Ch.88

Neito continues provoking the idea that Midoriya's team is in trouble, questioning if the previous scream came from the real Ochaco, or if was it just Hitoshi imitating her voice with his voice changer in order to lure him out. Midoriya refuses to give a signal to his team location and fires several Air Force at him. Neito dodges the attacks, mocking Midoriya for not showing apparent concern for his own, and uses Poltergeist to attack him with bolts and screws.

Meanwhile, Minoru uses Pop Off: Vineyard a combination of his Pop Off sphere connected by stem vines, and lays them throughout the area in the hope that they can act as something of a trap to snag an opposing member. When he returns to Ochaco and Mina, they confirm that the scream from earlier was from Hitoshi and that it sounded nearby. Just then, Minoru notices that something has stuck to his makeshift rope and warns his teammates. This turns out to be Reiko using her Poltergeist Quirk to levitate a barrage of objects around the area and throw them at random. Mina uses her ultimate Move Acid Veil to protect the team. However, the destruction of several of these objects allows Nirengeki to locate their position.

With this information, Class B team begins their real attack. With Reiko still controlling the items, Yui Kodai uses her Size to change their mass as a means of throwing their opponents off. Ochaco uses her Zero Gravity Quirk to stop the onslaught of metal projectiles and keep them in the air, but Nirengeki uses Twin Impact to add a second wave to the barrage. Class 1-B's attack has helped Nirengeki get a rough idea of Class 1-A's location, so he, Reiko, and Yui continue hiding together to prepare for their next attack. Ochaco, Mina, and Minoru attempt to run realizing Midoriya wasn't able to lure them away, while Ochaco wonders how he's holding up.

Back at Midoriya, he continues to shoot blasts at Neito, who takes cover behind a large pipe while still taunting Izuku. With one final strike of his words, Neito asks how Bakugo can smile knowing he's destroyed the Symbol of Peace. His accusation infuriates Midoriya, who prepares to shoot him with another blast.

Before Midoriya can ever release his Air Force attack, a mysterious black power suddenly bursts out of his arm. Midoriya tries kicking his own arm to contain the extreme surge of energy erupting from it, but it overflows and black tendrils suddenly rush at Neito below. Neito dives out of the way just in time, and the black tendrils begin to latch on to objects in the area, pulling Midoriya through the maze of pipes to where Hitoshi's hiding. He yells for Hitoshi to run.

Onlookers believe this may be a new ability of Midoriya, but he's actually struggling in pain to control this power. The tendrils pull Midoriya into the air as he pleads with One For All to get back under control. The tendrils even threaten his teammates, which gains Ochaco's attention. Midoriya believed he was improving since getting his Quirk and is dismayed that the power is raging again.

"Shit, this kid is gonna kill them all," I say about to jump in and pull Midoriya out.

"Wait! Akihiko, young Midoriya still has time to adjust to his new power," my Uncle says before I go to take Midoriya out.

"What?! Are you crazy this kid can't control that. He will get someone killed or himself," I say to my Uncle giving him a look of stupidity on his part.

"Please just wait two minutes for him to get it under control. If he doesn't by then, then you can get him," my Uncle says to me with a pleading look.

"...Fine. Though as soon as I feel another student is endangered I will act," I say to him as I turn to the screen displaying the current issue with Midoriya.

'Though I can sense a slight demonic energy from this power he just used,' I think to myself as I can feel the energy from here.

Just as the darkness threatens to consume Midoriya, Ochaco rushes to his side and floats her way up to him, grabbing onto him. She tries to help but soon realizes that it is out of control. She spots Hitoshi nearby, and yells at him to brainwash Midoriya in the hope that his power will subsequently stop. Hitoshi panics and tries to think of a correct question he could ask Midoriya. He quickly calms down and reminds himself of his first clash with Midoriya, realizing that he's come a long way since then and truly wishes to prove it. He removes his mask and asks Midoriya if they can have their proper rematch. Midoriya confirms and allows himself to fall under Hitoshi's spell once again. The mysterious black power disappears as he loses consciousness.

"You're lucky, if not for Hitoshi, he'd be unable to bring it under control," I say to my Uncle seeing him stop Midoriya from completely losing himself. My Uncle nods at me now seeing how Midoriya was unable to stop it himself.

Ochaco immediately slaps Midoriya to wake him from the brainwashing. Ochaco calms Midoriya down as they float in mid-air. Neito takes advantage of their guard being down and ambushes Midoriya from behind while floating on an enlarged metal nut, attempting to touch him and copy his Quirk. He manages to knock Midoriya over and Ochaco tries to subdue him using Gunhead Martial Arts.

Reiko arrives in time and saves Neito by using flying projectiles to distract his attacker. Ochaco dodges as everyone from both teams joins the fray, the once technical battle turning into an all-out brawl. Hitoshi sends his Capturing Weapon flying at Ochaco, but Midoriya darts out in front of her and grabs it, ready to face Hitoshi once again. Despite Midoriya's chaotic outburst, all of the students are still eager to win the fight.

