65

Chapter 65: Practical Exam II - Breaking InNotes:

This chapter and the following ones will show a back and forth between the actual attack against the fake Villain hideout (Raid) and the discussion that happened before it between the students (Planning). What happens in them is in chronological order though, so it shouldn't get confusing.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Raid

"This should be it," Mezo stated, having reached the highest point of the tallest building of the fake cityscape, or at least the one closest to their target.

He had discarded the option of climbing over a water tank, as they didn't know how secure it could be. While certainly life-like, it was only a reproduction, and he'd rather avoid causing unnecessary damage and going down a drop ten stories high.

" Yes. But maybe you could go up there, " Koda gestured before pointing towards the door they'd come from.

He was right. Technically that structure was a couple of meters higher, and surely solid enough to hold him.

"Thank you. Be sure to hide behind those, Anima," Mezo suggested while pointing at the large vents ducts a few feet away, making his friend nod in return.

Having noticed the lack of any kind of stair, he hoisted himself up. The change wasn't impressive, but he did have a great view of everything happening on the streets below and of about three-quarters of the Villain's hideout. Still, Mezo lowered himself slightly, cursing the lack of railings. He wasn't afraid of falling, but he would rather avoid getting discovered. They were supposed to cut the enemies' communications and central command, not the other way around.

He looked to his left and right with a few eyes, picking out some silhouettes in a similar, if lower, spot. They were sure to be those of Midoriya and his team. Everybody else was still well hidden. Todoroki and Bondo had already found safe spots to wait in.

Mezo multiplied a tentacle, creating an extension that would act as a mouth, and brought it closer to his earpiece.

"Fulcrum, do you copy? We are in position."

"I hear you loud and clear, Kraken. We are in position as well."

Mezo nodded to himself before fulfilling his role by starting to list the rest of the teams.

"Infiltration?"

"We stand at the ready!" Ida cried out.

"Shock?"

"We are ready as well," Yaoyorozu replied.

"Physics?"

"Ready to go," Shoda confirmed.

"Hazard?"

"Ready," Honenuki huffed.

"Tank?"

"We're set," Rin answered.

"Savior?"

"Good to go on our end," Monoma hummed.

"Thorn?"

"Same," Mineta blurted out.

"Might?"

"Fired up and ready!" Kirishima exclaimed.

"Every team accounted for." Mezo nodded to himself, taking one last breath before the start. "Remember, we have fifteen minutes, so make them count. Begin the operation in ten, nine, eight…"

Planning

As the students settled in the conference room, Momo felt glad that another of Izuku's plans resulted in a great success. Neither he nor Kyoka had gotten hurt, and they had gathered the data they wanted. She wasn't exactly sure that their opponents wouldn't retaliate after that kind of act, but perhaps that was exactly the point.

- An angry foe is more predictable than a cool-headed one, - she reminded herself.

Since they were now free to speak without undesired outside listeners, she urged Izuku to move on. With the whole group seated—or not, as some seemed too tense to do so—, the greenette opened the binders and started summarizing their contents aloud.

"This is our base of operations, and it's also the place where we are supposed to bring the captured Villains and our injured, if there are any. Then they'll be carried away and it won't be under our jurisdiction anymore. There is food in the kitchen for a single meal each, since the exam overlaps with lunch, plus extra rations for those who require them for their Quirk."

And of that, Momo was very grateful. She had a stock of high-calorie bars on herself, but she wouldn't mind adding to her reserves. And, by their reactions, she was reasonably sure that Sato and a few others were of the same mind. She didn't know why the principal would choose to set their exam over those hours when he could have simply set it earlier in the morning or immediately afterwards, but she couldn't deny that this probably felt more "realistic." Villains didn't quite need to respect dining hours and break times.

Izuku wore a light frown as he continued. "It also says here that the building should be perfectly safe, which obviously doesn't take into account any meddling that may have happened without our knowledge."

"Then we should take whatever comes next with a grain of salt," Ida stated, pensive.

"Yeah," Ochaco nodded. "We can't trust it at face value."

"Mm," Yui cut in with a light shake of her head.

"We also can't doubt it all," Shoda translated. "As far as we know, things might be missing, but the data hasn't been tampered with directly."

