Teacher vs Students (part 2)

In the control room, there were a few staff members gathered including the principal and vice principal, observing each battle. Akanori Toshai was also present and was meant to surprise the students later.

"Four minutes and 15 seconds" principal fujimoto said, sounding impressed.

"Considering Izume was in full combat mode, the kids did well" Hoshi Tadiro, the vice principal added, "I was expecting them to crumble after a minute"

Akanori looked both confused and worried, "I don't mean to speak out of place but wasn't she going a bit too hard? I mean what kind of bullets was she using?"

Fujimoto laughed, "do not worry Mr Toshai, Izume is highly trained. She has the power to manipulate the power and magnitude of explosions. Every shot she takes is non-lethal but packs a nasty punch. Besides, we have the best medical personnel on site"

Akanori scratched his head. No one else seemed worried, so he let it go. "I have another question. What was that "Shatter" move she used?"

Hoshi answered as best he could, "it was a voice command" he chuckled before continuing, "Izume is brilliant. She placed a high calibre turret about 250 metres from where she engaged the kids. The turret has lasers which can only be seen by her helmet, so she lined up the most troublesome student, Takeyomi, which is why she shifted left before giving the command. He stood no chance."

Akanori smiled, "she is indeed impressive but if that young water girl had not lost her temper, she may have lost to the kids"

Fujimoto nodded, "agreed".

Izume Walked towards Rezu who was now being consoled by Chino after realising her temper may have cost them the match.

She hugged both girls with a big smile on her face "you guys had me sweating there. I'm so proud of the both of you. You both made the correct decision at every turn"

Rezu smiled, "kinda lost my temper towards the end there"

"That's okay " Izume responded. At least u know exactly what to work on. She turned around and her tone suddenly became harsh.

"Boys, on your feet"

Takeyomi and Sezato struggled slowly to their feet. Takeyomi was still winded, while Sezato groaned and rubbed his chin.

Izume laughed, commended them and recommended that they go to Dr Hirime.

GROUP 2

"Who do you think our teacher will be?" Chibi asked the rest of her group

Rando looked around, inspecting his team mates. "There doesn't seem to be any reason the four of us were picked. So, it will be hard to say who our teacher would be."

Tanori nodded in agreement before speaking, "Well, we can determine who it is by a process of elimination. For example, I don't think it can be Miss Izume. Her guns won't do much to Rando, and Takegai wouldn't even be visible to her. Mr Takari wouldn't be much of a challenge now that we know about his ability so I doubt he's part of the roster of teachers.

Realistically, the only teachers who could handle the four of us together are Mr Ichisuda, Mr Zuno and Mr Hirowa"

Rando took over, "I agree with that. Also, ground zero is new and Mr Ichisuda might do a lot of damage to this terrain so I think we can rule him out also"

The group nodded in agreement as he continued.

"Finally, Mr Zuno is more careful but we are surrounded by trees, he might not be able to move around freely"

"You never know. He might just surprise us" Takegai said

Chibi looked around, "I wonder if there are any animals in this forest" She sat down, crossed her legs and closed her eyes while simultaneously using her ability to send a "signal" across the forest.

A few seconds later, there were loud noises emerging from the forest as animals ranging from birds to wolves and one black bear.

"Whoa" Takegai said, in astonishment "how did they get a bear in here"

Rando took a few steps back, "Chibi, you have full control of that thing right?"

She nodded in response.

"I'll have the birds scout as usual and I'll use the bear as a last resort. I don't wanna see any of them getting hurt."

"Assuming it is Mr Hirowa we are getting. What is the best course of action?" Takegai asked, "The birds will not be able to see anything because he's most likely going to put up a smoke screen"

[damn it] she thought to herself, while trying to come up with a solution.

As she looked up ahead of her, she realised she was out of time as smoke began to fill parts of the forest.

As the children slowly backed away, Rando asked a question.

"Takegai, when you go invisible, can you make objects invisible aswell?"

"Unfortunately, no" he responded, "I haven't figured out if that's possible yet"

"Chibi, I think you should hold onto the crystal while the rest of us confront Mr Hirowa. I think we can manage five minutes" Tanori said, as he squatted

Chibi looked a bit displeased as she believed she was being sidelined but Tanori quickly addressed this.

"Please don't think I'm sidelining you. You're the only one who can watch our backs while simultaneously guarding that crystal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wolves are able to smell heat, right?"

