically losing the exercise objective-wise, but Shirou felt that he was sure he wasn't too overly bothered.
From what he could gather, Monoma was beaten by a Class B student, in a very splendid manner, so he had nothing to complain about. If it were Shirou that defeated him, then he would have complained insistently.
Not that Shirou would ever willingly choose to get close to the copy quirk user. He was going to avoid him at all costs, hence why Shirou had moved so that a slightly dazed Shishida, who was seemingly recovering from his high-state, stood between them.
The small act of avoidance did seem childish, but no one really noticed in favor of focusing on Yaoyorozu's current state. Kirishima shook her a few times and frowned. "Yup, she's out cold."
Monoma tapped his foot a few times seemingly contemplating before sighing heavily. "Hang on, let me try something."
He approached Yaoyorozu and touched her shoulder, indicating that he copied her quirk. He then rose his hand and watched as a small pebble escaped formed on his palm, confusing the majority of the students with his actions.
Monoma frowned deeply and tossed the pebble away. "Well, I tried to make an air horn… didn't work. She was right about her quirk being hard to use…" He muttered as he ignored the odd look Shishida gave him.
Shirou noticed the glance that the student sent his way. He could only guess that he was drawing the same conjecture between Yaoyorozu's and his 'quirk'.
Thankfully it provided a reason as to why he wouldn't try to copy his quirk in any future inter-class activities.
Cheers for the small victories.
"All right, listen up brats!" Aizawa shouted, prompting everyone to turn and find him standing by one of the entrances. "You know the drill, all of you are to return to the viewing room."
"But sensei, Yaoyorozu hasn't woken up yet!" Kirishima exclaimed in worry.
"That's what we have these robots for." Aizawa simply replied. To his left was a very familiar robot rolling towards Yaoyorozu, dragging the room's attention along with it.
It stopped to allow a panel to open up from its chest section, revealing an air horn.
Shirou covered his ears as the loud and blaring sound echoed out, prompting the others to do the same because of their shared proximity.
Aizawa smirked a bit from his safe distance, much to Shirou's annoyance.
Yaoyorozu began stirring from her slumber, evident from the way her brow twitched at the air horn.
"Everyone back to the viewing station," Aizawa ordered, leaving no room for argument. "I'll escort Yaoyorozu back personally."
Hesitantly, the students left the weapon room towards where the rest of the students were. Shirou himself joined them, he was sure that Yaoyorozu would be less than happy if she saw him upon waking.
He'd need to give an apology later in the day.
Her head ached. It felt like a concussion, but not quite close to one. If she had to describe it, she'd say she was close to delirious.
Where was she?
"We're in the weapons room," Someone answered which stunned her enough to send a glance towards the voice. "The match ended a few minutes ago, the Hero team won."
… Aizawa-sensei?
Why was he here? The match was supposed to be –
She opened her eyes in sudden realization. With that, she managed to gain a view of her surroundings. Broken and battered pillars with her as the cause, some equipment strewn across the floor such as a gun and taser, and the papier-mache weapon standing beside her like an overbearing pillar.
Where was her team? They should have arrived here after dealing with the Class B students. The only reason they wouldn't be here is…
"We… lost?" She muttered in subtle confusion.
"You did," Aizawa added. "Do you know why?"
Yaoyorozu thought for a moment as she recalled her battle against the Emiya. She frowned upon the somewhat painful memory.
The memory of his sheer intensity unnerved her. She simply could not comprehend it. As a genius, Yaoyorozu was used to easily understanding everything.
And yet, her opponent, Emiya Shirou, had to have seen all possible trajectories of her attack and solely concentrate on the ones that would, had these been regular bullets, be considered lethal.
It was so absurd that it wasn't even funny.
It was soon after that memory that she recalled being kicked in the abdomen and getting knocked out like a doll. Luckily, from what she could see and feel, it didn't cause any serious injury, a little sore but she could deal with it.
He must've held back…
No, it wasn't even a question. Her classmate had created a mere sparring weapon, even if it felt much like a real one for some reason, and managed to best her in combat completely and utterly.
