Chapter 432 Tricked, Backstabbed, Bamboozled



"FUUKA AND SATOSHI SUCCEEDED IN RESCUING AIRA WITHOUT CAUSING A SCENE NOR ALERTING THE HOSTAGES! PERFECT POINTS!"

Dark Matter and Light Wing stopped short in their tracks as they turned around. Heartbeats spiking, they nervously checked if Aira was still with them.

And she was. She was right there!

"H-how on actual— what happened? Is this a joke? Are we getting pranked right now?!" Arcane Bishop (Dark Matter) exclaimed as he continued staring at Aira. Using his superpower, he tried to check whether there was something imprecise about Aira... however, his check-up confirmed that it was the same person.

"My superpower is not detecting any discrepancies as well. I think they're playing a joke on us." Light Wing calmly said. For a split second, her confidence dwindled. But now, it was renewed, and she was determined to complain at Knighthawk for going with the joke.

When they got to the gathering of the class, however, things didn't go just as they had predicted. As it turned out, Knighthawk did not announce anything as a joke. Everyone was taking the exercise of heroes versus villains seriously, and it was them who seemed unprofessional about it.

...

A couple of minutes ago,

Upon hearing the plan firsthand, Fuuka skeptically leered at Satoshi. His plan was too good to be true that she wasn't convinced it would work. However, she had seen Satoshi in action plenty of times, and she knew just how many times he'd pulled off ridiculous stunts such as what they were bound to do right now.

"Are you sure about this, Satoshi? is this really going to work? Really?" She asked.

"Yes, but that would depend on you. However, I can assure you that I could do everything I said. Rest assured, I'm capable of such things." Satoshi said with a resolute expression on his face. For the plan to work, he first had to convince his teammate that it would certainly work.

"All right. I'll trust you on this one, Satoshi. I picked you because I trust you... and I'm sure you'll be able to pull it off." Fuuka continued, her face reddening as she said something slightly embarassing. "Regardless, we should have a Plan B, just in case our plan goes sideways."

"We're going to use our full power and brute force our way through the exercise. That's our Plan B. Now, are you ready?" Satoshi asked, his poise exuding absolute confidence.

"Ou~ let's do this." Fuuka continued.

Without further ado, Satoshi summoned his familiar 'Cloak of Invisibility'. He put it on himself and beckoned for Fuuka to go with him. Fortunately, the Cloak of Invisibility was big enough for the two of them. However, they have limited space of movement but that didn't make Fuuka the least bit uncomfortable.

In fact, she even grabbed Satoshi by the arm— not because she wanted some skinship, but because she had to do it so her superpower would have the precision she needed. After all, the next part of plan included using her superpower on herself and Satoshi.

The Cloak of Invisibility could pretty much block everything from the outside. Even the most sophisticated detection superpower wouldn't be able to see through the Cloak of Invisibility. However, Satoshi knew just what Dark Matter and Light Wing were capable of. That's why he asked Fuuka to add in another layer of protection so they could really proceed undetected.

Activating her superpower, Fuuka altered the space around them, just enough to make sure that they won't be seen. Adding to that, she also put up a sound barrier around them. This would block out any noise they make.

Meanwhile, everyone who were watching them saw that they disappeared. Even the camera drones couldn't detect where they were. That's why Knighthawk decided to just watch Dark Matter and Light Wing instead.

And even then, they weren't able to witness the insanity that Fuuka and Satoshi pulled off right in front of them.

"We're almost there..."

"We're here." Fuuka announced.

Nodding his head, Satoshi reached out for the door and opened it. The two of them successfully infiltrated the villain's base. It didn't take long before the two of them were in front of Aira. Apparently, she was the one acting as the hostage.

"Wow, they managed to convince her? How much sweets did she ask this time around?" Satoshi muttered to himself.

"It's your turn, Satoshi. Go do your thing~" Fuuka leaned in and whispered right on Satoshi's ear, tickling him a little bit.

"All right."

Satoshi summoned another familiar of his, specifically, a Representative. Her name was none other than Amy— Representative name, Copycat.