"Get on with it," Bakugo cut in with a dry grumble.

 Izuku was already flipping to the next page.

"The Villains we will be fighting call themselves "Antihero Union", or "A.U." for short."

A few of them failed to contain a snort at the stupid pun. Hopefully they wouldn't be deducted points for getting too unprofessional.

- If it hasn't happened already because of the squabbles outside, - she sighed inwardly.

"They are a small group composed of around fourteen members, an approximate number deduced from intercepted calls between them. There could be more, but we can't be sure."

"How nice," Shinso groaned.

"What do we know about them?" Honenuki asked, having adopted a more serious persona.

"More than expected," Izuku declared as he browsed the next pages. "But it's not that much of a surprise, considering who they are."

Reacting to Izuku's words, the others were just starting to look curious or confused, but Todoroki cut in, deadpan. "It's our teachers." It wasn't a question.

"Yes and no," the greenette nodded as he took a few pages out of the binder and went to pin them over the corkboard on one side of the room. "Yes, most of the Villains are in fact our teachers. But right now they're Villains and we should treat them as such, because I seriously doubt they'll treat us with kid gloves."

"Did they ever?" Toru chuckled, followed by several sounds of agreement.

The students eyed the first of the twelve sheets as it was pinned on the board.

Pony tilted her head to the side, confused. "'Walls'? But isn't that Mr. Cementoss?"

"They've got different aliases, probably to throw us off," Setsuna reasoned. "If they used their usual ones we'd be able to recognize them instantly, but now we've got to learn these new ones, and fast."

"Why not stick with the ones we know?" Kinoko inquired.

"It would be against the terms of the exam," Itsuka offered. "We're simulating a raid. Would you use the wrong names in a real one?"

"N-No. Better not," the mushroom girl shook her head.

"Then we shall use those," Shishida nodded before looking back at Izuku. "Please, go on."

Izuku thanked him and got to reading again. "I'll give a quick rundown now to connect names and faces, and we'll look deeper into everything else when we get to planning."

Being answered with nods of approval, he started showing them the profiles one by one.

"The Villains we know of are: Walls, medium to long range fighter, able to manipulate cement-based materials by staying in contact with the surface; Fangs, melee to low range fighter, able to manipulate his own blood; Narcotic, melee to low range fighter, able to emit a gas that induces sleep; Eyes, melee to low range fighter, able to cancel Quirks in his sight."

"Really imaginative there," Monoma commented with a smirk.

"Bullseye, long range fighter, a gunner able to home onto and hit whatever he can see; Replicant, melee fighter, able to multiply himself; Mech, melee fighter, his hands allow him to dig through surfaces with ease; Ruckus, long range fighter, his voice can reach unbearable volumes; Vacuum, low range fighter, can suck in and disintegrate anything; Rabid, melee fighter, dog heteromorph."

"Uh, I thought they'd be weirder," Sero, slowly swinging left and right on his chair, commented.

"A-At least they're easy to remember…" Koda whispered and signed at the same time.

"Yeah, it could've been a lot worse," Mineta agreed.

"And hey, looking at the bright side of things, we can plan who's better suited at fighting them!" Kaminari exclaimed contently.

"But how do we know who's where?" Toru questioned.

"Uh…" The boy had no answers to give.

Honenuki sighed. "They are the ones that can plan their defense that same way, but better. If they know where to find us, they'll just put us in fights with terrible odds."

"It is to be expected that they would know chapter and verse of our current abilities," Ibara remarked.

"Oh, let's not throw in the towel just yet. I think we may still be able to take them by surprise," Monoma interjected. "Creati, might I suggest a creation?"

She raised an eyebrow, but nodded, creating the example he needed for her demonstration.

"What if we used these?" the blonde offered, showing them a sly smile.

Raid

Hizashi stretched his arms high, reaching as far as he could with the tips of his fingers. He drew circles with his shoulders, releasing some built up tension. He shook his legs, ensuring that they wouldn't start tingling, as he had been seated for too long.

Then he took a glance at the watch on the table before him and let out a long sigh before letting himself slide back down in his chair.

"Geez, they're really taking their sweet time, aren't they?"

