Chapter 77 - The Cement Tower

The branches of the trees were low, their trunks wide and thick enough to support the weight of several people at once.

The trees themselves were very close together, so that except for a few shafts of light peeking through the foliage here and there, the heart of the oasis was plunged into permanent darkness.

The forest seemed unreal, with its colorful butterflies, the duality of light and shadow, and the silence that reigned.

What did Séro said earlier ? The perfect setting for a horror movie ?

I had to play on his ego, but I finally managed to convince Bakugo to do the surveillance from above: while we waited for the first group to arrive, I showed him how to walk on the trees and jump from branch to branch without making the slightest noise.

It was like doing parkour, but without safety and without training, at least for him.

Me ? since no one could feel or see my chakra until I made it potent, it was all the same.

Still, he's good. Really good.

He jumped from branch to branch with confidence, no longer needing to look where he was going. This guy had one of those copying skills...

There was the sound of voices.

We froze.

A red and blue bird flew between us and into the sky with a shrill cry. The bushes were shaking, the voices were getting clearer.

- I said I was sorry, okay, Iida? It's not my fault that there was a giant scorpion in the dunes.

Denki emerged from a canopy of leaves, Iida behind him.

His face was closed, his lips tight. His glasses were cracked and even his hair was disheveled. He was dragging his legs as if they weighed a ton, and for good reason; the metal on his calves was blackened, smoke spewing from the cracks that dotted them. He looked angry.

- Let me try to fix it, okay ? (Electricity crackled between his thumb and forefinger) Iida pushed him away with a firm gesture.

- Don't say another word! You've done enough for today.

He almost collapsed on a tree trunk, obviously exhausted.

Denki watched him idly with clenched fists. He opened his mouth to speak, but immediately changed his mind, preferring to sit a little further away in the shade.

The minutes ticked by in silence while Iida managed to open the gears on his legs with the rim of his glasses and Denki counted the blades of grass on the ground.

Katsuki approached me and whispered:

- We have to hurry, seven more teams will arrive soon.

I nodded and we both headed towards the left side of the forest.

The deeper we went, the more interesting the scenery became: the sounds became quieter, the surroundings took on a darker hue. An invisible boundary had been created, dividing the forest into two distinct sides: light and dark.

Tokoyami and Monoma came from the light-flooded edge.

The bird-boy stopped when he saw that darkness prevailed in front of him and that, except for a few rare spots, there was not a single drop of light. Monoma stepped forward beside him, hands in his pockets, and leaned forward to observe the forest ahead.

- Don't tell me you're afraid, Darth Vader ?

Tokoyami didn't answer, but looked away, preferring to observe the surroundings.

He was probably trying to find another way to keep moving without having to go through the heart of the forest. It wouldn't do to waste too much time.

Monoma watched them curiously before a thin smile curled her lips. I crouched down without taking my eyes off them for a second.

- Relax, there's nothing dangerous here.

He put his arm around Tokoyami's neck, forcing him closer at the same time. He patted his cheek like a dog to calm him down.

- The darkness is a dangerous thing and I can't bring myself to get lost in it again.

Monoma blinked. A broad smile split his face in two: he squeezed Tokoyami's shoulder and pushed him gently aside.

- You said get lost again ?

He crossed the imaginary line between the light and dark parts of the forest.

Around him, shadows shivered, climbing over his clothes, wrapping around his neck and forearms like claws. Tokoyami gasped, realizing too late that he'd been tricked.

- Wait !

He reached out to grab him, but the moment his fingers were covered by shadows, Tokoyami retreated as if burned.

Behind me, I felt Katsuki straightening up, obviously very interested in the turn of events.

Monoma raised his hand and watched as darkness covered his fingers.

- Interesting. Interesting.

His voice was twofold, a deeper, louder voice overlapping his own. He blinked, and his entire sclera, down to his pupil, went black.

Fascinated, he looked around as if seeing the world for the first time.

- This is incredible, Tokoyami. I don't understand why you're so afraid of it.

Shadows rose as dark columns around him, gently twisting in on themselves. They looked like miniature tornadoes, rising higher and higher.

- Please, you don't know what you're doing…

He looked like he was suffering terribly as he watched.

The tornadoes froze and Monoma turned to look over his shoulder at the other boy.

In the distance, there was a piercing scream. It was a girl's voice.

Bakugo turned his head sharply toward the sound. I never let Monoma out of my sight. This guy was dangerous, and not just because of his quirk - the fact that he was able to master it in only three minutes better than Tokoyami, who had lived with it all his life, said more than enough about his abilities.

What did he say at the beginning of the year ?

That the quirks he copied were temporary and that he couldn't store them. But was that the truth, or was he just saying that to avoid the debacle that would ensue if it became known that someone could copy your Quirk and keep it ?

If he really needed contact with the person to use it, wouldn't it be enough to keep a sample of someone's dead skin to spam a quirk indefinitely?

The branch under Bakugo's foot snapped.

Monoma suddenly turned his head in our direction.

There was a moment of silence.

A dozen meters separated us from the ground alone: counting the height, it was about fifteen meters.

Monoma shouldn't have been able to hear such a sound - as faint as a cracking branch.

He hadn't hesitated a moment to find the source of the sound for one reason and one reason only.

