Battle Training (3)

Chapter 62: Battle Training (3)

—

All Might observed the dozens of monitors in front of him while standing in front of the gathering of students. 

The students were still muttering under their breaths because the match hadn't begun yet. Both teams were given 5 minutes to prepare.

Neji and Momo were villains, while Midoriya and Bakugo were heroes. All Might was very interested to see how this would end. 

UA knew every students' past schools, so All Might knew that Momo and Neji were familiar with each other, but the same went for Izuku and Bakugo too. All Might wasn't as familiar as he was with Izuku unlike the canon, so he wasn't aware of Izuku and Bakugo's past relationship and instead thought putting two friends against another pair of friends would be fair. 

More so, All Might knew three out of the four students. Neji, he knew him from that one time in the sky, he recognised him because of his enhanced memories, Bakugo and Izuku however were a recent memory, only a year old. He recalled telling them how brave they were against the sludge villain, he recalled how he praised them, and he recalled how everything went smoothly. 

...He felt like something was wrong, but he discarded it as just his imagination since he couldn't point it out no matter how much he tried.

Though he surely didn't know that Bijok's momentarily enhanced quirk had manipulated his memories.

He coughed in his mouth which brought him back to the situation at hand. There was 2 minute left until the match started, and he was looking forward to it. 

—★—

"Don't follow me, Deku!"

Midoriya followed behind Bakugo slowly.

"Why?" He asked simply. "We need to work together here. You think you can beat that kid alone?"

"Of course I can!"

Bakugo turned to face Midoriya, his palms creating small sparks. 

"At least I am not weak enough to fall for cheap tricks of a spoiled little girl."

Izuku observed Bakugo with a small smile on his face, this guy would have normally grabbed him by the collar and threatened him by now, maybe even beat him. But look at him now. So tame. Is he acting tame because of UA High or because of the incident where he got his life saved by the great Midoriya? 

"You should know best that not all quirks are as direct as yours, you're smart, Kacchan."

He was right. Izuku does have a strong quirk, Bakugo could tell that much, but in that game his quirk wasn't the 'best', after all, it wasn't actually telekinesis.

Izuku smiled smugly. There wasn't even an ounce of thought in his mind telling him that this was all an 'act', because now, he truly was an arrogant young master.  

"Listen to my plan first then decide what to do." 

At his words, Bakugo's lips twitched. He wanted to blast this nerd's face right now, but… a part of him was reluctant. Tsk, he wasn't so mentally weak before. What happened?

He simply groaned and allowed Midoriya to speak his mind as his frown deepened. 

"Is this good enough?"

This is what he hated about this bastard. He was… smarter than himself. Even if Izuku did lose the match with that black-haired girl, that was just him taking her lightly, but now that the broccoli was serious… Bakugo hated to say it, but he was the smartest one among them.

—★—

["The preparation time is up! The match starts now!"]

All Might's voice alerted both Neji and Momo, just as she turned to Neji.

"Are you ready?"

Neji had his mask pulled down and his hoodie flipped back while his hands rested on his pockets as he leaned on the fake nuclear bomb. His silver hair rested softly on his head just when he released a yawn.

"I am."

Neji had multiple plans, but he wasn't sure if he'd even need to use any of them at all. Those two might be smart, and there is a large chance that they'd even cooperate amongst themselves since there are pieces of the puzzle missing from Neji's mind, but in the end, they were two low-tiered kids. 

Neji wasn't being arrogant, he was just being realistic. They would never get the chance to touch the bomb.

However, nobody died of being too cautious.

"Let's just roll with it."

Neji muttered as he pulled up his mask and hoodie. There is actually a very practical reason as to why he chose to wear a mask. He after all liked to show off his beautiful face, so for him to wear a mask wasn't just for some random ordinary reason...  

It was because…

'<Eyes of the Lord> activate.'

...His most useful ability, EL. He couldn't hide the Octagram that appears in his eyes when he activates his second quirk, but he didn't have any explanation for it either, so he would instead hide it rather than show off. And this mask, it could do that in both practical but beautiful ways.

These thoughts stilled in his mind just as he activated his quirk, something that's not supposed to be there appeared in his vision.

"..."

Neji didn't react in any way, he simply acted as if nothing was there, his hands in his pockets.

Someone was walking, no, floating in front of him in the room. Precisely, the figure of Izuku Midoriya who looked around as if he was taking a stroll in the park, his body half-transparent in Neji's eyes. 

Astral Projection.

That's what it was. He was using his 2nd quirk out in public? Did All for One not warn him to at least not use it right in front of All Might? 

Izuku's body was half transparent, just like when he saw Toru's body, but he could still catch all his movements. Izuku as he finished moving his eyes around the room, simply dipped down on the ground, phasing down the concrete floor and going to the lower floors. 

All the while, Neji leaned back on the nuclear weapon in silence.

"Neji?"

Neji turned to Momo.

"They aren't coming. You think anything is wrong-"

Momo wasn't able to finish what she wanted to say, the floor under her shook before it stated to crumbled. But Neji stuck the bomb to his left hand's palm using telekinesis, then dashed to Momo and pulled her to a corner of the room. 

The floor then simply blasted up, shattered into bits as a hole the size of a car was created. 

