Chapter 115: Fifth Round of Battle (II)

"Continue!? Midoriya, just now...was clearly acting out of the ordinary!" Vlad King was serious now, different from when he was doing his biased commentary.

"If that happens again, Shido and I will stop the battle immediately and pull Midoriya out. Right now, it has been stopped by Shinso's quirk. If that thing is a quirk, then I can stop it myself. Otherwise, just place your trust in the number two hero." Aizawa patiently explained while Shido gave a peace sign, assuring the worried duo that everything would be fine.

"Aizawa-kun, why..." All Might did not understand. Why must they risk the safety of the students just to continue the joint-training?

"Because they still have some fight in them. Both Midoriya," Aizawa said, "And Shinso. They all still want to win."

"You've got quite the soft spot for them, huh?"

"I guess so..."

"Hahaha! Who would have thought that the ever cold Aizawa who mercilessly expelled the entire class last year would grow a soft spot for children." Shido laughed as he rolled from side to side while floating in mid-air.

Aizawa just ignored the laughing child and carefully observed the battle.

Hitoshi pulled Izuku right off the building with his Capturing Weapon, sending him crashing down onto the surface of the battlefield. Ochako was surprised by that before Izuku explained that he cannot use his quirk to avoid another rampage in those moments.

Ochaco suggested a retreat, but Izuku replied that would mean losing. Ochaco asked him if he planned to fight Hitoshi quirkless, to which he replied no, but he would need her to use her powers to aid him against Hitoshi.

Meanwhile, Mina and Minoru took on the remaining opponents of 1-B. Mina fired her Acid Shot attack at the other team, but Yui blocks it with an enlarged metal plate.

Nirengeki threw a projectile on the ground before increasing its velocity using his quirk, and Minoru protected Mina from this attack using his Grape Buckler shield.

Of course, Minoru being Minoru, he ended up bumping into Mina's breasts like he planned, shocking and disgusting her. So, she threw the pervert back at 1-B using her Acid Layback, and Minoru bounced off his own balls for a Grape-Pinky Combo Mineta-Bounce attack. Watching from the screen, both classes cheered on their classmates while wondering why the teachers haven't canceled the match.

Neito attempted another ambush at Izuku and Ochaco, throwing a projectile at them, but Ochaco deflected it with her wrist-guard. Neito had managed to touch Izuku earlier, so he had already copied his quirk and announced to Izuku that he would use it against them. Knowing the consequences that it entailed, Izuku tried to warn him about its unstable power, but Neito obviously ignored him.

Neito activates Izuku's Quirk, but for some reason, it doesn't seem to work, allowing Ochaco the opportunity to jump on him and swiftly subdue him using her Gunhead Martial Arts. Ochaco believed that he was just bluffing, but Neito could not use Izuku's Quirk for real, causing him to be frustrated.

Hitoshi realized that his ally was in danger and sent out his Capturing Weapon in an attempt to help him. This allowed Izuku to grab onto the scarf, pulling himself towards Hitoshi. As Ochaco activated her Zero Gravity ability, the two proceed to clash.

"Eraser...Midoriya is on the move." Vlad King stated the obvious.

"Yeah. I can tell."

Hitoshi claimed that he was not the same as before and tried to bring the pipes down on Izuku the same way he did in round one of the joint battle training. Izuku realized that he could not escape, but then, he remembered the previous One For All user's warm presence from before.

Remembering the previous One For All wielder's advice and morals gave him enough heart to focus, and he used Blackwhip to grab nearby pipes, readying his attack on Hitoshi.

Seeing the Black Tendrils re-emerge from Izuku, Shota and Vlad prepared to intervene, but All Might and Shido stopped them.

"You guys need to stop jumping in at every situation. Look," Shido pointed towards Izuku's expression, "He is in control of his quirk now, not the other way round."

Hitoshi jumped away from Izuku and asked if he just was only bluffing when he was rampaging with it before. Before he could reply, Izuku suddenly felt some painful physical backlash for using Blackwhip.

"He still isn't fully ready for its power yet; 35% of One for All isn't enough for him to control that power. You better warn him that he should only use more of the other quirk once his control gets to at least 45%." Shido whispered to All Might, and the latter nodded.

Izuku looked up and saw that Hitoshi had started running away and gave chase. Hitoshi knew that brainwashing wouldn't work anymore and decided that creating some distance was the best strategy given the current situation.

Meanwhile, Ochaco locked Neito in the cell while he laughed, knowing she doesn't get where he's coming from. She ran back to Izuku and Hitoshi, now worried that Neito might have done something to interfere with Izuku's fight. While he was chasing Hitoshi, Izuku suddenly received a blow to the face from nowhere.

It turned out that Neito had copied Nirengeki's Twin Impact, and back then, he hit Deku when he copied his quirk. As a last act of defiance, Neito used Twin Impact to throw Deku off his balance and nearly allowed Hitoshi to capture him.

Nirengeki managed to defeat Minoru with a strong punch to his gut after reading his moves, and Reiko followed up with a metal rain attack on Mina. Class 1-B began to gain momentum, but Izuku recovered from the Twin Impact blast and started to head towards Hitoshi again.

The latter sent his Capturing Weapon out towards Izuku, hoping that it'll subdue him, but Izuku instead grabbed onto it and pulled a startled Hitoshi forward.

Ochaco karate chopped Reiko, knocking her out, and then pushed Yui into a trap made of Minoru's balls. Nirengeki called out to his teammates in dismay, and Mina took that advantage to take him out with an uppercut, saving Minoru.

At the same time, Izuku jumped on top of Hitoshi, pinning him down.

