Chapter 15 - Cassandra Cain

(All Might POV)

In one of the buildings, I and the rest of Class 1-A were watching the confrontation between Team A and Team B.

"Why is my brother Nero making hand signs?" young Eijiro asked, pointing to the screens in front of us.

The screens showed young Fujiwara using sign language.

"That's because young Cain can't talk," I said, holding up a clipboard where I would evaluate my students without any favoritism.

Not even for my boy, Midoriya.

My eyes went to Midoriya, who was breathing deeply to calm his nerves as he analyzed the screens.

He is nervous but doesn't lose focus or the opportunity to learn from his peers.

Nice!

I mentally encouraged him.

Meanwhile, young Fujiwara was still "talking" calmly to young Cain.

"Who do you think will win, Kero?" young Asui asked.

Young Ida adjusted his glasses.

"Although he is a Fujiwara, I can't see him beating Shoto Todoroki. After all, he is the son of the number 3 hero. Furthermore, his partner is Momo Yaoyorozu, who, like Fujiwara-san, comes from a prestigious family. Not to mention that they are both special recommendation students," said young Ida, speaking logically.

Unfortunately, his words held a certain degree of truth. Young Todoroki was probably trained harshly from a young age, and Yaoyorozu wasn't far behind.

After young Ida's analysis, the room fell silent until...

"Hahahaha! You should be a comedian," Young Stacy tried to hold back her laughter for some reason, but without much success.

In fact, even young Uraraka had a smile.

"What do you mean?!" exclaimed young Ida, furrowing his eyebrows as he gestured strangely.

My curiosity was also piqued.

Not only mine, but the curiosity of all the students turned to young Stacy.

"How am I supposed to say this without offending someone..." young Stacy said, placing her hand on her chin. "Well, no one here except our professor has the slightest chance of beating Nero; no offense, of course," Gwen said, shrugging.

"You extra, you're saying I wouldn't beat that secondary," young Bakugou shouted.

Gwen moved her arm, scratching her head.

"I really don't want to sound like an idiot, but yeah, you don't have a chance in hell of even inflicting a single scratch on Nero."

"You…" explosions began to appear in his hand.

"Young Bakugou, stop," I said with a stern expression, making Bakugou stop, and I looked at young Stacy.

"Young Stacy, having trust in your friend is very good, but don't look down on your colleagues."

"Professor, you don't understand either. I'm not looking down on anyone; for sure, several of them could defeat me. I just wanted to say... never mind, then, let's just watch," she said, raising her hand, seeming to give up on convincing her colleagues.

Don't get me wrong; I knew young Fujiwara was strong. Although I didn't see him in action during the entire Yuuei exam, I knew his quirk was top-notch.

Still, this behavior does not...

Before I could continue with my thoughts, my students' voices began to rise.

"What is that?" Young Eijiro exclaimed.

"It looks like a mass of energy," said Midoriya, writing it down in his notebook.

"Red?!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Yes, red," Ochaco added.

In the next moment, young Fujiwara released the sphere.

The sound of ceilings being destroyed echoed throughout the room.

The event happened so quickly that Todoroki only had time to jump back as the red sphere passed by, destroying everything in its path.

Shrapnel flew everywhere, falling on him, while Momo created a shield using her quirk to defend herself.

...

"You're exaggerating, young Nero," I thought, watching as young Cain placed her hand over his, and they teleported to the penultimate floor.

Todoroki, who was beneath some rubble, looked up to see Nero appearing on the penultimate floor along with Cain.

Nero stepped on some rubble and exclaimed loudly:

"Pizza time."

Apparently, this will be a very difficult test for those two.

••• ••• •••

(Cassandra Cain POV)

"Pizza time," Nero said with a smile as he stepped over the wreckage.

I looked at him stoically, realizing he hadn't brought any pizza.

So why say "pizza time"?

I questioned myself, tilting my head to the side.

No one reacted to Nero's words; in fact, considering the current situation, it would be a bit strange if someone did.

Todoroki was buried with his lower half under rubble. Momo, who was near the bomb, had a shield that she probably used to defend herself from the debris from Nero's blast.

I admit that even though this is the second time I've seen Red, it's still extremely impressive.

"Cough! Cough! I'm spending too much time with Gwen; her dull humor is already infecting me," Nero fake coughed.

Oh! I didn't know humor could infect people; this is good information.

Momo placed her shield aside and rose from the ground. Her black eyes immediately went to Nero.

"Fujiwara-san," Momo said, using his last name like everyone else.

To be honest, I never liked this culture of using surnames.

Judging from his body language and the micro-expressions on his face, Nero didn't seem to be the biggest fan of people calling him by his last name.

But his body's response didn't indicate that he hated his surname, though.

I thought, analyzing his body behavior.

The body, in the vast majority of cases, expresses itself more than speech.

"Oh! Momo-san, it's our first time meeting. Please just call me Nero," His words echoed across the penultimate floor we were on as Todoroki stood up, knocking the rubble aside.

Hmm! His body is quite trained; surely he has undergone severe training since childhood.

In terms of physical training, he is superior to both Nero and Momo.

Although, just by the way his body moved, it was obvious that he lacked martial arts training, while Nero had a certain style.

However, his fighting style didn't seem traditional at all.

As I thought about this, Nero turned to me.

"Cassandra, do you prefer to work together or separate to conquer?" he asked with a gentle smile.

!?