"I think so" Chibi responded

"Then have the wolves communicate Mr Hirowa's movements with you and then feed back that information to us. I think I have an rune that may help but I'm not sure how effective it'll be"

He looked at Takegai and Rando. "Guys, I need a minute to make this rune but he can't know what I'm doing. Stall him a bit"

The boys nodded and charged straight at the smoke. Chibi trailed slowly behind them to try and maintain a twenty metre distance.

"Where is he, Chibi?" Rando asked

After the howls of several wolves, she responded and said, "1 o'clock"

"Rando, throw me" Takegai said

Rando grabbed Takegai with his powers activated, spun around, using the momentum of the spin to throw him in the "1 o'clock" direction.

While in mid-air, Takegai went invisible, and Rando picked up a few rocks, and threw it in that same direction.

In the Smoke screen, Hirowa felt the rocks enter the smoke screen and moved out of the way as they flew past him.

An instant later, Takegai's fist connected with Hirowa's jaw, knocking him to the floor momentarily.

He smiled, as he got back to his feet. [Well played] he attempted to use his smoke to detect Takegai's location but couldn't locate him.

Meanwhile, there was another howl, and Hirowa felt a large body dashing through his smoke screen. He hardened a small portion of smoke in front of himself just as Rando came in with a lunging punch.

"Bad move" Hirowa said, as the smoke dissipated upon impact with Rando's fist.

In a matter of seconds, hardened smoke was wrapped around Rando, pinning him in place. It restricted him from moving his arms, feet and head as if thick vines had entrapped him.

[that's one down] Hirowa thought. [ Now, where is Takegai hiding?]

He walked forward, expanding the smoke screen further into the forest, using it as a location detector and blindfold simultaneously.

Takegai, who had been hiding at the top of a tree decided it was time for another attack, and jumped towards where he thought Hirowa was.

"There you are" Hirowa said, as Takegai re-entered the cloud of smoke. He raised his hand in an attempt to grab him but Takegai spun and twisted his body to avoid the grab.

As he landed, Hirowa asked him, "now what? Young Takegai. Did you happen to notice where you're standing?"

Takegai looked down to see smoke wrapping around his legs.

"Shit" he exclaimed, trying to run away but it was already too late, he too was now trapped, just like Rando.

"Two down" Hirowa said to his student before turning around and walking away.

After realising what had just happened in the smoke, Chibi looked at how long they had left. Three minutes and forty five seconds.

She knew if she retreated, Rando would be too far from the crystal and they'd lose but if she went into the smoke, she'd be captured almost immediately.

She had a few seconds to come up with a plan but her mind was blank. She heard howls again but this time they weren't to give information on Hirowa's location. They wanted to help.

The smoke drew nearer. She didn't have long to decide. She looked back at Tanori, who was still fixing his large scale rune, which meant he needed more time.

She took a deep breath before giving the command, "help us"

Instantly, the wolves charged deep into the smoke, aiming for Hirowa.

[interesting] he thought as he heard the animals coming after him.

Rando struggled angrily in vain, he was annoyed at himself for getting caught so quickly. He calmed himself down and thought of an escape.

He thought back to his lesson with Dr Yahara, and the words "have you tried using this form with a lower tensile strength?" rang through his head.

He closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths as he attempted something new.

His ability activated and he covered himself in steel skin that had a light grey colour.

[more] he thought, as the colour got slightly darker

He strained, [more]. The colour got darker once more

[come on Rando] thinking to himself [reach your max] he pushed himself once more, reaching the maximum tensile strength his body could allow, a level near Titanium. In this form, his steel skin had a dark grey colour.

He pulled his arms down towards his side, easily breaking the hardened smoke restraint.

He ran forward and noticed Takegai was stuck too.

He pulled apart the bonds, causing the smoke to dissipate and pressed forward again towards the sounds of the wolves.

Hirowa finished pinning the last wolf to the ground and looked back as he heard loud and heavy footsteps.

[What is that form?] Hirowa thought, before creating a defensive smoke wall in front of himself, which was harder than usual.

The punch Rando threw broke through the wall easily, offering little resistance and allowing Rando's fist to connect with Hirowa's face, shattering his nose and bringing him down to his knee as blood poured from his nose.

"very well" Hirowa said, smiling and slowly getting back to his feet. "Let's get serious, Rando Yukumi"

Rando attacked first, throwing a barrage of straight jabs at his teacher, who blocked a few before realising it was a bad idea, as his arms began to hurt.

