Episode 12. Part VI.

My plan was based on speed. In a prolonged fight with Todoroki, neither Toga nor, probably, even I could last. Maybe not even with delayed remote markers, and even considering that I'm stronger in defense.

There's just too much raw power in Shoto Todoroki, the eugenically bred heir of the pro-hero dynasty of Endeavor. And he's even scarier in close quarters.

That's why I wanted to take out his armored partner as quickly as possible and then, together with Himiko, handle the two-toned one.

Jumping toward Kirishima, I didn't punch him in the stomach, throw him against the wall, or spin-kick him in the head like in a cheap action movie. If I did, he might overpower me — I'm the "villain" after all...

No, spreading my arms wide, I even slowed down and waited for a moment until he got up on all fours and raised his head.

Then, I slammed my open palms against his reinforced head with force, hitting both sides at once. Right on the ears. And amplified it.

After a short "boom," Kirishima shook his head and jumped to his feet, setting up a block. Considering his impressive physical condition, which rivaled mine, it looked pretty intimidating.

Then Eijiro loudly and dramatically said:

"Nice try, but that won't work on me!" He raised his fist, forgetting about his block (although he didn't need it — he was fully unbreakable and solid). "I want an honorable fight! Like a man with… a man…"

Then the guy swayed, staring at me with a hazy look. He staggered sideways. Tried to raise his fist again, but faltered. Pressed his hand to his forehead. Swayed again...

"What… what did you… I'm feeling… not so good…"

At that moment, I was curiously examining the smears and fragments of something red on my gloves. It definitely wasn't blood — I wasn't sure of Kirishima's limits, but I had tried not to go overboard and avoided tearing his eardrums. So I asked:

"Are you dyeing your hair or something?"

He does dye his hair bright red! And now look at my hair — it's bright blue! And yet, I'm on a horse completely natural. In every sense. Not because of, but in spite of it!

Instead of answering, Kirishima grimaced and collapsed onto all fours, clutching his head and muttering curses under his breath. He tried to crawl away, but instead bumped his armored forehead against the concrete. The curses became louder.

From what Kirishima himself had told us, his Quirk reinforces his skin.

This leads to two key conclusions.

First — he probably doesn't become significantly heavier when using his Quirk. Which means, I can do this...

Grabbing him by the straps of his exhibitionist costume, I yanked Eijiro to his feet and spun around a few times, twirling him like a makeshift centrifuge. Then I pushed him and, without much sympathy, kicked him in the chest, using an amplified strike to send his body rolling into the nearest staircase gap like a billiard ball into a pocket.

Eijiro tumbled down the stairs with a cheerful clatter of armor and curses.

Good, now he's out of the way.

It seemed like if I hadn't been wearing armored gloves, I might have cut myself. He doesn't just become hard, he gets kind of spiky, too.

And the next second…

I was almost impaled on a giant ice fang, like a butterfly on a pin.

I barely dodged, noticing the movement out of the corner of my eye — I had been delayed with Kirishima, thinking I'd finish faster.

Shoving myself sideways, I dashed toward the nearest window.

I almost stuck to the floor.

Step, step, another step.

Behind me, there was a crashing noise, definitely something icy and deadly.

The window. Jump.

Todoroki decided to step in and help his teammate, which was to be expected from students of the hero course. I had anticipated it. But he was too late.

I wasn't too worried about Endeavor's son going straight for the rocket — I had prepared a trap near it. Specifically, I'd "drawn" a circle on the floor and punched several dozen holes around the perimeter with amplified finger jabs. According to my calculations, even with ice covering the area, the trap should work, and if Todoroki stepped there, he would fall through to the floor below. That would delay him for a good ten seconds, I thought.

And Toga, who couldn't leave the hall, would let me know if things went wrong.

The main thing now was for her to have enough time...

I shattered the window frame and fell down in a shower of glass.

A huge ice mass soared over my head.

Next, swing both hands clockwise, push while turning, face the wall. For a millisecond, I hung in the air. One, two... cover my face with my hands, push off with impulses from my legs, roll into the window on the lower floor.

A roll, a marker on my back, markers on my legs... a clap, markers on my hands, now I'm armed and ready for battle...

Right. Staying on the same floor didn't work, so it's time for plan "B."

I ran. The ice, by the way, had stopped being "sticky," turning into ordinary, not even particularly slippery ice, so I didn't need to use micro-explosions.