The moment all four members of Class 1-B's team was incapacitated and jailed, Midnight announced the results.

"Match 5 is over! There were some pretty close calls...but with a perfect 4-0...class A wins!!"

Vlad King wasn't announcing the results because he was with Shido and company in the middle of the fighting scene to ensure that nothing would go wrong. Plus, class A's protests against Vlad King's biased commentary had finally succeeded, and Midnight volunteered to take over his job.

"With Round 5 complete, this concluded all of the matches! All participants did an excellent job reading not only their opponents but also themselves. As for the final results?

Round 1: Class A

Round 2: Class B

Round 3: Draw

Round 4: Class A

Round 5: Class A

Final result: Class A's victory!!!"

At Midnight's announcement, class A cheered happily, celebrating their victory while class B lamented over their loss.

"Sensei...I couldn't do anything alone. I still lack strength."

When the teachers had returned back to the gathering spot, Shinso went up to Aizawa. He spoke, "This was also supposed to serve as my entrance exam, too, correct?"

"You knew!?" Vlad King was surprised.

"Yes. Itsuka-sensei already told me from the beginning."

"Hey, don't snitch on me like that..." Shido turned away from Vlad King's look, but Shinso hurriedly continued his words.

"But even so, considering the timing and format of this exercise...this format would easily let you test my abilities without any extra setup. Plus, I was also the only one who participated twice."

The teachers remained silent at Shinso's observation and analysis for a while before Aizawa eventually told him to return to his position.

"Uh...in any case, Midoriya...what the hell was that?" In front of the other students, Aizawa questioned Izuku, "Was it a new move derived from your quirk? How does it work?"

Shido also patiently waited for him to answer. He knew it was about One for All but didn't know what part of it caused the black tendrils to appear. Knowing that One for All was an accumulation of powers, he might have gotten it from one of his predecessors.

After all, it would be strange if every predecessor was a quirkless person like All Might and Izuku. Some of them have had to have a quirk.

Unknown to him, Shido's deduction was terrifyingly accurate.

Izuku was a bit anxious about the question since he couldn't reply with the reveal of One for All. He eventually said that he wasn't sure about releasing his tendrils and describing how his power was overflowed, which led to him going out of control in the process.

Izuku confessed that he felt scared about harming somebody and pointed out that he was saved thanks to Ochaco and Hitoshi's teamwork, which was the thing that genuinely rescued him.

Hitoshi clearly didn't that his actions were that significant, but he kept silent about it.

"That's right! The way Shinso-kun took on Midoriya-kun's rampage! And Uraraka-san's quick reactions! Both were amazing! To use one's own body to calm one's friend down! " Midnight gushed and started moaning softly, "Yes! That's right! That's what I love to see! Mmmmm!"

Recalling Ochaco's previous statement of her wanting to rescue more people, Aizawa praised her for her growth.

"I didn't actually do it just because of you, Midoriya. I was just following Urarak's instructions. Or rather...I saw that Yanagi-san and the others were also being attacked by that black thing and knew that our chances of winning would be slim if that thing wasn't stopped."

While Mina and Ochaco were conversing, Shinso admitted to Izuku.

"I stopped it because I wanted to fight you and win. It all happened by chance. I was only thinking of myself."

Hearing his words, Aizawa walked in front of Shinso and started to strangle him with his capture weapon.

Only after a second of suffocation did Aizawa released it and scolded his pupil, "No one was expecting you to go that far. Everyone here has been training hard every day to be a hero that can save someone. Anyone who can get there instantly would be a genius on All Might's level. You won't be able to save anyone if you're only thinking of others."

"You can't help others if you have the power to help yourself. With that in mind, your actions were more than enough to pass." Aizawa concluded, commending Shinso for acting like a real hero.

Izuku followed on by praising the hero-in-training on his skills throughout the exercise, mentioning how his new equipment gave him an upper hand in taking down opponents with ease.

Vlad King then announced before providing feedback to the other students that Hitoshi would be joining the Hero department starting from his second year. Hearing the news, every student started to question whether he'll be joining Class A or B.

Hitoshi appeared bewildered and satisfied and proud of himself for accomplishing his goal while Shido just stood beside him and patted his shoulders.

"Thank you for recommending me, Itsuka-sensei."

Shido was surprised at the thanks you received before brushing it off with a laugh, "Hahaha...don't worry about that. It all ultimately depended on yourself. Even without me nagging the principal, as long as you continue to work hard, you would eventually become a hero in the future!"

"Nevertheless, I still want to thank you." Shinso bowed slightly towards Shido.

Seeing that he could do nothing else, Shido just continued smiling and patting Shinso on his shoulder.

"Work hard. Don't slack off now."

"I won't." Shinso gave a resolute reply.

Although Class 1-B had lost the bet, Neito began ranting about how his team didn't lose in terms of substance.

"Now that I know that Midoriya's quirk has that, we could devise a strategy to counter it! In order words?!" Neito began to laugh and shout maniacally, "It means if we had a rematch now, who knows who would win!!"

Hearing his words, Vlad King immediately shut his dreams down and dashed all of his hopes.

"We're not doing it again. Class is over for today."

Seeing today's training's conclusion, Shido smiled.

'I'm getting pretty attached to them, no? Even though I made fun of Aizawa-san, I'm no better than him...'

The next year's gonna be fun...

...if he hasn't left by then, that is.

*****************

If you want to support me or/and want 14+ chapters in advance, link:

https://www.patréon.com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 10 months ahead (aka 40 chapters going by 1 chapter per week release schedule)