Nemuri chuckled lightly. "We were the ones who gave them hours to plan things out. It's only fair that they would use them to prepare as much as they can."

"I knooow," he groaned. "I just didn't expect that they would wait this long. Also, I don't wanna see them end up out of time because they miscalculated like that."

"If that happens, I imagine that we'll have to start working harder on time management," she mused before shaking her head. "But I doubt it. This year's classes are good at working together."

"Ah, yeah. Guess that's what happens when you stop pouring fuel to the trash fire that is the usual A-B rivalry," he chuckled, soon followed by the woman.

While Sho's and Kan's methods were surely effective, as they would prepare their students for the heated competition they would face on the job, he always felt a bit sad when he saw that his second years almost never tried to approach their sister class in a friendly way. There were exceptions, sure, but few and far in between. 

It was nice to see those kids getting along so well, for once. He didn't know exactly what had caused Nezu, Sho, and Kan to change their minds, and only time would tell what method was more effective… But, as of now, he preferred the new one. 

- Maybe that's the only good thing that came from that damn U.S.J. attack, - he grimaced. 

"Well, don't let Sho hear that," Nemuri murmured as the laughter died out.

Hizashi shook his head. "Don't need to. I think today may prove a few things… If they get here to capture us in time, of course."

"Come on, I'm sure they're just about to get here," she reassured.

Then he heard two very distinct sounds, one after the other: something crashing against probably every window in a three-hundred-meter radius, and the alarm going off like crazy.

Manami's eyes widened as her screen filled with the red warnings only a second before the blaring alarm made her flinch. Those blasted kids had finally come, and the defense system was responding as well as she could've hoped.

She looked at the list of sensors that had gone off to check the related cameras, only to notice that at least half of the green lights had turned red. The number of disturbed sensors had risen from its quiet zero to a whopping seventy-four.

- Did they break every single window on the front of the building? - she asked herself, astounded. - No, probably more… -

Gentle left his seat in a hurry.

"La B- Brain, what's happening?" he inquired, correcting himself to abide by their assigned roles.

"They're in! They got half of the windows at once! But they can't be that many!" she responded, doing her best to rack her brain in search of an answer. 

"A diversion," Gentle mused.

"Yes! Which cameras do I- Right, start from the entrances and wider angles."

A few clicks and the images she wanted appeared on her monitors. Several points of view were blocked off by grey smoke, but not all of them. She could see that several people were fighting the robots set to attack any intruder, but something wasn't right.

They were all wearing cloaks and masks, being covered from head to toe. They weren't using their Quirks, or they were only using them when covered by the grey mist.

Even with their faces and data on the screen beside her, right now Manami couldn't recognize a single one of them.

The students had taken away some of their teachers' advantages just like that. She could admit that it was a smart move… But their trick would stop working as soon as they had to fight for real.

Her eyes quickly darted from monitor to monitor, pinpointing where the invaders were coming from and moving to, and spoke into her headset.

"A large number of intruders have broken in through the east, north, and south entrances on the ground floor! Walls, Replicant, Vacuum, Bullseye, deal with them! More intruders are present on the first floor, west wing, and on the second floor, east-"

She stopped, realizing where those eight cloaked figures were going.

"Gentle! They're everywhere! Even on this floor!" she screamed.

"Then there isn't a second to waste!" the man replied with a smile as he ensured that his gloves were secured. "I'll be sure to keep them occupied! Continue your work, my dear, you're doing splendidly!"

Manami wanted to squeak in glee. "Yes!" she piped up as her love closed the room's door behind him.

With her fighting spirit renewed, she prepared to get herself back in the game. 

Gentle would defend her with his life, so it was only fair that she give her everything in return!

- Defense system, manual control… On. Let's play, - she thought with a smirk.

Planning

"Perfect. With that much confusion and these they shouldn't be able to recognize us immediately," Izuku stated as he took off his cloak. "And breaking the windows should help us against Narcotic's Quirk. Well thought, Phantom Thief, and well done, Creati."

Momo smiled back before refocusing. Monoma waved away the compliment.

"But we still don't know where the Villains themselves will be positioned," Ida noted.

"I don't think we should think about it too hard," Todoroki declared. "Even in a raid such as this, Heroes can't know everything beforehand."