Midoriya explains to Ochaco that he can't use his Quirk after what happened earlier, saying he'll have to rely on her powers to aid him against Hitoshi. Mina fires her Acid Shot attack at the other team, but Yui blocks it with an enlarged plate of metal. Nirengeki throws a projectile on the ground before increasing its velocity using his Quirk, and Minoru protects Mina from this attack using his Grape Buckler shield.

As it turns out, Minoru's plan the whole time was to get pushed into Mina's chest. Annoyed, she throws him at the other team using her Acid Layback and Minoru bounces off his own balls for a Grape-Pinky Combo Mineta Bounce attack. Neito throws a projectile at Midoriya and Ochaco, but the latter deflects it with her wrist-guard. As Neito's touched Midoriya and therefore copied his Quirk, he attempts to activate One For All but it doesn't appear to work, allowing Ochaco to jump on him and swiftly pin him down.

Hitoshi realizes his teammate's been caught and calls out to him, readying his binding cloth to use to support Neito, but Midoriya uses Ochaco's Quirk to float up to his position above the battlefield, distracting him from his captured teammate. They both start grappling and Hitoshi reminds Midoriya of their last bout, and Midoriya knows Hitoshi is too big of a threat not to neutralize now. Hitoshi claims he's not the same as before and tries to bring the pipes down on Midoriya the same way he did in round one.

Hitoshi is surprised by this new development and asks if Midoriya was only faking being in pain before. Midoriya suddenly gets some painful physical backlash for using Blackwhip, realizing his body isn't ready for its power yet and he must master One For All first. To avoid another outburst, Midoriya adjusts the full cowl.

Neito sends a metal pipe at Ochaco, who's tied him up and is floating him to the cell, with Poltergeist and she dodges it quickly. She turns to him, realizing that, as five minutes have passed, the time limit of his Copy should be up now so he'll soon lose access to his teammate's Quirks. Neito taunts her, saying that he could've extended his limit to ten minutes, and asks her if she thinks she could beat him one-on-one. Ochaco looks defiant but doesn't verbally reply, and Neito realizes just how cautious the Class 1-A team has been because of Hitoshi's Quirk. He asks if Ochaco knows how many Quirks he can copy at a time, and, noting the number of clocks on his belt, she holds up three fingers, and he slyly asks what she would do if it was four.

As Ochaco starts to move Neito into the cell, he begins to explain Copy to her. He says that although he can only use one Quirk at a time, the effects of one Quirk will remain even after he activates another unless they directly affect his body. Ochaco doesn't understand what relevance that bears and pushes Neito into the cell. Neito laughs, knowing she doesn't get where he's coming from. Ochaco successfully locks him up, but not before Neito uses Nirengeki's Twin Impact to hinder Midoriya's pursuit of Hitoshi. Nirengeki subdues Minoru with a strong punch to his gut after reading his moves, and Reiko follows up with a metal rain attack on Mina. Class 1-B begins to gain momentum, but Midoriya refuses to give up.

Midoriya spins off a wall to completely evade Hitoshi's Capturing Weapon. Ochaco chops Reiko's neck to subdue her from behind and then pushes Yui into a trap made of Minoru's balls, which gives Mina an opening to uppercut Nirengeki to save Minoru. At the same time, Midoriya pins down Hitoshi, reminding his team of the claim for a victory that he made before the match began. Class 1-A's team manages to turn the battle around as soon as Nirengeki, Reiko, and Hitoshi have soon joined Neito in the cell.

By turning things around at the last second, the Class 1-A team manages to win the match with a perfect 4-0 victory. Nemuri announces the final results, proclaiming that Class 1-A has won the entire exercise overall, and the winners celebrate their victory. I overheard Hitoshi reveal to Shota and a very surprised Sekijiro that he knew the entire battle was serving his entrance exam for the hero course, also saying that he was disappointed in his performance as he apparently lacked the strength to do anything on his own after Neito was captured. While I motion for Midoriya to come over and talk with All Might and me.

"...Yes?" Midoriya says nervously after approaching my Uncle and me.

"So, gonna explain what happened out there? All Might never used anything as you did earlier, so is it a part of One For All or a new addition that woke up randomly," I say to Midoriya who looks around nervously in case anyone is listening. Though we are out of earshot of everyone.

"Uhm… I'm not a hundred percent sure. But after Hitoshi took over my mind, I was brought to a place that had all the previous users of One For All. One of them told me about the thing I just used, telling me that some users of One For All could access this power too," Midoriya says to us with a thoughtful expression.

"How come you've never said anything about that before?" I say to my Uncle who seems just as surprised as I am that Midoriya saw the past users of One For All.

"Because I never experienced that before… that is very interesting. We may want to look into a way for you to go back to that place. The other users may be able to pass down some very important knowledge," my Uncle says with confusion and slight excitement too.

"Akihiko!" Shota says my name motioning me over to him, Sekijiro, and Nemuri. I just look at Midoriya one last time with an interest in this new development.

"Yeah?" I ask once I come over to my three fellow teachers.

"So, you think Hitoshi can make it in the hero course?" Shota asks me since this was one of the main reasons we did this sparing event too.

"Yeah, he proved to be a good addition to the hero course. Though he will have to wait until next year to enter the course," I say to them and they all nod.

"Plus since you trained him and his abilities match yours, he would make a good underground hero," I say to Shota while thinking about the possible futures for Hitoshi.