Alright, I'm in place. Slightly to the side… took up position a couple of meters from the point directly under the rocket, staring tensely at the ceiling.

Where's Kirishima… still can't climb the stairs, good.

The floor plans align, I know where the rocket is, I can even see its nose from here. There was no direct passage from this platform on the plan — but I made one myself by punching a hole in the floor right behind the rocket before the match began.

Come on… come on…

Toga's voice, well, my voice, rasped in the earpiece:

"Damn… I almost reached…"

Perfect.

Jumping up, I carefully and, most importantly, quietly climbed back through the hole to the upper floor. The ice could betray me with a creak, so I had to avoid sudden movements.

"I apologize," Todoroki said.

Judging by the voice, he was right there… I carefully peeked out from behind the weapon, immediately ducking back. Yep, Toga was frozen in a whole small iceberg, with only my head sticking out. Todoroki was standing with his back to me about ten meters away. Oh, you clever girl! I'll buy you a candy… I mean, I'll give you some blood.

From behind the rocket, I could see almost nothing, but I was impossible to spot from the hall either. Which was just as well, because the stupid bright blue lines on my armor made me very easy to spot. The switch started acting up after all my jumps.

The room where our weapon was stored was divided by several columns and a couple of unfinished walls… which is what part of my plan was based on. Otherwise, I would have had to "freeze" Himiko earlier in the hallway, and it would have been harder for her to move due to the ice covering everything.

The ice cracked. Todoroki was approaching me.

"It's just the difference…"

I wondered if the trap would trigger on its own.

"… between our…"

A little more… No, it doesn't seem like it'll work, he should have fallen through by now.

"…abilities…"

Oh well, I'm not one to put all my eggs in one basket. I bent my knees.

"…was too… big… huh?"

Launching myself with an impulse from behind the rocket, I changed my trajectory mid-air using the markers on my hands and delivered a spinning kick to Todoroki.

He even managed to notice my movement — but it's hard to block a strike with the force of dozens of regular punches when the floor beneath you is collapsing, right?

The concrete floor, which I had weakened in many places with my strikes, couldn't withstand Shoto's weight, multiplied by my full-strength kick — a maximum amplified strike.

Skadoosh!

And Todoroki, wide-eyed, fell down along with a couple of meters of concrete slabs, which shattered into rubble.

Boom!

...

BOOM!

Uh-oh, he went through another floor…

Wasting no time, I threw myself down, diving with one marker towards the pile of debris and braking with another — intending to add a couple of finishing blows to Todoroki, but it turned out that wasn't necessary: the guy was almost unconscious, half-buried in the rubble, barely moving.

His stupid hero costume, which was half ice, was cracked and falling apart, while his fancy white uniform with some suspenders had turned completely gray. Man, without his calm arrogance, he still looks like just a kid…

Hmm. Either I overestimated Todoroki's body toughness, which, in theory, should have been as durable as tungsten and inhumanly strong, or I underestimated my own strength…

Or I just got lucky. Yeah, I'll go with that.

The guy groaned and tried to stand, slightly lifting a piece of concrete slab weighing half as much as me, which had fallen on top of him.

And which I happened to be standing on (oops, awkward).

All I could do was snort: yeah, I overestimated his toughness, uh-huh. He didn't even need a Quirk, he was trying to take my punch on a hard block, for crying out loud.

"Not so fast, Junior Endeavor," I said, pulling out the thin white ribbon they gave us as an alternative to beating up our classmates — just tie it around your opponent, and they're supposed to surrender — and quickly wrapped it around his arms and head.

Then I jumped and soared upward — the fight wasn't over yet, as Kirishima had reached our floor, according to the marker.

…however, when I zipped through the double hole with an impulse from my back — armor is an amazing thing, you almost don't feel the marker! — Kirishima was just sitting by the wall, noisily and manfully emptying his stomach.

Next to him, crouching, was Toga, back in her usual girl-like appearance and even dressed here and there, and she was enthusiastically poking the suffering Eijiro with her sharp tube. The vomiting clearly didn't bother her.

Then she lifted her head, and a bright smile lit up her face:

"I'm 'poking him in the side,' just like you said! Niren, you're so cool!"

Then she frowned:

"But he's not really pokable… he's kind of stiff."

Kirishima snorted.

Following some unknown impulse, I carefully placed my hand on her head. What to do next was entirely unclear, but don't they do this in anime for some reason? And after all, I am Japanese now… so, yeah?

"Enough, Himiko. Can't you see he's already in bad shape?"