Shinso snorted. "It can't be that convenient."

"So we should just wing it?" Tsuburaba asked, an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"I never said that," Todoroki denied.

"Mm…" Yui hummed, barely nodding.

"Right. We might not know who we'll be fighting specifically, but we can try to make some hypotheses and prepare as much as we can," Shoda suggested. "For one, I think Cemen- um, Walls would guard the ground level, or at least one of the entrances. Replicant would probably have his copies all around the building, but his main body should be somewhere secure or important."

"Then Vacuum would probably need a bigger space to use her Quirk safely," Ochaco pointed out. "She can't go around absorbing whatever."

"So she'll be outside?" Shoji asked.

"She could be… but there's also this large space here," the brunette said, placing her finger on an empty area that was probably as big as a gym. "It takes at least two floors too, I'm sure that's big enough."

Kaibara looked thoughtful. "What about Sn- Bullseye? Wouldn't he also benefit from big spaces?"

"The same could be said for Ruckus," Sero added.

"Nah, loud noises in close spaces are worse," Kyoka stated.

"Yes, but he might not be as good at fighting in close quarters as the others." Izuku raised six fingers. "The best melee fighters are Eyes, Fangs, Narcotic, Replicant, Rabid, and Mech. They're the ones that could be anywhere."

"Unless they have something to protect…" Itsuka thought aloud. "Let's read on. Maybe we'll find some clues."

Raid

Ken Ishiyama—commonly known as the Pro Hero Cementoss, but currently acting as the fake Villain Walls—was standing in the only path their students coming from the west could take to get further in. 

He smiled lightly as he heard the approaching sounds of the robots being torn apart. The teenagers would be here soon, but he still had time for a short composition.

"Noise of metal breaks,

Stone, silent guardian stands,

Halts their advance, hushed."

He thought about it for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head.

"Not too bad. Maybe I'll make a better one later."

He crouched, touching the ground with one hand, and felt the mixture of limestone and clay respond to his will. In his hands, cement became malleable in a way that brought it between the states of solid and liquid, as it followed the forms his mind constricted it to while maintaining every property of one of the best materials man had ever invented.

Ken raised himself back up, now holding a staff connected directly to the ground. If he had to counter attacks from all sides, staying on his knee wouldn't be the best approach.

The Pro could finally see them—twelve figures—smashing the last remaining bots in their way. He struck before the kids could even make it out of the tunnel, starting to twist the corridor so that it would close in around them. He rather enjoyed those adrenaline-filled scenes in movies, where the hero and his crew could only hope that they would be able to outrun the trap.

"Mudman!" one of the kids—definitely Miss Ashido—yelled.

"Don't worry," Juzo replied, moving to the front and opening his arms wide.

Ken felt the change in the material closer to the teen. It was an alteration that he knew well, but he wasn't particularly fond of it. Somehow, the cement seemed to become more slippery, harder to take control of. It wasn't impossible, but a few degrees harder, as if he had lost some of the control he had perfected over the years. It didn't feel as if he was holding something solid anymore, which meant that it would not work as a full restraint.

The group got out of the corridor and into the hall, charging against the barriers the Pro erected. Surprisingly, only a few of the students choose to destroy the obstacles. Most of them opted to simply move around the blocks and evade his attacks as they split into different directions. They were trying to escape or to split his focus.

- They are hiding their Quirks to keep me guessing, - he surmised, confirming their surveillance's observation. Without knowing who was who, he couldn't relay relevant information to his colleagues. He chuckled at the students' cleverness.

Still he had to remind them of the point of the exam. - You shouldn't be holding back. -

Ken moved to the next phase. His role was to keep them all stalled for as long as possible, therefore he had already sealed off the remaining exits.

"Let's see how you deal with this."

The pavement melted and recomposed as a dozen giant hands burst out from it, homing in on the fleeing group. 

Suddenly, four of the figures stopped and turned, getting in the way of most of his attacks. Juzo intercepted three of them, making them fall down into inert puddles. Four more were fizzled and melted by coming into contact with an acidic spray, courtesy of Miss Ashido. Another two were destroyed by Mr. Ojiro's tail, turning into a shower of debris.

The three hands that they had missed continued towards their targets as they reached the end of the room. He was going to get some of them at the very least.