Hirowa backed away, stretched his hand forward and released a cloud of smoke that knocked Rando back before entrapping him again. This time, the bonds kept forming around Rando as he pulled them apart which meant he couldn't break free.

Takegai suddenly smacked Hirowa in the same spot Rando hit, which made him lose his hold on Rando, who then "tore" his way out of the smoke bonds.

[invisible rat] Hirowa thought, as he put his hand over his nose.

Rando took a step, but fell to his knees immediately after, the deep grey colour leaving him. He had overused his ability.

"The rune is ready" Tanori said to Chibi as they observed the cloud of smoke in front of them.

"What now?" Chibi asked

"we somehow get him to walk on the rune"

"good luck with that"

Tanori laughed. "Rando, Takegai, Regroup!" He yelled, towards the direction of the smoke. "

Takegai ran out shortly after, "Rando needs help"

Tanori drew a rune across his chest and ran into the smoke cloud at a speed the others couldn't comprehend.

About 3 seconds later, he came running out carrying Rando on his shoulders. He dropped him near Chibi.

"What the fuck was that?" Takegai asked. "How did you move that fast?"

Tanori laughed, "speed rune"

"are you okay, Rando?" Chibi asked

He laughed before responding, "I broke Mr Hirowa's nose. Of course I'm okay"

Rando struggled to his feet as the smoke in front of them dissipated, leaving only Hirowa and the pinned wolves in sight.

He realised the smokescreen was too risky as he couldn't see what they were planning.

"Right, it's about time I crushed the four of you" he said, with a blank expression on his face.

There were two minutes and 15 seconds left.

Hirowa, using the smoke behind him as propulsion closed the gap between himself and the students in seconds causing them to briefly scatter and retreat but, four lengthy clouds of smoke emerged from his hand.

Rando, and Chibi were caught and entrapped in a sphere of dense smoke.

[2 runes activated at once. I have about a minute before I burn out. We need to trap him right now] Tanori thought to himself

He began running towards the rune on the floor and Hirowa gave chase, with the plan of leaving Takegai for last.

The speed rune made Tanori incredibly hard to catch, which frustrated Hirowa because his student was running circles around him while avoiding entrapment and smoke trails all around him that were coming from his body.

Tanori on the other hand had a problem of his own. Hirowa was pushing smoke out of his feet, using it as propulsion to move faster but this also meant that his feet were not touching the floor. So, the rune couldn't activate.

While thinking of a plan, all he could do was run while also being mindful of the 20 metre distance.

Seeing all that was happening, Takegai made a desperate attempt to win. He stood on the rune and undid his invisibility, Which got Hirowa's attention.

[What is he planning now?] Hirowa asked himself. [If I try to capture him with my smoke, he'll just disappear again. Hmm they're more annoying than I thought]

He changed his target and dashed towards Takegai, leaving a trail of smoke behind him and creating a smoke screen so he wouldn't be seen.

Takegai saw the shape of a figure and punched it. As expected he went invisible once more but as his fist connected with the figure, the smoke screen broke and Hirowa's real body emerged from the side and tackled him to the floor. A knee pinning his arm to the floor and the other covering his face

"Finally caught you" Hirowa said, while grinning and enveloping Takegai in smoke.

Takegai laughed, "So did we"

Just then, Tanori spoke "Trap activation: Eternal prison"

Both Hirowa and Takegai froze inside the rune, which made Tanori breathe a sigh of relief.

He only had a minute and thirty to go. However, the rune was only meant for one person so it was taking a toll on his powers.

30 seconds in and he could feel the strain it was putting on his body as his hands which were together in a clasp started shaking.

45 seconds in, his nose started bleeding.

With 15 seconds left, he was struggling to hold the prison together, and his hands began to separate very slowly.

5 seconds left and Tanori began celebrating in his head, he only had to hold on for a few more seconds and Hirowa still wasn't moving.

4 seconds, 3 seconds. Tanori smiled

An announcement rang out, "The distance between students and the crystal has exceeded 20 metres. Winner: Hirowa Tatsumi

Tanori's jaw dropped. He looked to his side and saw that the sphere of smoke his friends were entrapped in had moved further away from him.

As it turned out, while his grip on the prison loosened, Hirowa was able to move the spheres very slowly. A move that required maximum effort as most of his body was frozen.

"Well played, Sir" Tanori said with a smile on his face