He sees us.

His black eyes, like two cavernous wells, watched me for a long time. Then his attention turned to Katsuki.

- Monoma ?

Behind him, Tokoyami also scanned the shadows to find what had attracted his attention.

The blonde opened his mouth as if he wanted to speak.

Shadows rippled across his skin, becoming more and more visible. His pupils regained their sky blue hue, the black receding from the white of his eyes. All the shadows that had covered him slipped from his skin and returned to the shadows on the ground. The dark whirlwinds dissipated like smoke.

- It was... cool.

He took long, enthusiastic steps towards the light, while Tokoyami watched uncertainly.

- Don't make that face, Tokoko. Your quirk is much cooler than it looks. Being afraid of it won't do you much good, except to risk losing control of it one day.

- How did you do that, Tokoyami whispered nervously. The Shadow Pillars. I've never done anything like that before.

- Oh, that.

Monoma stood in profile and pretended to observe the surroundings. I didn't miss the stern look he gave me from the corner of his eye.

- It comes with experience.

The bird took the answer as if it were vital information and nodded darkly.

- Well, what if we try to find another way to get to the other side ?

Their silhouettes faded into the lush foliage as they moved away. As soon as they were out of sight, Katsuki turned towards the girl's scream.

He was in the lead and jumped nimbly between the branches. Now he didn't even have to stop to figure out which path would be best for him.

- He saw us, didn't he ?

I should have put us under a genjutsu.

- Yes.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another camera turn its little head in our direction.

But that would have been a stupid decision.

*

It only took us about fifty meters to see two new students in the clearing we had entered earlier.

- Hah, hah, wait- hah- we can- hah

Uraraka panted like a smoking firefighter.

With one hand on her ribs and the other clinging to a low branch, she looked like she was running for her life. Aoyama was having a hard time as well; he lay face down on the ground and didn't move.

Katsuki'eyes narrowedsuspiciously.

Uraraka grabbed the blonde and turned him onto his back without any gentleness. She forced him to spit out the soil he had accidentally swallowed: a trickle of drool mixed with dirt ran down his chin.

He struggled to wipe it off with his cloak.

- Why (his chest heaved in sudden jolts) why - hah – move. So quickly.

Ochaco, beaming, smiled at him before giving him a thumbs up.

- Because we have to win

She's nothing like the girl who almost robbed me of a million dollars in the locker room.

Aoyama looked at her as if expecting her to elaborate: seeing that she would do no such thing, he turned his disillusioned gaze to the sky and dramatically raised his hand as if to grab a cloud.

- Sacrificing my beauty for-

He fainted.

- Aoyama !

The brunette rushed over, grabbed him by the collar of his T-shirt, and shook him. When she saw that he didn't wake up, she started to slap him.

- Aoya- a bug !

She screamed.

It was a scream of pure terror that could be heard for miles around.

It was so sudden that I jolted, covering my ears with my hands to prevent my eardrums from bursting. Bakugo nearly fell off his perch and was only saved when

I quickly pulled him backward.

Aoyama was awake now.

Uraraka didn't seem to be done with the famous invisible bug.

- It's on me! Take it off, take it off, take it off!

Red-faced, she cast a terrified glance at her left arm, which she tried to dust off with her other hand as quickly and violently as she could. Then she froze.

- On my-my-

Her wide eyes stared at hershoulder.

Third and last scream.

Then another. Much farther away. A boy.

Arcs of yellow light exploded from the heart of the forest, piercing everything in their path. In a matter of seconds, the entire oasis was engulfed in a wave of electricity: trees and leaves burst into flames here and there, birds crashed to the ground dead. A burning smell filled the air, soon followed by acrid smoke.

- This fucking-

I grabbed Bakugo by the collar of his shirt and pushed him against the trunk of the tree we were standing on.

A layer of ice enveloped us like a cocoon, separating us from the outside world.

A new wave of electricity shook the forest, causing even more damage than before. On the ground, Uraraka and Aoyama lay in fetal position, hands on their heads.

Wisps of smoke rose from even the thickest trunks and tallest branches. My eyes turned to each of the places they came from: in fact, it wasn't the wood that had burned.

A smoking camera - reduced to a half-melted block of metal - had come off its base and crashed into a bush a few feet below.

And I imagine it's the same with all the microphones.

There was a third surge of electricity. Then nothing.

Bakugo pushed my hand away after I made the ice disappear.

- If that doesn't prove he's the traitor, he grumbled in a low voice, his red eyes darting to the duo still curled up in a ball, I don't know what will.

I didn't answer.

All of this was... weird.

The moment Yuei decides to flush out the traitor, he falls right into our arms.

- Let's go.

Bakugo and I ran in the direction of the last scream, deep into the forest.

*

Author's note :

Don't know if I ever stated it in the story, but I believe Genjutsu is like illusions : you can put people (=their minds) in genjutsu, or you can wrap yourself with Genjutsu, which renders you kind of invisible to cameras and the likes (which explains why Shoto's clone hadn't been spotted in the teacher lounge when there was the break-in).

For the fifth consecutive week, the power stones goal for the sunday bonus chapter is 250.

We can make it (absolutely can't).

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See you in the next update everyone !