Another six of the students placed themself in a defensive position, but his attacks didn't connect with any of them. Ken felt like a hundred thorns were perforating the cement of both the hands and the barriers, each hit creating a web of cracks to exploit. A second later a force that wouldn't have scratched his reproductions was turning them into rabble, breaking them apart from the inside.

He knew that Shiozaki could break through cement, but that had certainly been an attack more focused on precision rather than on pure strength. It was proof that the girl had improved her control by leaps and bounds since the Sports Festival.

The teacher found himself targeted by new attacks, having to raise a shield to defend himself against Ashido's acid rain and stepping away from Juzo's attempt at grabbing his legs. With his vision partially impaired and the distractions, he couldn't focus on rebuilding the blocks around the exits as fast as he could have. The students on the run took advantage of the opening, leaving just before the ground could close around them.

"Yes!" the pink-haired girl rejoiced.

Ken sighed. His colleagues would have to deal with a few more enemies apparently.

In the meantime, he shouldn't repeat his mistake and focus on the ones before him.

The smaller figure on Juzo's back remained vigilant, but didn't act yet.

- It's not small enough to be Mineta, but any of the female students are a possibility, - he reasoned.

He offered a smile and acted as calm as he felt—he had to follow the script. "Heroes, welcome. Mudman, Queen Venus, Whiplash, and…?"

"Wouldn't you like to know~" Ashido smirked.

"You'll see. We're planning on winning this," Juzo stated with his usual self-confidence.

"Do you?" Ken chuckled. "Well, I hope that you will be able to make use of your strengths until the end. I don't plan on making this easy for you."

It was time to see how much his nephew had improved over the last few months, and to finally show the results of his own training.

Clone Number Seven watched from above as thirteen cloaked students entered the room he was guarding. He had seen dozens of robots swarm against them, entering the corridor the kids were approaching from, only to be reduced to scrap by the three in the front. His eyes fell on each one.

The first two were breaking through with brute strength and speed. One jumped on every surface, getting out of reach before striking back, while the other blocked and tanked each hit by using already destroyed robots as improvised weapons.

- Froppy and Sugarman. -

The one just behind followed by attacking the ones that got through the formation's tip. He didn't engage in melee, instead short circuiting the machines with each flick of his fingers.

- Chargebolt. -

The smaller Victory class machines were too easy of a target for them, but the bigger ones didn't pose that much of a threat either. Even the Imperial class, bigger as they might have been, were still fundamentally robots simply programmed to scare cowards.

The Venator class Villain bots, being heavily armed, were the only ones that could technically deal decent damage and have the students fall back. This room had three.

The machines in question charged forward, bulldozing through their scrapped kind. They opened their hatches, but never got to fire their missiles as a loud "KABOOM!" echoed all the way to the top floor.

- Comicman. -

The smoke engulfed the ground floor for a few seconds, making his job even harder. The figures were moving quickly, now doubly hidden among the chaos and somehow unbothered by it. He realized that someone was guiding them through it, a tall figure wielding a staff.

- Creati. -

Number Seven knew that the machines' resistance wouldn't last much longer while fighting those five. They were well coordinated, and quantity could only do so little against their quality.

It was obvious that the bots wouldn't be able to stop the students from leaving the room for a minute more. They were already splitting up, and he had only recognized a third of them.

His role was that of a silent observer, only needed to relay information to the main body and the ones hiding around. Some copies were necessary to keep track of the Heroes as they approached the hideout's vital points, while others defended them and the main body.

But, if the students kept themselves hidden, leaving him unable to distinguish them and halving his usefulness, then he would need to take different measures.

Number Seven, Number Eight, and Number Nine all launched themselves into the fray. Others would follow the group escaping south, and the rest would gather up.

Comicman was meant to be his first target, given his ability for widespread attacks, but another student wasn't about to let him attack him. His copied metallic prosthetic clashed against Froppy's foot, throwing them both back and over the railing of the first floor.

The girl landed with grace despite her power, grasping the metallic bars and getting ready to leap at him again. He could see some of Mirko's form in her stance, but greatly altered—perhaps to a higher effectiveness.

He wasn't sure if he could pull any punches with this one.

