Chapter 16:  Dumb mode

Chapter 16: Dumb mode

...

Everything happened so fast I barely had time to process it. One second, we were gearing up for rescue training at USJ. The next? Villains. Real villains. Here. At UA.

Then the mist guy appeared. His Quirk teleported us, and when I came to, I was in the mountainous zone with Jiro and Yaoyorozu. Lucky me… surrounded by two girls…

Before I could even try to come up with something smart to say, I was already trembling from pure fear. And there I was, wondering how we were going to get out of this because this was clearly not part of the training!

"Uwa!" I yelped, ducking just in time as a villain's attack whizzed past my head. That was way too close. That guy wasn't playing around… I was preatty sure that hit would've taken me out completely.

"That was close!!! Holy crap!! Saw death's door!!" I shouted, panicking as I ran toward where Jiro and Yaoyorozu were like my life depended on it… which it definitely did. How was it fair for someone as amazing as me to be in danger? It'd be a crime to deprive the world of someone this awesome. So yeah, survival was non-negotiable.

"Who the hell are these guys!? What the hell's going on!!?" I shouted, mostly to let off some steam. My nerves were shot, and I was ready to scream…or run… whichever came first. Spoiler alert: Neither worked. 

And no, I wasn't expecting an answer. I already had a vague idea of what was going on, but my mind was all over the place. My top priority now was survival and, if possible, running. Though the latter didn't seem very likely anymore.

"Let's worry about the specifics later!" Jiro, keeping her eyes fixed on the villains, snapped, her sharp tone cutting through my panic.

Right. Priorities. Not dying first; details later.

I couldn't understand how this situation didn't seem to rattle her as much as it did me, Or any normal person! But when I glanced at Yaoyorozu, I realized that UA students were just built differently.

"Right now, we need to focus on how to get out from under them!" Yaoyorozu added, already looking cool and composed as usual. Meanwhile, I was struggling just to keep my legs from giving out. 

Right, as if thinking straight was that easy with villains attacking from every direction. On top of that, I couldn't even use my Quirk without risking hurting them too. This just wasn't fair.

Then Jiro turned to me and blurted out, "Wait, aren't you an electric type? Just fry them already!"

Fry them? Oh, sure, why didn't I think of that? Let me just become Raijin real quick. TCH—like it's that simple. If it were that easy, don't you think I'd have done it already!?

Not to mention, she should already know what happens when I use my Quirk.

"Hey now! Didn't you see when we were a team during the battle trial!?" I shot back, trying not to sound as panicked as I felt. This woman, she's making me look like an idiot! 

"I can only wear lightning! I can discharge some, but I can't completely control it!"

Honestly, the truth was that I could hardly control it at all, whether it was in my body or when I released it. But I'd never admit that. Jiro already has plenty of material to make me look bad in front of the girls, and the last thing I needed was for Yaoyorozu, who was here too, to think I was completely useless. Especially after that bus ride incident.

Luckily, generating electricity and releasing it wildly wasn't hard, so at least if an attack came my way, I had a kind of defense I could use.

"So I need a weapon too!"

Not that I even knew how to use weapons, but it was better than standing around like an easy target.

"I'm trying to call for help, but it's being jammed like crazy! Do the two of you hear me!? You won't be able to rely on me. Right now, I'm relying on you two!!"

Okay… maybe I overexplained a bit. I probably should've tried to sound cooler instead of just blurting out the truth like that. I blame the situation—I couldn't think straight under all this pressure. But seriously, who could?

I just hoped Momo wouldn't take it the wrong way. Then again, maybe she was into guys who were honest and needed a strong woman like her to help them out. Hmm… probably not. But hey, a guy can dream, right?

Jiro rolled her eyes.

"And they say girls blab on forever..." I heard Jiro mutter. This woman, seriously, is her mission here to make me look bad?

"All right then, be our human stun gun!!" Jiro quickly lost patience with me. She gave me that serious look of hers and, without another word, kicked me straight toward one of the villains!

Yup, before I could protest, she kicked me straight toward a villain!

She actually kicked me like I was a soccer ball!

That's right. Before I could process what was happening, she literally kicked me into the villain! Real teamwork, huh? At least Momo didn't laugh… I think. Nope, she's giving me that polite, worried smile… like I'm a puppy who just tripped over its own tail.

"Ahhh!" was all I managed to scream at first as I felt the force of the kick. 

"What are you doing, idiot!!!?" I shouted as I flew toward the villain. Damn it, Jiro! I swear I'll get my revenge! If I die, I'm going to haunt her for the rest of her life.

Huh? Something's off…

Why am I not dead yet? I thought I was done for, but apparently, my body had reacted before my brain, and I'd activated my Quirk, using it as an automatic defense and shocking the villain. Sometimes, I even surprise myself.

Man! When that villain hit me, I was sure I'd end up in the hospital—or worse. But then, zap! Turns out, I'd activated my Quirk without even realizing it. Yep, total accident, and the villain dropped like a rock.

So… yeah, I didn't die!

I really surprised myself, and I thought excitedly out loud, "Ah, it's a conductor!"

Great! Now I have a chance, I thought, trying to convince myself that I could act like a real hero now. But… honestly, it was just dumb luck.

