CHAPTER 57 RESCUE MISSION

CHAPTER 57 RESCUE MISSION

The week passed by quickly. I was always busy. Mostly training, but still. I wanted to be at my peak when I fought the sea monster. I hadn’t decided when I wanted to take on the One Piece challenge. I was getting more and more comfortable with my quirk, but after training for the gates with Guy I had increased my physical strength tremendously. Where Genjutsu had been my main attack before, Taijutsu was quickly catching up.

Momo and Toru had joined me for training a couple of times as well. Finding me in the gym I had them soon sparring me then one another. I preferred them fighting just because Toru would strip down and I could almost picture the 2 of them fighting in the nude.

Momo didn’t like it at first. Unable to know where Toru was attacking, I had to show her the trick of watching her feet and hands. I sparred Toru and was able to identify when and the general area of where she was punching. Momo decided she wanted to learn that as well so I showed her some tricks. After sparring they would leave and I was left on my own.

Over the weekend I met my father for lunch. He was happy. That was until he started crying and apologizing for how he had ignored me. I accepted the apology, and asked him to keep working on himself. We left on a better note than any I could remember. Then I was back to training. Before I knew it Monday had rolled around.

Early in the morning as Aizawa addressed the class he announced, “For Foundation Skill of Heroics we will be doing drills on Rescuing. The judges this time will be myself, All Might, and a special guest star.”

People talked excitedly. We were soon in the locker room changing into our costumes. I put on my black hoodie and pants and decided I really didn’t want to change it. It was simple, easy to replace, and comfortable. Escorted out to a van we headed to the place for the Rescue Mission. I sat by the girls, but this time Midoriya was there.

“Hey, Midoriya, I always say what I think no matter what’s on my mind,” Tsuyu said. The frog girl extra cute in her costume. Black hair, big eyes, big gloves, she was basically a big kid. “That’s why I have to say that your quirk reminds me of All Might’s.”

“O-o-oh really?” Midoriya asked, not fooling me but fooling the others. “I never thought of that.”

“Tsuyu, that’s crazy,” the kid with the red hair said. “All Might doesn’t get hurt when he uses his skills.”

“Very true,” I decided to cut in. “You enhancers. Very interesting. It’s like you’re able to focus 100% of your strength in one part of your body. Is that why you keep getting hurt? Your body can’t handle it?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Midoriya said shyly. “It’s still new.”

“Have you ever thought of using only a fraction of your power, but all over your body?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” He asked, confused.

“I mean, if your body can’t handle 100%. Maybe spread it out. Find a percentage your body can handle. Then as you get stronger, raise that percentage.”

Midoriya took on a distant look as he worked through it. It was a little early for him to figure it out, but I was sick of him breaking his arms every time I turned around. He was beat up more than a housewife.

“You and your ideas,” Momo said. “Why are you always trying to do different stuff with your quirk?” Midoriya was lost in his own little world as he mumbled to himself.

“What? It’s fun,” I said. “Have any of you asked why you have quirks? How they work? It took me weeks to figure out how to get past my blowback. I mean, Toru, look at you,” I said. Pointing at the invisible girl I frowned, “Poor choice of words, sorry. Anyway, you’re invisible. So that tells me you can bend light around you. But you don’t do it on a conscious level, right?” I assumed she nodded. “So how does it work? You have to draw energy from somewhere to power it. It uses energy from your body, like moving a muscle. Thus if you exhausted yourself, I would think that your skill would end. But does your skill stop there? Why can’t you extend your invisibility? If you could learn to control your invisibility, why not blanket other things with it. Sounds like a great way to save people in my book.”

I looked around and everyone was staring at me. “Sorry, I think about this stuff when Aizawa is talking,” I said.

“You got past your blowback?” The red haired kid asked.

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

“How’d you do that?” He asked.

“Well I figured out what my ability was actually doing.” I pulled a water bottle out of my pack. Freezing it instantly. “I am taking energy from this to freeze it. That energy has to go somewhere. The first law of thermodynamics is energy cannot be created or destroyed. All I am doing is moving it to me. So I have all this energy in me now. Thus my blowback is I heat up. I didn’t heat up much with this little bottle. But if I tried to freeze a pool of water I would probably boil my blood. So what I do is while I draw in the energy, I expel it at the same rate. Acting as a middle man. Thus I can freeze whatever I want.”