Anan Kurose, hands raised towards her current opponents, sighed inside of her helmet.

As a Support specialist, she wasn't as good as most of her colleagues when it came to combat. She could hold her own against Villains up to B Rank in a one on one, but when it came to fighting against many enemies she found herself in a weird situation. While beating several weak opponents at once was easy, she could maim them just as easily with the smallest oversight. That wasn't a mistake she was eager to repeat.

When it came to fighting her own students, she just couldn't put her own mind at ease without limiting herself in some capacity—even when Nezu told her to go all out. But, since those self-imposed limits would weaken her considerably, she thought that she would need some support (pun unintended) on her side. 

The principal had been more than receptive—ecstatic, even—at her suggestion of working in pairs. He hadn't enforced it, leaving the final say to each teacher, but he had recommended it quite vehemently. After all, the vast majority of Villains, as prideful and egotistic as they could be, gathered collaborators and followers for aid.

Snipe had agreed to help her out on the spot, and they made for an amazing team. Getting too close to her was dangerous, and getting close to him at all was hard, simply due to the distance he would stay at. She could keep dozens of foes from escaping her, and he could shoot them down while they were busy holding themself to whatever they could find.

It was a great plan… that was currently going to waste.

She had expected that the students would try to overwhelm them with numbers. They didn't. The only ones that had come inside the gym were Shishida, Tsuburaba, and Rin.

On one hand, she felt annoyed at being underestimated, but on the other, she honestly felt a little bad for them. Three students against two teachers, especially the two of them?

As long as someone was inside of Snipe's vision, they could and would be hit. There was only one way to avoid a direct shot: destroy the bullets while they were still flying. 

As long as someone was within thirty meters of Anan while her Quirk was active, they would be inexorably pulled towards her. Obstacles or ranged attacks wouldn't stop her from advancing, and only an immense level of speed or strength would allow someone to exit her range once they had entered it.

As good as these three were, none of them could manage that much.

It wasn't exactly fair… but she had a job to do, and she would do it well.

"Personally, I dislike fighting. But all I need to do is keep you here," she stated, already doing her part perfectly. "My partner will end you in my stead."

Shishida, in a form close to [Beast]'s strongest, had buried his hands deep in the ground and was keeping himself in a most aerodynamic fashion. He could certainly still feel the traction of [Black Hole], but the wind simply passed by without dragging him further. The situation was somewhat worse for the two holding onto his back, but she could see that they were strapped to each other. A similar measure would have been detrimental in any fight but hers.

- They anticipated that they would find me, and only three of them came? -

Bangs rang behind her, echoing on the gym's surfaces.

Three projectiles went for their targets, going for the ceiling first before descending in a perfect arc. However, moments before they could hit, they collided with several transparent disks made by Tsuburaba's [Solid Air]. Instead of breaking through the obstacles, the bullets slid over them, getting slightly deflected. Normally they would have just gone back to their tracing, but the brunette's constructs kept moving them in a circle, only moving forward bit by bit. Then, Rin raised his arm—completely coated in grayish scales that reminded her of the fish she had for dinner the night before—and closed his fist around the projectiles. The teen grimaced, but quickly tightened his palm as the shape of his scales changed slightly, becoming almost diamond-shaped. When the Chinese teen opened his hand again, all that was left of Snipe's shots were deformed metal scraps stained with some crimson.

She saw Tsuburaba's expression turn into the widest smirk, and Rin look at his accomplishment with pride.

Anan could barely believe her eyes.

They had neutralized Snipe's shots by losing some breath and a bit of blood. Thanks to them, Shishida didn't have to move a finger to defend himself, and had in fact remained as immobile as he could.

"I often find myself with a distaste for combat as well, Miss Vacuum. But this is what a Hero must do," the gentlemanly student spoke with a grave but sincere tone. "And we happen to share a similar goal. You won't be able to take us down, Villains."

For a moment, the Pro Hero Thirteen smiled. She felt extremely proud of these kids. 

Then, she raised her other hand.

- Alright. All out it is. -

- I should've brought my sleeping bag, - Shota huffed annoyedly as he got up from his seat.

A mistake on his part. He expected that the kids would try and surprise them with some weird plan, but not for them to wait hours before putting it into action. In a way, they had created an unexpected element of surprise.