She didn't object to my hand at all, just looking up at me like a little owl from under it:

"But you promised…"

I sighed and leaned down:

"Then let's take him with us. As a trophy. What do you say, Eijiro, are you okay with being a trophy? In the future, you might have to... give a blood sample, so to speak. But donating blood is good! It not only helps save lives, in this particular case — one very specific and cheeky life — but it's also good for your own body, as it boosts cellular regeneration…"

As I helped the guy get to his feet, chatting away and releasing the tension, finally, our spectators spoke up:

"…victory goes to the villains," announced All Might hesitantly.

"Niren, Niren," someone tugged on my sleeve, "all my clothes are covered in ice and soaked, I'm freezing :("

"Then let's hurry and get out of here!"

"No, I want blood."

"..."

***

Toshinori.

When the real Niren Shoda burst into the hall like a dark comet, everyone held their breath. Most probably thought he would try to free the girl…

But Toshinori already understood that he definitely would NOT do that. The place where she was frozen wasn't random, but precisely calculated: she stood on one side of an unfinished wall of the floor, while the rocket was on the other. If he were near the rocket, the opponent wouldn't have been able to see Toga.

This meant she was supposed to free herself at some point. On her own. But why? And how exactly? All Might didn't yet understand what their plan was based on, but watching it unfold was becoming more and more interesting.

Meanwhile, young Shoda attacked Kirishima, and instead of direct blows, he first performed a double strike to the ears and then picked him up under the arms and started spinning him on the spot.

Toshinori nodded to himself. Brutal, inhumane, and not the most optimal choice, but definitely one of the few effective techniques against the hardening Quirk of the red-haired student.

"What is he doing?" Denki Kaminari asked in confusion. "Why is he spinning Kirishima like on a carousel?"

"That's not a carousel," answered Momo Yaoyorozu. "It's a centrifuge. He's probably exploiting the fact that Kirishima's internal organs, like his brain, eardrums, and vestibular system, are less protected by his Hardening. First, he hit him in the ears, and with his Quirk, that's equivalent to a mild concussion — disorientation, loss of balance, possibly nausea, weakness. And then the centrifuge, which is used by astronauts to train their vestibular systems. Dizziness, loss of balance, and again, nausea."

The girl did well! Toshinori thought. She explained far more than he had expected. Perhaps even more than he himself would have said. Ahem.

"Ow, ouch, ugh," came a chorus of exclamations when Niren sent Eijiro tumbling down the stairs, where he tried to stand, took a couple of steps, and then vomited onto the steps.

Meanwhile, Niren narrowly dodged an ice attack from Todoroki, who had come to rescue his comrade… and jumped out of the window again, only to jump back into the building a few seconds later, a floor below.

"Wow, he's like a parkour artist!" exclaimed Hanta Sero, to which Yui Kodai quietly chuckled.

"Hey, look at Toga!" suddenly shouted Mina Ashido, and everyone looked at…

The girl, taking advantage of Todoroki being distracted by Niren on the other side of the floor, activated her Quirk — Transformation.

From Himiko's skin, the thick, matte gray liquid that formed Niren Shoda's appearance began to melt off. Strangely enough, it didn't freeze upon contact with Shoto's ice — on the contrary, it helped her escape the icy prison and leap onto a patch of ice-free concrete — the very spot where her partner had attacked the "heroes."

Since the girl was naked, Toshinori was about to call upon the moral principles of the young male heroes in the class — but Himiko immediately used her Quirk again…

…turning into Niren once more…

This time — in armor.

So that's what's going on!

Having transformed, she hid near the villains' nuclear weapon.

Young Todoroki, having lost track of Niren and not finding Kirishima, who was currently struggling to climb the stairs, holding onto the railing, made the only logical and simple decision — to finish the match.

He had almost reached the rocket…

And Toga attacked him, whom he immediately caught in an ice trap.

"Look here," Ochaco Uraraka called out in a whisper for some reason, pointing to the fifth screen, which clearly showed the real Niren waiting in ambush right behind the nuclear weapon.

A few girls covered their mouths.

Setsuna Tokage grinned mischievously.

Then came a strike so powerful that it was hard not to compare it to Midoriya's earlier uppercut.

Amazing!

Toshinori smiled even wider: what a talented group! What a promising course! How lucky young Mi…do…

"Okay, young gentlemen! Don't look!" All Might said, stretching out to his full height and blocking the monitor where Toga had used her Transformation again to slip out of the ice trap like a snake and began dressing herself in the hidden clothes. All Might consciously looked more comical than serious.