I extended a finger pointing one way and one the other. Pulling energy from one finger in a huge wave a gust of freezing wind blew through. The other finger expelled out the same amount of heat causing the cold and hot air to meet in the middle.

“Dang, Todoroki, looks like you have a challenger,” red hair said looking to the man with half of a face. He ignored us. Conversation died down as we arrived at the large building.

We had been doing drills on things ranging from spars to first aid for victims to psychological warfare. This was one of many. At least I thought it was. Since all of these were blending into one another it wasn’t until I saw the astronaut suit that I remembered what was supposed to happen.

“Welcome students,” the hero in the astronaut suit said. We were walking into the giant building in a large group. Inside was basically an amusement park. A large boulder area that looked like an avalanche had hit, one area with a man made waterfall where everything was flooded, rubbled buildings strewn out like an earthquake hit, another continuously burning building area. I found myself impressed.

“This is a practical training area I created,” the person in the astronaut suit said. The suit was a black visor with a white puffy body. “To simulate all kinds of accidents and disasters this place is called the The Ultimate Space for Jams.”

“Space Hero 13,” Midoriya whispered from next to me as he stared at the space person. I guessed that was their hero name.

“I assume you are the guest judge,” Ida said. “Can I ask where All Might is?” Most everyone was a fanboy for the strongest hero so it was no surprise he asked.

“All Might is unable to join us,” Hero 13 said. “Don’t worry, there is plenty to keep you busy. Do any of you know what my quirk is?” There was some mumbling but no definitive answer. “My quirk is called ‘Black Hole’. With it, no matter what material, it will get sucked into a vortex I create. After getting sucked in it will also turn into dust. As you may understand, this is a dangerous power. In the wrong hands it could be used to destroy peoplel.”

“You don’t,” I admitted. She could probably make cooling blankets or something. “But I am getting out now, and I’m not leaving any of you to deal with more villains. We need to help the others.” She frowned but nodded. Both girls climbed on my backs. The 3 of my bodies ran straight ahead without hesitation. Speeding up I yelled, “Hold on!” And we were jumping to the next building.

Momo tightened her grip around me, Tsuyu laughed, and Toru yelled out again. I laughed as we landed but kept running. Another villain jumping out at us, the clone with Momo on his back kicked him in the face as we continued to run. Soaring through the air once more we were then at the wall around the burning section of the rescue arena.

When we got to the wall we didn’t hesitate to jump straight down. The girls yelled in my ears as we extended our chakra covered hands to the wall. Slowing us down quickly we landed on the ground as the girls breathed in and out heavily.

“You can get off now,” I said to the 3 girls at the same time. They opened their eyes to see we were on the ground. They slowly got off and my clones disappeared.

“You are telling me your secrets,” Momo said.

“If you don’t tell others, I don’t mind,” I said. “But later. You help those stuck in the other disaster zones.” I turned and began to run to the center.

“Where are you going!?” Toru yelled.

“To help Aizawa!” I yelled. Speeding up, I really started running. No weights on my body I was finally able to go my full speed. It took only 20 seconds to get to the fountain where the main fight was going on. There were some of my classmates that were missed in the teleportation. I ignored them as I focused on the giant Nomu.

7 feet tall, pitch black skin, All Might worthy muscular body, exposed brain at the top of it’s head, some sort of metal beak for a mouth. These things were made to kill All Might. I knew they had a shock absorption or kinetic energy nullifying ability to go against the strongest hero. But the blonde man had beaten the Nomu in the manga somehow. I just needed to become as strong as All Might.

My body filled with chakra as the giant raised it’s hands over the beaten up Aizawa. It’s meaty fingers clamping together while it put it’s full weight into driving it’s clasped fists down. With a yell I jumped and hit it from the side. I felt my attack get absorbed a little but then what it couldn’t nullify sent the Nomu staggering away.

“Weston, get out of here,” Aizawa said through struggling breath as he stood on his last leg. No broken limbs, he still had some fight in him.

“Vice-President!” I yelled to Ida who was paces away. Grabbing Aizawa by the scarf at his neck he tried to fight as I twirled him around and threw him to Ida. The grown man flailed as he soared through the air, but Ida ran and grabbed him. I had underestimated my strength and thrown him too far.

The Nomu recovered and ran for Aizawa. I intercepted punching the beast in the gut. My hit did some damage but not enough as it tried to grab me with a meaty paw. I gritted my teeth, dodging back I cycled more chakra through my limbs.