He walked out into the hallway, hearing shards of glass crack further under his boots, and spoke to the hidden mic in his collar. "Brain, where do I go?"

His earpiece was brought to life with a young woman's voice.

" You're close to Fangs. He's got four on him, so go help him out. He's down one floor, take the stairs on your left, then the second corridor on the right, then left again. "

"On my way." Shota grunted into the comms.

- No time to waste on stairs, - he thought as he ran towards the balcony.

Leaping off, Eraser Head used his scarf to grab the railing and swing himself back onto solid ground. A quick pull and the weapon was all back in his hands, and he was already running at top speed again.

"Who is he fighting?" he asked. If the aforementioned four include any of their big hitters, Kan could be in real trouble. The man was stronger than most, but there was a reason why Shota was the one to burden himself with the loose cannons every year.

The voice on the other side took only a few moments to reply. " Uravity. Battle Fist. Rule. Mines. "

Shota frowned at the team composition. Why had they chosen something so trite? They'd seen both pairs work together with egregious results but, as much as their teamwork was commendable, it wasn't anything new. This wasn't the kind of exam where they could stick to the usual and hope for the best.

Kendo and Uraraka weren't a real threat to Vlad King. [Blood Control] wasn't negatively affected by the lack of gravity, and the increase in size of Kendo's hands didn't make them invulnerable to piercing and slashes. The martial arts they knew would hold up for a while, but not indefinitely.

Kodai and Shoda could be more dangerous, but only because they could have gotten a hold of projectiles outside of their standard equipment. Between Ashido, Mineta, Bakugo, Yaoyorozu, Kamakiri, and Bondo, the two were spoilt for choice, but they would also hit a limit sooner or later. Given time they would run out, while Kan's blood would always stay at his 8.18 liters maximum.

- Maybe they can't take him down, but their synergy could tire him out for other fights. Or they might be waiting for reinforcements. -

But he would get there first.

The Pro muttered a "Thanks," and increased his speed.

He opted against his usual quiet approach. Despite its labyrinthine structure, the building left something to be desired when it came to ambushes, as every corridor was far too large and open to hide in. The rooms were better, but the mess he was hearing and the objects crashing against the walls made it obvious how Kan wasn't fighting inside of one.

Turning the second corner, he saw his colleague avoid being grabbed by Uraraka and miss a slash against Kendo, the two rolling away swiftly after their failed attempt. A second later, a handful of pellets flew towards the fake Villain, changing in size just before colliding against Kan's crimson shield. The last projectile—now as big as a microwave, but far more aerodynamic—crashed against the defense and cracked it, making the job easier for Kendo's next jab. The barrier broke—making Kan retreat with a huff—before returning to its master and taking a new shape, that of a thin wall of blood destined to block Uraraka's next attempt at removing his gravity. The girl stopped her attempt midway through, which was smart. Her hand would have been caught in the crystalized blood and put out of commission otherwise. Most of Vlad Kind's openings were nothing but traps, and separating those from true weaknesses was hard. 

However, what Kan couldn't predict with total accuracy were ranged attacks, especially when their flight pattern could appear to be completely random. A marble-sized projectile crashed against his thigh, making him grunt. His defense was back up a moment later, but the damage had been done.

Seeing how the floor was chock full of debris of all sizes—all certainly altered midway by Kodai's Quirk and some even flying because of Uraraka's, which made it way harder to move around—, he could guess that Kan had dealt with a lot of throws by now. Shoda had practically turned into a professional pitcher, and he was using his growing skills to its utmost effectiveness.

In any case, the students were about to need a change of plans.

To prevent further damage to his ally, Shota launched himself into the fray, capturing weapon at the ready.

Hearing him approach and after the blood wall had bought him a second to breathe, Kan shouted in his direction. "About time!"

He didn't bother replying.

The kids noticed him as well, their surprise turning into movements made to fall back and put distance between them. As good as they were, they still needed years to catch up in terms of fighting skills, and now they would battle without their precious Quirks.

With the four students in his vision and the mental image of covering a bright light with a black cloth, Shota let [Erasure] do its job. His hair rose, freeing his field of vision even further, and his Binding Cloth began to levitate away from his neck.