"I… was outmatched in battle." Yaoyorozu declared.
… incredibly outmatched.
A few moments passed as Aizawa simply stared at her. "And what else?" He pressed.
Yaoyorozu furrowed her brow at that. "I don't follow, Aizawa-sensei."
He frowned – a regular occurrence for their homeroom teacher but Yaoyorozu could tell that this was different.
He sighed. "Was that all? You were simply outmatched and that there was nothing else you could do?"
Yaoyorozu sent him an odd look before slowly nodding. What was her teacher trying to tell her?
"You underestimated him," Aizawa informed. "In our line of work, that's dangerous. Potentially fatal even."
"I didn't underestimate him, sir," Yaoyorozu said indignantly. "I'm merely aware–"
"–Merely aware of your own abilities," Aizawa repeated with closed eyes, "Yes, you told me that before when I gave you your timetable. However, that was your first mistake."
What?
"Pardon?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"Everyone is aware of their own abilities, Yaoyorozu." He supplemented, although he sent a glance towards the somewhat ruined room. "Look around, with your abilities you could definitely do this. However, even Bakugo and Midoriya knew what they were capable of when they destroyed the first building."
He once more focused upon her. "Even the brat was aware of his abilities."
Brat? Ah… He meant Emiya-san…
"What you did was underestimate him," Aizawa reminded. "You may have prepared counters for his abilities – which I give you points for, it was an excellent idea – but you failed to take into account the individual's skill."
"I doubt anyone can account for bullet deflection, Aizawa-sensei." Yaoyorozu retorted. However, it was in a far more quiet tone, one that Aizawa no doubt noticed.
"True, no fault there," He confirmed. "However, when you entered melee range with the brat, you should have created another gun or some other ranged option to keep him away again. Even a flamethrower could have been better – and I know you can make one of those. My question to you is… Why didn't you?"
"M-my spear should have been enough–"
"Your spear didn't accomplish anything against the brat," Aizawa brutally denied the statement. "The brat knows weaponry like the back of his hand. He is trained in both archery and swordsmanship, what made you think he wouldn't be trained in spearmanship when his quirk could also create spears?"
Yaoyorozu wanted to retort with a reply, one saying that he couldn't have known spearmanship if he focused on swordsmanship, another saying he didn't have the time to learn the way of the spear if his quirk records were anything to go by, but all those arguments faded even before they could leave her throat.
"I have no doubt that the brat could have ended it much sooner, but he chose to take the time to try to improve your spearmanship, remember that?" Aizawa reminded.
Yaoyorozu only frowned at the memory. "He shouldn't have done that. It was a training exercise, he should have focused on victory."
Aizawa chuckled, a foreign thought considering how he acts around the rest of the class. "True, he's already lost points with that stunt. However, his actions had some merit. You may be able to make just as many weapons as the brat can, but you do not know how to use them to their fullest extent. So why did you choose to try to fight him at his own game, in a battle of close combat?"
He closed the range between us–!
That was what Yaoyorozu wanted to say, but she didn't even bother to voice them out. She was a genius, so she knew what her folly in that situation was.
She was aware of her own abilities, her ability in creating a vastly more versatile range of items in comparison to the Emiya, and she also knew she could use a spear. That was the thought process she had when she thought about facing him. She could use a spear and so she used it.
However, she wasn't skilled with the spear or any other weaponry that she could create. Guns and rifles were one thing, but the weapons that the Emiya made were another thing.
She had no experience.
She was versatile, but he was far more skilled.
She was aware of her own abilities, but she wasn't aware of his.
Mentally skilled enough to bat aside bullets, practically skilled enough to know what was wrong with her stances, and physically skilled enough to defeat her in a single kick to the abdomen.
He won completely and utterly, she couldn't even argue against it.
Aizawa sighed. "I see you came up with your own answer…" He concluded with a very subtle and nigh-unnoticeable smirk. "Get up, we're going back to the viewing room. You can walk by yourself, correct?"