Long story short, Satoshi instructed Copycat to transform into a clone that looked exactly like Aira. He then swapped the two of them, bringing the real Aira with them while leaving Copycat with Dark Matter and Light Wing. Satoshi specifically instructed Copycat to stay silent and listen to Dark Matter and Light Wing until he told her to stop.

And Satoshi could order her whenever since their minds were interlinked with each other.

Just like that, Fuuka and Satoshi managed to rescue the hostage right under the nose of the kidnappers. He played them like fools, and Fuuka couldn't help but chuckle a little bit since their plan had worked.

"How did you think about that? I mean... you did have a lot of tamed beasts under you, but how could you come up with a plan just like that?" Fuuka asked out of curiosity. She still whispered at Satoshi even though they've already exited the 'villain's' hideout.

"It's fun, right? Besides, it's the safest route." Satoshi answered simply. "In the past... I didn't have any superpower, so I always cook up a way to win without expending most of my energy. Everyone else got a superpower, so I have to defeat them in the battle of the minds. If I can't do that, then I'd most certainly suffer a defeat. That's just how it was."

"I see..." Fuuka mumbled. "For me, I awakened my superpower in my teenage years, and my mom and dad didn't expect me to inherit both of their superpowers. I was already pretty strong back then... but in my opinion, you're way stronger than me, Satoshi."

"Not really, remember you defeated me in a practice match before the Inter-High Tournament," Satoshi recalled.

"That was a long time ago. I've seen you fight in the Official Beast Tournament. You're way too powerful, everyone didn't even stand a chance." Fuuka returned. "In any case, you're plenty strong."

A chuckle came out of Satoshi's mind as his cheeks reddened a little bit. However, after seeing Aira with one of her eyebrows raised, he coughed and guiltily turned away.

"Satoshi-nii, did I do well?" Aira asked. Usually, she calls Satoshi big brother or something close to that. This was the first time she called him Satoshi-nii, and it surprised Satoshi a little bit.

"Yes, you did great." Satoshi smiled, patting Aira on the head. He didn't even notice the smug look Aira expressed when she stared at Fuuka.

Once they got to the entrance/exit to the Concrete Arena, Fuuka and Satoshi removed the 'Cloak of Invisibility' and showed everyone that they were already there. Everyone jumped a step back in surprise. Even Kuroe who could read minds didn't even notice they were already there.

It was a success. They were able to fool both the audience and the villains at the same time.

But what surprised their classmates and homeroom teacher the most was the fact that Aira was in front of them. Their eyes did a double take on the live stream up on the huge television screen up top of the arena. Clearly, it could be seen that Aira was still with Dark Matter and Light Wing, casually sitting there as if nothing happened.

"What's going on?" Knighthawk asked in utter bewilderment, rubbing his eyes to see if he was dreaming or not. Everyone's expression confirmed that he wasn't the only one seeing things, and it calmed him down a little bit.

"We've infiltrated the villain's hideout, sneaked out the hostage, and replaced the hostage with one of my tamed beasts," Satoshi reported. "In case the hostage realized that something went wrong, my tamed beast can deal with them. Also, we've rescued the hostage with the intention of prioritizing her life and informing the authorities about the villain's hideout."

Somehow, Knighthawk believed what Fuuka and Satoshi relayed. After all, he was well aware that Satoshi could accomplish such a feat. There was no doubt in his mind that that was exactly what they did.

"FUUKA AND SATOSHI SUCCEEDED IN RESCUING AIRA WITHOUT CAUSING A SCENE NOR ALERTING THE HOSTAGES! PERFECT POINTS!"

...

Back to the present,

"What's the meaning of this?!" Dark Matter asked, slightly raising his voice just enough to display his superiority. "Do you think this is a joke, Knighthawk?"

"What do you mean?" Knighthawk asked.

One look is all it took for Dark Matter and Light Wing to realize that maybe... just maybe, they were in the wrong. However, Aira was also with them, there's a good chance that Fuuka and Satoshi were bluffing.

Fwooosh~!

Before Dark Matter and Light Wing could add to what they were about to say, the Aira beside them seemed to transform into a liquid. And then she reverted back to her usual blue self as Copycat.

One quote rang in Dark Matter's mind as his gaze landed on Light Wing. 'We've been tricked... we've been backstabbed... and we've been, quite possibly, bamboozled.'