The first notable change was Kendo's hand, shrinking back to its original size, immediately followed by the fall of several floating objects.

Then the chaos started.

In his ignorance, Shota had thought that every throw pebble had already been altered by Kodai. The different shapes and sizes of the ones on the floor could very reasonably be explained by being random rocks previously altered, kept in "stasis", and then returned to their original form. He had missed the fact that not every pebble changed after being thrown, or that there were dozens—if not more—of pebbles hidden under the bigger ones.

So, when the effects of [Size] were stripped away and the mass she was holding back returned to its rightful places, the aftermath quite literally ripped the ground off the men's feet. The instant change hadn't given him a single moment to react.

Being catapulted against a fiberglass ceiling was a new and absolutely not enlightening experience. Shota could feel the rebound all the way to his bones, and he didn't like it.

There was an almost flat, whitish surface under him that was keeping him pressed against the ceiling. He quickly moved his hands over it, running into a familiar texture and an unpleasant scratching sound.

- Polystyrene foam. -

It was so low in density that Yaoyorozu could have produced enough to fill a quarter of the building. It wasn't a strong material by any means, but its rapid expansion had been enough to push them both up and make them collide against something harder.

He didn't have that much free space, but breaking free of this kind of block only required so little. Shota pushed himself and slid down from the cube. Kan landed beside him a second later. They were isolated, surrounded by walls of white in every direction.

"Should've expected that," the bulkier man grunted. "Good trick."

"But bad choice of material if they wanted to keep us blocked here," he pointed out. "Care to get us free?"

Kan nodded and coagulated his blood before them, making it take the shape of curved blades that connected to create a conic surface. The makeshift drill, large enough to create a tunnel that would fit them both, started spinning and digging into the blocks.

The butter consistency was short-lived however, as Vlad King's product soon hit something much harder.

The man frowned. "Concrete? Really?"

"I bet it's wall to wall," Shota said, now seeing that the students had taken their preparation up a few notches. "And that there will be one even behind us."

Kan huffed. "Smart. This will be a pain to get out of. Walls is nowhere close."

"Then we'll just cut something else." He pointed at their side, where only drywall separated them from other rooms.

Vlad King smashed through with ease, opening a path for them into the adjacent room. "Now, where did they go?"

Waiting a few moments in silence, the two kept their ears peeled for any noise the escapees might be making. It wasn't as easy as he would've thought. The kids were trying to be sneaky, probably floating as much as they could…

"Brain, can you find our targets?"

"Sure!" a voice echoed in their earpieces. "They're running west! Take the first corridor on the right!"

"Thanks," they replied as they broke into a sprint.

It wasn't hard to find more traces of the kids' passage. Overgrown obstacles of all shapes and sizes were clogging the corridors, making the chase terribly vexing as seconds turned into minutes. Their surveillance aide guided them all the way, making them change their path several times, and finally they reached the room that the kids had chosen to hide in.

When they broke in, cutting apart the enlarged table placed to block the door, Kan was met with yet another surprise. A gigantic hand collided against the still crystalized blood, swatting it aside, while a second one filled the entrance they had just made, crashing against Vlad's crossed arms.

Launching himself in the room and evading another throw, Shota activated his Quirk, this time only erasing Kendo's, Uraraka's, and Shoda's.

Battle Fist's arm shortened, but in the wrong direction. She had deactivated her Quirk herself just before he could, and had now closed the distance between them in an instant. Unexpectedly, her fist met his gut before he could put up a decent defense.

She fell back a second later as crimson blades threatened to cut her apart, falling in line with Uraraka and partially shielding the other two from sight.

"Everything alright, Eyes?" Kan asked, climbing out of the hole in the wall.

He gazed at the four Problem Children, who were now waiting for his next move.

Maybe they were just being cautious, but his instinct told him that they were buying time for something else… or someone.

"Never been better," he said, his eyes gleaming menacingly.

Notes:

And so it begins.

Trying not to make things boring by jumping around a bit, as we've got a lot of characters to cover. Hope it works well enough.

You've got the team leaders, or at least the ones tasked with communication... but can you guess who's in each team?

Up next, what's this about improvement plans?