Chapter 44: Help! I'm stuck in the Pipes!

Recap:

On the other side, the moment he used his own force plus Hiryu's to cause the mini-avalanche, Midroiya booked it to the exit.

'Why fight when I can win without it?' were his thoughts.

He knew his limits and his quirk, so he planned to play to his strengths without it until needed.

"BOO!"

"BORING."

"I WANT A REFUND!"

He stepped onto the clean, gray pavement, signaling he had succeeded in passing, yet the crowd's mixed mood caused him to sweat.

He understood their anger since anyone would be when getting scammed, yet all he could do was rub the back of his head and smile.

"––ast Contestant. We'll prepare for round two in just a moment."

Midoriya would've had more time to ponder on him being last should a certain screaming boy be hastily coming towards him.

"DEKU YOU LITTLE SH*T—"

'Bakugo.'

____________________________________________________________________________

The ferocious, spiky-haired boy roughly grabbed the collar of Midoriya's shirt, effortlessly lifting him up onto his toes, showing his gains from their brief training period after the USJ incident.

"EXPLAIN WHAT THE—"

MIdoriya flinched as he saw Bakugo's free hand light up with small explosions, 'A scare tactic he developed since grade school.' He thought.

Still, he subconsciously ignored his "childhood friend" and observed him more, wanting to get a more in-depth understanding of how much he'd grown.

The bulging of his developed muscles, rough palms, and even his 'Intimidation' explosions packed more power than he'd last recalled.

"-RE YOU IGNORING ME!"

It seemed the lack of response pissed off the red-eyed boy so much that he centered his stance while bulging his muscles, preparing to toss the smaller of the two onto the ground, not caring for the fact that they were on national television.

Luckily for both of them, an intervention ensued before anything could occur.

"Bakugo, what are you doing?!"

Separating the hands of Midoriya and Bakugo, Kirishima put his arm around Bakugo and whispered inwardly so nobody could hear.

"Were on national television, so–"

That did remind the boy that this was being broadcast, and with that thought, his sense of reasons flooded back, causing him to get even more angry, though a small part he'd never mention was embarrassed at making a fool of himself.

Reacting violently, he roughly shoved the new pair of hands off and backed away.

"F*CK OFF!!"

He then turned away, walking towards another wall to brood; at least that's what Suijin assumed as he stared at the boy.

Turning his gaze in another direction, he locked eyes with Mina and gave her a friendly wave, though his metaphorical eyebrows rose as he saw her red face and her giving a rather uncharacteristic, shy-like wave.

'...!?-NAH, she's probably just tired.'

Halfheartedly convincing himself of what he hoped to be true (though he partially didn't), he turned upwards, trying to peer through the glass and plead with his teachers to hurry up.

And as if they heard his calls,

"HELLO TO THOSE WHO FINISHED! CONGRATULATIONS ON PASSING! NOW LOOK ABOVE AS WE SPIN THE WHEEL TO DETERMINE ROUND 2 OF THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!!!!!!"

Everyone directed their attention to the top of the sky as it flashed with countless options.

[Hide and Seek], [Tag], [Two Man!]

Those with high output quirks hoped for direct combat, whereas others with ranged abilities wanted a more target-focused game.

However, as the screen slowed down, everyone slowed their breaths, anticipating what it would fall on.

It seemed like a game of [Who's got the best unique feature?] would be chosen, before, at the last second, another option passed on the screen.

[Capture the Flag!] Was both shouted and could be read.

Normally, many would moan and groan at this option being picked, as it unfairly gave an unfair advantage to those with physically suited quirks, yet a small hope for the classic UA twist was held in many's hearts.

"CAPTURE THE FLAG, A GAME WHERE STUDENTS WILL ENTER OUR GROUDN GAMMA! FILLED WITH MANY FACTORIES THAT FOR A LABRYINTH."

Shown on the screen was an overhead look into the pipe-filled place.

"HIDDEN ALL OVER WILL BE FLAGS YOUR TASKED TO ACQUIRE AND PROTECT. THOUGH WE HAVE 32 PEOPLE ENTERING THERS ONLY 16 SLOTS TO BE AWARDED."

The students were led by robots to their designated entrance point. Suijins was a door, while he saw others like a vent, a crawlspace, and even a CHIMNEY!

"Oh right, I forgot to mention. Your placement is based on how and when you completed the test; thus, the farther down you were, the farther away you were from a flag, and the closer, the better. In fact, Number 1 Todoroki is right next to one when his entrance opens."

Dropping that little nugget of knowledge, some, like Midoriya's and Kaminari's faces, dropped, while others, like Bakugo's ever-present grin, seemed to grow wider, and a small smirk could be seen on the half-red, half-white-haired Todoroki.

"GO!"

Their "entrances" opened, and the examiner sprung inside.

…

'Huh?'

Suijin was currently hidden behind one of the MASSIVE pipes, watching as what he could only describe as anarchy ensued.

One moment, a rather happy business student was hiding not too far from him, strategically hidden from any angles above and from the light.

Suijin guessed his plan was just to wait there for the entire time; unfortunately, he didn't account for the unnaturalness that was quirks.

So to Suijin's 'Bulging Eyes', some shadow-like thing attacked the students' position. He could only tell due to the two yellow eyes, and as he was gawking at the scene, a student he recognized from class 1B popped out!

'Shihai's quirk has to do with stealth, from what I remember.'

A quick tussle in which the…more scrawny of the two lets out a pathetic "PWEH" sound at the end

Shihai then seemed to morph back into a shadow and attempt to run away. Suijin needed to concentrate to track him, as his speed was fast and any shadow could be him, but another enemy came to interrupt!

"YOU DAMN SNEAKY SHADOW! FIRST YOU WANT TO INTERRUPT ME IN A FIGHT AND THEN YOU RUN AWAY! DIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"

'Thank you for running away!.' Suijin said a quick prayer while thanking God that he was far enough away that the explosions didn't affect him.

Meanwhile, the pipes ahead didn't survive the large, constant explosions of Bakugo, who was attacking in the air.

But the distance between the two was enough that the poor Shihai could eject himself from his quirk and get thrown into the wide open.

Unluckily, Bakugo's keen eye caught that a flying angry ball was heading towards him.

'CRAP!'

Thinking so, Suijin wondered if he should help; at one point, he didn't want to intervene and lose the element of surprise, along with furthering Bakugo's fury.

But on the other hand, he was supposed to be trying to be a hero, and he didn't want anyone to be seriously injured, though part of him still believed there were heroes present to deal with any mishaps.

As he was in an internal struggle, Shihai took the decision out of his hands.

Throwing up the red flag in the air, Shihai used Bakugo's attention, being displaced to run ahead and hop in the shadows created from the rubble.

Then, in his usual fashion, he escaped!

"YOU THINK THAT'LL GET RID OF ME!!!"

Bakugo wasn't satisfied, so with practiced movements, he stopped his palms from producing explosions by flipping in the air and grabbing the flag before stuffing it in his pockets.

Then, with his stomach facing the ground, he put his hands several degrees behind him while facing below and ignited his nitroglycerin sweat!

"COME BACK HERE SO YOU CAN DIE!"

Suijin looked at the rocket flying away and shook his head.

'This…is going to be troublesome.'

{A/N: I mean Thursday for updates. I wrote on the wrong day. Thursdays are my off days. Let me know how you like the story—any problems, any particular loves. Leave a review, PLEASE! I hope you're enjoying, Adios~}