She nodded absentmindedly as she stood and followed. However, her main thoughts were on the match she had. Someone like her, who had a quirk that required intensive mental effort to create items and use them, had trained himself to use them as efficiently as possible.
She grew complacent whilst he trained. That was the signifying difference between them… It was a difference that she could easily remedy. However, where would she be able to obtain similar training?
"Oh, right," Aizawa muttered loud enough for her to hear. "The brat will most likely apologize to you when we enter the room, as redundant as the notion is. There's no doubt that he'll try to convince you that it's all his fault or something along those lines."
Yaoyorozu furrowed her brow at that. "Why? He won fair and square?"
"How should I know?" Aizawa muttered. "In any case, just get that out of the way quickly so we can declare the MVP of the match and all that. I need a sandwich…"
Yaoyorozu frowned. Emiya should have no reason to apologize to her, not a single reason.
Sure, the gesture of using a training weapon during the exercise – was in her opinion a rude gesture – but she saw no negative intent behind it. He truly wanted to help her train–
… help her train…?
There was a thought.
Shirou sighed in relief as Aizawa entered the room alongside Yaoyorozu. She seemed fine thankfully.
When he returned from the battle, he was greeted with teenagers excitedly calling out his ability to deflect some bullets, ignoring the bruises on his costume in favor of the 'cool' act, much to his dismay.
He did not really like the attention that he got, but he learned from his time in the archery club to smile and wave away the complements.
The intensive glare he got from Bakugo and the calculating stare he received from Todoroki was unnerving though. He understood Bakugo, but Todoroki? Definitely something odd there.
After that, All-Might had already informed him that he should not have been so reckless against a person with a firearm.
He wasn't going to run against someone with a machine gun again, he'd create a reinforced shield next time – ignoring the abhorrent prana cost that it would have.
Once Aizawa stepped beside All-Might, the two of them were ready to declare the MVP of the match. Shirou was without a doubt sure that it would Kodai. Out of all the students, she showed the least indecisiveness and calm throughout the situation.
She had also adapted to fight against both Kirishima and Monoma alone, both of which were her physical betters. Not to mention, rescuing her their teammate and creating a comeback situation.
Truly, she deserved the MVP status more.
Shirou did not waste time and informed Jiro and Sato that he was going to be back in a bit.
He needed to apologize first.
"Yaoyorozu-san," Shirou called, stepping up to her before she could move up to the front of the class. "I have to apologize for earlier. I didn't mean to offend you by using a shinai. It wasn't my intention and for that I'm sorry."
Yaoyorozu simply blinked at him, muttering something about how sensei was right. "It's fine, Emiya-san. I have much to learn after all. If using a training weapon like a shinai affected me, then I should train in emotional control." She remedied.
Shirou awkwardly nodded at that. "But still… It wasn't right of me to do so. I should have been–"
"Sensei really was right," Yaoyorozu interrupted which confused him somewhat. "Okay then, if you truly want to make it up to me then you'll do me a favor."
A favor? Shirou nodded at that, he was sure that it would be fine. As long as it isn't anything impossible then he could do it.
"After classes, we'll go to the school's gym and you will help train me in close quarters combat with weaponry."
… Shirou blinked.
However soon after, he nodded without hesitation.
He was here in U.A. to train to become a hero. Helping others in their faults so that they can become a better hero fell under that goal, right?
"That's fine," Shirou replied. "Will we start today?"
She shook her head. "Not today, I'm still too sore for that. We may begin the sessions tomorrow, I hope you do not forget, Emiya-san."
She walked away after bowing slightly. She made her way to the front of the students to listen to the teachers with a soft smile on her face.
Shirou smiled to himself as he walked back to Jiro and Sato.
That was good, he made it up to her. Now all he had to do was train her every day after class, no big deal.
"Holy hell Emiya, did you just score with Yaoyorozu?" Jiro asked, eyes wide in amazement.
Shirou blinked… and then frowned heavily.
He spent the rest of class fervently denying the accusation.