I could not understand; his eyes were always kind to me. In fact, they became even kinder when he discovered that I couldn't speak.

His look at me wasn't one of pity; his gaze just possessed a warm gentleness, somewhat resembling my adoptive mother's gaze.

Not thinking about it for now, I started making hand signs.

"I'm not very good at teamwork, so I prefer to separate and conquer, okay?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"Hehe! Of course, I'm not very good at teamwork either," he said with a laugh.

The fact that he wasn't good at teamwork didn't surprise me; after all, strong people are rarely good at working in teams.

"Do you want to face Momo or the boy?"

Hearing his question, I didn't need to think about it much.

"Momo," I gestured with my hands to him.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I would lose to Todoroki, who, from what little I could understand, has an ice manipulation quirk, but the effort I would have to make to beat him would be enormous.

Like it or not, he had a quirk far superior to mine in terms of "firepower," a little ironic considering his ice power.

In comparison, Momo had a quirk that could create objects. I didn't know the limit of this object creation, but I would spend much less time, energy, and strength fighting her.

"Okay! Good luck, Cassandra," he said with a smile as his eyes turned to Todoroki, who had a cold expression towards Nero.

I could tell that, for Todoroki, I didn't exist; in his vision, there was only Nero.

Not caring about it, I shook my head and took off towards Momo.

Momo, for a few seconds, looked surprised, but with a sigh, she regained her calm.

Flexing her arm, she threw the shield towards me, and I used my arm to knock it off course.

Meanwhile, she opened the area of her clothing around her belly, creating a metallic staff.

With just that movement, it was clear to me that she knew Bukijutsu.

It's a shame that I'm already a master of this style.

I thought, stepping into the range of the metallic staff.

Once in range, Momo, without hesitation, swung the staff and thrust it towards my belly.

Seeing the staff coming towards my stomach, I moved my hand, slamming my arm into the staff of the staff, pushing it to the side.

Momo flexed her arm while twisting her waist, signaling a vertical strike with the staff.

I bent down, and the metal staff passed over me.

Placing my hand on the ground, I twisted my body, delivering a precise kick to her leg while holding back my strength to avoid breaking it.

The thud of my leg colliding with hers echoed.

"Ughh!" she immediately exclaimed in pain. My physical strength was much greater than hers, and my costume had metal alloy reinforcements on the legs and arms.

Momo leaned back in pain, but she used the metal staff to steady herself by slamming it on the ground.

It was quite noticeable that her leg was injured.

Still, with my hand resting on the ground, I flex my body, doing an upward kick.

Momo quickly moved her hand, creating a small shield.

Seeing that she had created a shield, I automatically increased the strength of my strike.

The sole of my foot hit the shield, denting it, and, thanks to the law of inertia, Momo's body was thrown backward.

I turned my body, stood up, and advanced towards her.

The moment Momo landed on the ground, she felt a jolt of pain through her leg.

But noticing me in front of her, she swung the baton towards me.

Without thinking twice, I tilted my face to the side, moved my left leg back, and bent my waist, forcefully moving my elbow forward.

The metal staff passed by my cheek just a few centimeters away, and at the same moment, Momo received an elbow to the tip of her chin.

Instantly, she blacked out, and her body fell backward.

Hmm! It's over.

I thought, crouching down to tie her arm with the capture tape. I had controlled my strength when delivering the circular elbow to her chin, so her consciousness should return in a few minutes.

Muay Thai is a martial art that excels in elbowing techniques.

I knew how to fight Muay Thai; in fact, I knew a large part of the world's martial arts, obviously not all, but a significant majority.

After all, my quirk is "Reflection", which allows me to observe other people's physical movements and replicate them perfectly. Thanks to this quirk, I can duplicate almost any physical activity after seeing it done by someone else just once. I can use this ability to master any martial art, gymnastics move, or even a piece of music.

Furthermore, combining my talent for reading body language down to the smallest detail and identifying weak points with my [Reflection] quirk allows me to predict my opponent's movements.

My body and quirk were made for combat.

In fact, I was conceived and trained from birth with this intention. Since my birth, the only thing I was taught was violence and martial arts. Even language was deemed unnecessary; the parts of my brain normally used for processing speech and language were trained to read movement and body language. This increased my quirk and caused my brain to develop different learning functions than most. However, in return, I developed dyslexia, which impairs my ability to speak, read, and write.

Seeing that my thoughts were drifting to a memory I didn't like, I shook my head, pushing memories of my childhood to the back of my mind.

I don't need to think about it; it's just the past. Now I have a foster mom, I'm in the hero course, and I'm no longer a weapon.

I thought, getting up and dragging Momo to the corner of the wall so as not to disturb Nero's battle with Todoroki.

Placing Momo close to the wall, I crouched down, sitting on the floor, resting my arms on my shins, while my eyes focused on the "fight" which was more like a public humiliation.

With that thought, I saw Todoroki being thrown back by an attractive force. His back hit the wall hard, causing blood to spit out of his mouth. His body slid to the ground, and the ice covering his left side began to crack and break.

Resting his hand on the ground, Todoroki looked at the boy, who was still intact.

In his eyes, it was clear that he refused to lose. Leaning his back against the wall, he stood up.

Some people really like to be spanked.

I thought, without feeling the slightest sympathy or inspiration from his willpower.

In my eyes, he was someone who was just enjoying being beaten.

Apparently, this fight will take a while.

I thought while my gaze was unconsciously fixed on Nero.