"Ah…"

Momo gasped while Neji put the nuclear bomb down beside her. 

"Shh, don't make any sound."

With a finger pressing down his mask-covered lips, Neji used <Echolocation> and frowned.

It was hard to decipher anything because of the debris falling around the entire building. The image of the two figures in his mind rippled as if someone had slapped into a bucket of water. 

"Hah…"

Neji smirked. 

"Yaomomo, this would be fun."

Momo simply thinned her lips.

—★—

Bakugo clicked his tongue with a grin on his face, his hands pointing upwards. He didn't want to follow a plan made by fucking Deku, but anything for being the number 1. Even then, this Izuku wasn't that wimp one… he actually liked this one a little, just a bit. 

"Though it's still hard to buy your explanation."

Bakugo shot Deku a glance while lowering his palm.

"Why though? You think I have a 2nd quirk, instead?"

Midoriya said he used the "Repulsion" part of his quirk to repulse his own consciousness out of his body, thus attaining something like Astral Projection. Bakugo didn't buy it, it was not scientifically possible… Then again, there are many things science has yet to discover. So he stopped thinking about this entirely. Whatever it was, it did him good. 

Bakugo then raised his face to the hole he created. "I am going up, you use the stairs."

Bakugo didn't wait for an answer and blasted his palms down, his body exploding ???? up through the hole. 

Izuku shrugged and instead of climbing the stairs, he simply pointed his palm downwards and released an invisible force of repulsion that flung him upwards as well.

As he reached the top floor which was 4 floors above from where they made the hole, Izuku's eyes immediately caught the figure of Kacchan dashing towards the silver-haired kid. 

He smirked, Kacchan could handle that kid for at least a few minutes, let alone the 10 seconds he would need to touch the bomb and end this game.

Izuku turned to his left to find Momo standing in front of the bomb with two metallic sticks in her hands, both flashing with electricity.

With a click of his tongue, Izuku kicked forward, Repulsing the ground thus boosting his speed.

—★— 

Momo stood still in front of the bomb.

As Izuku flew towards her, she simply smacked his hands with the long electrified sticks on her hands that caused his body to jerk up and get stunned momentarily, that's when she simply punched towards him with a spring gauntlet that she created right at that moment which threw him backwards.

"Ugh!"

Izuku groaned in pain while covering his bloody nose with his hands. Momo suppressed a smile, she got this. Neji could probably take the both heroes by himself, but she couldn't stand by like a leecher, she hated being seen like that after all.

After that, Izuku tried to use his repulsion and directly bring the bomb towards him, but it didn't even budge for reasons he didn't know.

Momo smiled again. The bomb was settled just beside the wall, and on the wall, she had clung some strong magnets that were holding the metallic bomb against the wall. She wasn't that good of a fighter, so she needs to somehow manage with these tricks.

"Hah, well, I guess you're stronger than I thought."

Izuku breathed down a little, his Arrogant persona didn't want to lose, for both himself and Kacchan. So he decided on how to handle Momo. 

He first raised his hand towards her and pulled her at him, this wasn't the football match, this wasn't banned here. Momo looked shocked at first mid-air, but she swung her sticks at him, but before she could hit him, Izuku <Repulsed> her body outwards, pushing her body to fly to the ceiling. 

He grinned and then dashed towards the bomb, his eyelids fluttered as his hand reached out for the bomb, but just then, a breaking force grabbed his wrist causing him to almost cry in pain just when he felt his body moving on its own and the next thing, he found his back hitting the wall. 

With a bloody groan he turned his head to the left slowly as his eyes widened. 

Kacchan was pinned down on the floor, his face was resting on the floor while the kid in white was pushing his hands on his back, causing Kacchan's palms to face his own flesh thus blocking him from using his quirk.

Izuku's eyes rippled seeing Bakugo struggling under the hold of Neji, his mouth drooling as his face was covered in his own saliva.

"You! Let kacchan go!"

For a moment, Izuku almost lost control from his character, but he didn't care. He simply blasted a wave of repulsion to a nearby window, shattering it into pieces, as he then threw them towards Neji, however, Neji didn't move. The pieces of glasses simply hit his costume and fell back, it was just that durable, after all, it was a magical item.

However, Kacchan wasn't that durable, nor was he magical.

"Kaugh!"

A piece of glass had accidentally hit Kacchan in the shoulder causing him to cry in pain as blood dripped down from him. Izuku's eyes widened in horror. This can't be happening!!

He moved to run towards Neji, Momo wasn't there to help since she was pushed on a corner of the room by Neji's telekinesis, but by the time Deku could reach Neji, he blasted his shockwaves on the floor, causing the floor to shatter and Bakugo to simply blast down onto the second-floor face first.

"Kacchan! You bastard-"

Izuku didn't get the chance to say another word as Neji blasted towards him with his right leg landing on Izuku's face, causing the latter to hit the window he had just broken and fly out, but he didn't fall down on the street and instead hit the window of another building pass the street, thus blasting inside.

Then, a slightly stunned voice flew by the mic.

["...Both Heros were knocked out, so with 3:06 minutes left, the Villain team wins."]

Neji couldn't hear if the students were cheering or were merely silent, but he simply breathed out with a smile under the mask and approached Momo.

"Good job, are you okay?"

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