To be honest, the winners at the end of the battle looked all too convincing as villains.

"It's not… over yet… I'll show you… how a real man fights, like…" groaned the unfortunate young Kirishima, sliding on the ice, as he finally reached the floor. Only to collapse from another bout of nausea near the exit, where he fell, exhausted — while young Toga moved in to torment him once again.

And among the rubble two floors below, young Todoroki was trying to stand but couldn't because his hands were still bound by the white ribbon...

"They're terrifying, ribbit," concluded Tsuyu Asui.

***

Niren.

I made two conclusions about Kirishima's Quirk.

The first — about his weight while using Hardening.

And the second was that his internal organs must not be as well-protected as if, say, he turned all his organs and tissues into steel. If something as crazy as Colossus from X-Men exists in this insane world.

Of course, to some degree, his Quirk must strengthen and protect his internal organs, otherwise any powerful blow to Eijiro would turn his insides into mush under a crispy crust.

However, every defense must have its strengths and weaknesses, and this was his.

I had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to deal with armored opponents like him, and my best solution was: attack in such a way that most of the damage goes inside the body.

For example, causing a concussion, rupturing eardrums, a burst spleen, or tearing an aorta, disrupting the balance organ... lots of options.

On one hand, I hoped Kirishima would feel better soon… but on the other, I was proud that my assumptions were more than justified.

But I was even more pleased with Himiko's success, or rather, the fact that my ideas about using her abilities — worked!

First of all, this "slime" (it would be nice to come up with a proper term for this odorless goo, but all the associations that come to mind are too indecent) definitely has protective properties! This week, I managed to determine through experiments that it doesn't dissolve in water — it's oily, doesn't mix; doesn't burn; and doesn't freeze in the freezer (yeah, I conducted this experiment right in the dorm, as I did with all the others, actually).

So I hypothesized that the slime… no. Let's call it "protein," like in an egg? After all, Toga essentially re-hatches each time. In any case, I figured she could escape from the ice thanks to the oily protein, which doesn't freeze, and the reduction in her body's growth and size. And that's what happened.

And if it hadn't, she would have let me know through the microphone, and I would have come up with something else, like pulling her out from the floor below — after all, I had a marker on Himiko, even more than one! I watch her and update it every day…

Wait, are we stalking each other? Ugh.

But the highlight of my plan was the curious and seemingly useless aspect of Toga's Quirk.

Interacting with her daily in the dorm this week, I was also forced to see my own face from the outside every day.

And at one point, I realized with surprise that Toga, after drinking my blood, does NOT look like how I look today — no, she looks like I did yesterday, wearing different clothes.

That's when I realized she doesn't just transform into different people — no, she can transform into different versions of the same people!

Moreover, the transformation mechanism isn't tied to genetic material: otherwise, she wouldn't be able to replicate clothes, let alone different ones for the same person. No, the information for the transformation is tied to something other than blood… and maybe that "something" holds the key to curing Toga of her blood dependence.

And then it was simple: knowing these two non-obvious properties of her Quirk, I figured out that we could confuse Todoroki. On one hand, he's a smart guy, who surely understood what Toga's Quirk was — after all, he lives on our floor. On the other hand, he's the recognized and adored genius, who expects others to simply be "on a different level." Arrogant, in other words.

That needed to be used.

By showing Shoto me-Himiko in my gym uniform, we gave him the chance to draw his own conclusions — and thanks to that, he decided he had figured out our "cunning" plan, which was actually dumb and primitive, but refer to the point about "level"!

Then, by positioning Himiko and the rocket so that heading towards the rocket, he couldn't see her (and assumed she would stay in place since where would she go without her Quirk or combat abilities), he was supposed to face "me" — and win.

After all, Niren in gym clothes was Himiko, and Niren in armor was Niren.

And if you see Niren in armor, well… capture him — and you win the fight.

And if you win the fight — you can relax, because you're in full control of the situation, genius Shoto Todoroki, right?

Well, Shoto relaxed in a refreshing bath of concrete shards.

Time to start my own private business: "Feeling like a superstar? We'll bring you back down!"

… just make sure I don't end up as the client.

Author's Note:

Voting for the second fic's fandom is open to everyone on my Patreon. I've recently started working on three different worlds, so you're more than welcome to stop by and share your thoughts. Thank you! :)