Chapter 17

I stood with my class on the building's highest floor, staring at the camera screens. All of us were wearing our heroic costumes.

In front of the screens stood a masked man with a cowboy attire. His name was Snipe, and he was our combat teacher.

On the screen, we were seeing 2 vs 2 teams, fighting each other.

I had to say, not many in my class had impressive quirks, and if they did, they had fatal weaknesses. But there was room for improvement, like Mineta had done. Because I had been buying balls from him, his ability to produce them increased.

But unfortunately for him, I was no longer buying them. When Mineta had become broke and his girlfriend left him, he had gone through a phase where he kept pulling the balls from his head until it bled, causing him to have a significant boost in his ability to produce them.

Too bad for him I couldn't sell jewelries every time without having a legit excuse. I mess with all kinds of people, except for the tax guy.

"Next team, Kenshiro and Tamaki as heroes vs Nejire and Lola as villains."

Nejire looked at me and clapped her hands, making a broad smile.

"This is going to be fun," she said. "I'll pay you for not replying to my messages."

"We've talked about that," I said, wondering if she was testing my limits or something, or if she was talking innocently.

Tamaki stood up next to me, taking a deep breath and saying, "Let's get this over with quickly."

I turned my head to see the new character that this world created to fill the void in the class. Lola. An above-average height girl of 170 cm, with ripped arms, long pink hair tied in braids, pink eyes, and sharp features. Her attire was heavy armor made of metal.

If I wasn't wrong, her quirk should be about controlling metals, which explained why she could carry this armor. When our eyes met, she smirked, waving her thumb in front of her neck. It was as if she was saying that she would kill me.

Suppressing my urge to raise my middle finger at her, I shrugged my shoulders. If she thought that this was enough to scare me, then she should reconsider, for I had beaten the shit out of Stain and endured his killing intent.

"It's okay to pretend not to be afraid," Lola said, before giving me a warm smile, "If things get too painful, don't hesitate to give up."

I gargled a laugh, thinking she was funny. "Please, don't hold back."

"Are you flirting?" Nejire asked, almost laughing at her teammate.

"No, just talking tough," I replied. "Maybe Tamaki will be interested." I wrapped my arm around my classmate, thinking if I should help him with his shyness problem.

Tamaki looked at Lola and lifted his hand, saying, "Hi."

"You too are going to die," Lola replied.

I suppressed my laugh when Tamaki lowered his head and said, "Everyone is going to die at some point in their life. But thanks for the information."

"It's okay." I assured my teammate, "We'll sing Baka Mitai later."

He gave me a lifeless glare, as if he was asking if I'm serious.

"Move your butts," said Snipe. "We don't have all day."

-x-X-x-

Putting my hands in my pocket, I looked at the 6-story building in front of me. It was surely large, and I was wondering how much it cost to make.

"The government is generous with teaching heroes," I commented, "No wonder they get paid so much."

"With the public damage they are preventing, it's a good investment," replied Tamaki, "So, how's your girlfriend?"

"We're just hanging out, nothing official yet," I replied.

"I meant how she fights. Any known weaknesses to her quirk?" Tamaki asked. "It's very powerful that I think we're going to lose. Not to mention that Lola can control metals."

He had a point. Nejire's quirk was very powerful, albeit not as shown in the anime because the canon events were a couple of years later. She still had room to improve. But still. Getting hit by an invisible shockwave that had the potential to destroy a building was no joke, and let's not forget that it's not easy to defend against shockwaves. You'd just have to take the damage. And she had an advantage in an open space. If we fought there, she could simply fly up and spam waves at me, and I'd have nothing to do other than throwing stuff and dodging while trying to predict when I was going to get hit. But now, this wasn't an open space. It was a closed one, and we were at a game.

I raised my index finger, saying, "It's not like we have to fight them directly. We just have to touch the bomb and say secure. First, we split and try to observe them. I then would locate the bomb and we move on."

"And how are you going to do that?" he asked.

I smiled as if I had been waiting for someone to ask. I walked to the wall of the building, putting my hand on the first window. With a simple pull, my body flew to the upper floor, and I held onto the window's ledge. I had high strength compared to my mass. I raised my other hand, forming the 'Ok' sign.

"Alright, you got this." He shrugged, before entering through the door. With windows around, I could sneak like a ninja and spy to find the fake bomb. All I had to do was wait to hear my teammate's ass getting kicked to enter and secure it. As a future hero, I shouldn't have had to use my teammate as bait. But again, if a hero was in a harsh situation, a sacrifice was a must.

I started jumping between the windows ledges, running on the wall like an Assassin's Creed character.