I decided on a simple fist fight. The Nomu was too big and beefy to try my Jitte. I didn’t want to risk hurting the seastone, and I didn’t want to channel water with so many eyes on me. I had to keep stuff hidden for my Villain Slayer persona. I could have gone with Genjutsu, but that was more for mental exhaustion. Besides, I really wanted to know if I was as strong as All Might.

Pushing chakra everywhere at once I began a simple street brawl with the monster. A few months ago I didn’t know what I was doing. But Guy-sensei had beaten the crap out of me to help open the gates, I knew enough. Punching it over and over in the gut the Nomu tried to grab me but I dodged to the side. My footwork never stronger I used what I had learned from Saeko. Every muscle mattered. My kick didn’t just involve my legs, my back muscles were called upon. My punch wasn’t the only thing hitting it in the tough face, my back, leg, and toes were giving me more strength. I roared in anger as I became faster and stronger.

Guy was with me as I fought. The Taijutsu master yelling at me to keep going as I tried to open the gates. My body exhausted and battered. The last drop of sweat dripping from my nose as I pushed forward one more step as I carried Rock Lee on a log over my head. I breathed in huge lungfuls of air. Dipping under one hit, sending my own, jumping back only to jump forward and kick it in the face. I was in the zone.

Then I overshot my hit. The Nomu learning my moves, stepped back slightly. Making me lose my balance it used the opportunity to grab my arm. I feared he was going to try to pull my arm off but the monster simply tossed me away.

Skidding to a halt near the fountain I rolled. Pushing up on my elbow I jumped back up facing the Nomu.

“Who the fuck are you?” Hand guy asked. More of the young heroes were gathering.

“Who the fuck are you? Handjob?” I spat back. “Doesn’t matter, I’ll deal with you later.”

Rolling my shoulders I walked around facing the Nomu. My mouth dry I did something I didn’t want to. Staring at the Nomu I crossed my arms in front of me. Gritting my teeth I began to scratch the itch. Slowly at first then more quickly it began to open.

The air around me began to shimmer as heat was released from my body. In an instant the Gate of Opening was pried apart. My mental inhibitions released. I began to push through the other hemisphere of my brain. This happened more quickly. The scratch turning into a tear as the Gate of Healing was cast asunder. My muscles bulging with more strength I began healing instantly. My body started to tear away at itself. I didn't hesitate.

Kicking off the ground I was in front of the Nomu. Hitting it for all I had my fist crunched against it’s jaw. Throwing it away the beast screeched out but I was on it. Jumping up into the air I worked on instinct. Pushing off the high ceiling I dove down, hitting it with all my strength in the abs. The beast was finally feeling it as I continued to punch. It grabbed my arm but I ripped it from its grip as my leg kicked it in the pec.

I was quickly lost in the fight. I had tried to warn myself not to pull a Rock. I didn’t want to be laid up in bed for a month. My body was continuously being torn apart and healed. I had already used the skill more in this fight than any other time. But it still wasn’t enough.

Roaring my frustration as I pushed myself. My punches and kicks raining down, the beast absorbed almost half of the hits. Screeching as it started hitting me. We were on even ground as it met mine blow for blow. I wasn’t sure how long we fought. The people around me were a blur as I pushed my body to the absolute brink, and through it all I began to feel another itch.

The first 2 gates were the simplest gates to open. They could be done through training, exhausting yourself past limits. Hard work was the recipe for opening yourself to releasing your full power. But the last gates had to be done through meditation and practice. I was getting plenty of practice as I used the power far past what I originally promised myself I would.

My skin burning I thought I was under attack, then the chakra around me expelled exponentially. I could see the light blue shimmer in the air as it expelled from my body. The first truly dangerous gate opened. The Gate of Life.

Located in the spinal cord it caused my skin to turn red as it heated up. Veins bulging on my body, hair standing on end, I gritted my teeth from the pain. I had enough of a mind to know I had to end this now. Speeding up impossibly much, I was at the Nomu’s body. Kicking up I hit it in the chin, causing it to be thrown in the air.

Always moving I jumped up with everything I had. Pile driving the Nomu in the gut it folded like a stool pigeon. Blow after blow connected with it as we flew up and up. My body acting on it’s own as it channeled the unfamiliar power I acted on instinct as I kept hitting. Then with a final blow I punched it in the metal chin. It’s teeth cracking from the force my eyes rolled to the back of my head as I passed out.