"Hah! I'm really damn strong, ain't I?" I shouted proudly, grinning like a total idiot. Now that I knew I could win. This was my chance to fix my damaged image in front of Yaoyorozu.

Yes, this was the perfect opportunity to impress them. With any luck, she'd see how incredible I was and… who knows? Maybe she'd want to go out with me after this.

"All right, you two!! You can count on me!!" I shouted, trying to sound confident. This was my moment.

"Guy's a lightweight..." Jiro muttered, clearly unimpressed, but I ignored her comment. I felt like a thunder god at that moment, ready to unleash my full power.

Then one of the villains, furious, shouted, "Don't fuck around, you little shits!!!" and charged at me with his arms covered in some kind of rocks.

Yep, that's gonna hurt... I thought. Maybe I'd gone a bit overboard with the showing off, and now I was about to pay the price. It was fun while it lasted…

I braced myself for the hit of a lifetime, but surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. On the contrary, it was just an ordinary hit. Actually, when the villain hit me, he ended up taking a massive shock from my electricity, which hurt him more than me.

What…? I looked around and saw Jiro, who had used her Quirk to destroy the layer of rocks on the villain's hands. She'd helped me.

"Focus, you two! We need a plan!" Yaoyorozu shouted, clearly frustrated with both of us, and rightly so. It seemed fixing my image wasn't going to be possible today. But at least she seemed equally annoyed with Jiro.

"My bad," was all Jiro said, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. She'd literally thrown me at a villain, and all she could say was "my bad." But hey, I guess it worked out in the end.

While my mind wandered as usual, Jiro didn't waste any time. She plugged her headphone jacks into her boots and launched a sonic attack, causing the villains around us to cover their ears and writhe in pain. I was impressed. Jiro might seem calm and reserved, but she knew how to hold her own when necessary. Her sonic blasts left the villains staggering, giving us a small advantage.

"I just thought of a decent plan, but… Kaminari, you..." Jiro started explaining after using her Quirk to neutralize the villains. Wow… she was actually managing to disorient them without hurting us.

"I wrote the costume guys to give mine a feature where you can direct the attack in a specific direction," she explained quickly, seeing our confusion about how she'd done it. Cool—I should request something like that too. Something that makes me look cooler. Though I doubt it'd be that easy… and I couldn't even think of anything right now.

"Ugh..." she muttered, as the villains started attacking her again. But the distraction gave Yaoyorozu enough time to put the next part of the plan into action.

"I'm ready!!" Yaoyorozu announced as she created something massive with her Quirk. I watched as she pulled out a giant sheet—something I definitely hadn't expected.

"It took me some time to make something this big!" she said, sounding like it was no big deal. That's Yaoyorozu for you—always so amazing. She used the sheet to cover herself and Jiro.

"A sheet?" I heard one of the villains say, clearly as confused as I was.

"Is it meant to be a shield?" another villain asked, trying to guess what the heck it was.

But Momo, with total confidence, replied, "What you're seeing is a 100 mm insulating sheet."

Yup, she actually took the time to explain that. Weird, but hey, everyone's got their quirks, right?

"Kaminari, it's your turn!" Yaoyorozu shouted, signaling that it was finally my moment to shine. Okay, now this was my time. The stage was mine. This was the moment to prove how incredible I was. Now I was the star here—the highlight of the plan, the grand finale...

It's now or never, I thought and cranked up my Quirk to the max.

"... I get ya," I replied with a triumphant smile. It was time for these villains to feel the pain. At last, I had the chance to show how powerful I really was. No more running.

"In that case, I'm..." I started, savoring every second as I prepared to give it my all in this one attack. Yup, these villains were in for it now. "Stupid strong."

And with that, I unleashed all my power in one massive attack, sending a chaotic surge of electricity in all directions. It hit every villain nearby. I heard their screams, which, honestly, sounded glorious. 

"GUAAAA!" they screamed, and I couldn't help but enjoy it. This was how I liked it. Witness and feel how awesome I am!

I watched as they fell, defeated, while my teammates stayed safe under Yaoyorozu's insulating sheet.

The villains went down one by one, screaming as my electricity fried them. It was awesome. I felt like a literal god of thunder. But gods don't get side effects like this… yup, every great moment has a price...

I-I… well, I overdid it, as usual. I could already feel myself reaching my limit. My legs turned to jelly, my vision blurred, and my brain turned to static. 

My body stopped responding. I knew what was coming…

Welp. Good run, Kaminari. Time for dumb mode...

Slowly but surely, most of my bodily functions shut down, leaving me practically useless.

Well… it was fun while it lasted. At least I came out victorious, I thought. Though this state would definitely lose me major points with Yaoyorozu.

Still, I didn't have much time to recover… Before I knew it, one of the villains had grabbed me. They were using me as a hostage!

One second, I was standing tall (well, wobbling tall), and the next, a villain had me by the collar. Great. 

'Oh, sure, grab the electric guy,' I thought. 'That'll definitely end well for you.' Spoiler alert: It didn't. But me? Yeah, I was stuck, thinking, 'How do I get out of this without looking like a total idiot?'