BOOM BOOM

Not so long after, a wall was sent flying into pieces followed by the sound of an explosion. That was one strong shockwave. Windows continued to break one after another. Tamaki must have been running from Nejire, and who else may be, Lola.

I entered through the window, having a good idea where the bomb must be. It must be in the middle hall around the 5th floor.

Putting my hands in my pocket, I walked around, not bothering to hide my presence while whistling.

My hearing sense alerted me to something about to pierce the wall, and I jumped backward. A metal pipe crushed the wall and hit my original spot like a whip. For a second, I shivered. Whips were not to underestimate, let alone a heavy metallic one.

More metal pipes appeared left and right, heading at me. For a second, I activated my Sharingan, seeing them moving slowly, giving me a window to anticipate their pattern. Taking a step to the left, I tilted my head. The metallic pipes landed next to my feet.

"That was a close call," I said, jumping up and landing on the roof, sticking to it. I looked at the metal down that seemed to gain life. This was really a scary quirk if it fell into the hands of villains. You know, most buildings had metals as their main structure. Manipulate them, and you'd destroy it easily.

"Do you give up?" came Lola's voice without her being in the picture.

"Never give up, Nanana." I sang.

"Just cause your voice is annoying," she said.

A bunch of metal pierced the roof and circled around me. I let go of my chakra and landed on the ground before activating my red aura around my fist, punching the falling stone.

"That's seriously dangerous," I said, looking left and right, trying to locate the source of the sound.

"You have no idea what's dangerous." She replied, and this time, I managed to locate her by the sound. All I needed to do was to avoid getting hit.

Taking a stance of martial arts, I noticed how metal pipes appeared from the walls, surrounding me from every direction.

That usually would be a checkmate, but I had a way to deal with them. I noticed how every pipe attacked me like a whip. They were fast, but they were predictable. Before moving in one direction, they needed to build up speed, which made it easy to predict. I dodged, jumping and sliding in different directions.

I activated my Sharingan again, and I noticed how only a couple of pipes could move at one time.

'She could move a limited mass. Judging by the weight of her armor, I could tell that it's her own weight, or strength. In that case, I'll let myself get captured.'

I thought as the space I was moving in was getting narrower. Finally, a pipe narrowed around my leg, lifting me before more pipes moved, tying my other arms and legs.

"Shouldn't you have surrendered when I was playing nice," Lola said as she appeared walking toward me.

"Meh." I shook my head and shrugged.

She laughed, "then you are ready to die."

If you have the ability to control a certain mass, then you shouldn't try to tie someone who overclass you in strength.

I moved my arms and legs, pulling the metal, resulting in Lola pointing her hands at me.

The metals applied resistance, and I could see her clenching her teeth. My muscles started bulging, veins on them. Then with one pull, I broke the shackles, red aura wrapping my whole body. At the same time, she fell, her armor seeming to pull her down.

"Oma wa mu, Shinadiru." I said.

She aimed her hands at me, pieces of her armor flying toward me. My hands wrapped with aura, I punched in the air.

As the aura hit her, she was sent flying to a wall, almost getting knocked out unconscious.

'This brat has potentials.' I thought as I tilted my head, dodging a piece of metal.

What I noticed about myself when I made my way to the room was that I could remember everything photographically to the utmost little detail. This is the power of the cursed eyes. I deactivated my Sharingan and walked around. After I found the bomb, I placed my hand on it, saying, "Secure."

"Team heroes win," said a voice in my ear of Snip.

"That's lame, I was about to get you." Nejire said as she appeared flying in my direction. She landed on her feet, sighing heavily.

"Better luck next time." I replied as I patted her on the shoulder. "By the way, where is my teammate."

"He lost his consciousness. I think I hit him too hard."

"Too hard?" I asked.

"I thought he would dodge it." She replied.

"You don't go hard when you think your opponent would dodge. You go hard when you think your opponent can't dodge. It's a waste of stamina. Better use less energy if you want to control their movement."

Placing her thumb on her lip, she replied. "I see. That's good advice." She turned to look at her unconscious teammate, "Didn't you go too hard on her?"

"It's a ranged attack. Considering that she didn't hold back, I was too soft." I replied with a frown, looking at my wrists wrapped by metal pipes. Channeling my mana to my hands, I crushed the pipes and released myself free. "Luckily, it's not fully metal."

Soon, medical staff came and picked up our teammates. I walked out of the building with Nejire, heading back to the center.

"By the way, do you have plans later?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"Then how about we drink coffee," she invited.

"Thought you said you didn't like it."

"I'll order something else."

"Sure," I replied with a stoic expression that contained the facial expression of a very happy kid from showing.