Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.The rain pattered into the stream in the center of the storm drain, washing out towards the lake. It was extremely dark inside, with the only source of illumination being the lights on their communicators and whatever devices they had on hand. Hatori’s flashlight came into some use here, especially as her helmet lacked any sort of night-vision feature. It was something she would need to think about if she has to upgrade her costume at any time. Unlike the rest of the group, Master Croc didn’t seem to require any sort of device to navigate through the system, possessing night-vision and an innate acute sense of hearing.
The smell inside wasn’t too bad; besides collecting seasonal rainfall, the sewage system didn’t see any sort of use at all, though water that’s been collecting for months, mixing in with dirt and other particulates wasn’t the best thing one could smell. Hatori glanced back at her other teammates, checking to see how they were doing.
Master Croc smirked as the others entered the drain.
”You’ll get used to it after a while. If we jog, we can get there in about 15-20 minutes. Just be sure to watch your step,” The croc said, picking up the pace once everyone was in the drain. Briefly glancing back at the swordsman, he smirked.
“Your skills with the sword are extraordinary, but still need some work for it to be devastating. Who taught you to wield a blade?” The man asked. The kid wasn’t an amateur, that was for sure, and wielded his blade with ease and comfort, as if it was an extension of his own body. Master Croc also noticed before how Takeshi was able to remain calm and relaxed during combat.
Takeshi entered the storm drain and immediately started breathing shallowly through his mouth. He certainly had smelt worse, but still he rather not want to think about it when it hit him. He glanced up to see that Hatori was holding a flashlight. It was smart thinking to carry that. He then turned back at Fumika to see if she was ok when he heard Master Croc address him. Before he answered, he made eye contact with Fumika and said,
“If you need help keeping up in your tired state...let me know please,” She blinked back at him from under the rim of the visor pushed up upon her forehead, looking for a moment almost surprised at his offer, but nodded nonetheless. He gave her a small smile and finally turned his attention to Master Croc.
“My father taught me…” he said, hesitating on “father”. Despite that being who he was, he didn’t truly accept him as his parent, but it was simpler to explain it that way.
“My family has taught it, from father to son, since the first samurai in the family.” He narrowed his eyes at the croc and added,
“Forgive me, but I was holding back. I rather not resort to my old ways, though it seemed like I had to at the end.” Takeshi said, referring to the attempted hamstringing of the pro.
“I’ll let it slide this time since I wasn’t at half power either,” Master Croc responded with a small chuckle.
“A family of samurais who wield darkness huh? I would expect you must be pretty popular. Well, if you ever do internships with me and my agency, I would be glad to have any one of you there. Even the snarky pilot. My guys will be sure to put some muscle and beat some obedience into that skull of yours,” he added, looking back at the pilot girl. Master Croc then took a small leap over to an adjacent platform before continuing forward.
“Watch your step.””The way you put it almost makes Takeshi sound like an edgy villain, Croc,” Hatori commented with a chuckle. By then she had lost her sense of direction, with them swerving left and right. The passage was beginning to narrow down as they moved towards the school, with barely enough room to stand for the tallest of them.
Takeshi nodded to Master Croc, simply responding a humble “Thank you...” A bead of sweat came from his temple as Hatori mentioned how Master Croc made him sound like a villain...he only gave a half attempt at a laugh, which sounded more nervous than jovial.
One step, then another. The blonde heroine’s head had stopped spinning, but it felt as heavy as ever. No matter, her eyes were still open, weren’t they? ...Weren’t they? It was so dark it was almost hard to tell, but she was definitely awake. One step, then another. She was trailing behind the others. She needed to keep up the pace. Takeshi had been nice to her. He’d asked her to call him by his name. That was something friends did, right? Did that mean he wanted to be friends? Didn’t he know that she’d cause him trouble? She was causing him trouble right now. One step, then another. He really was nice. He’d even offered to carry her if she was too tired… Bothersome. That would definitely be bothersome. One step, then another. Master Croc had said he’d be glad if she were to work with his agency… Even though he’d been the enemy just a moment ago, he kept praising her… No, not her. Them. The samurai who wielded darkness and the “snarky pilot” were the ones he’d been talking to. After all, Takeshi and Hatori had done all the work. She’d wasted so much energy, and she’d still had to rely on them… She was getting in the way again. She needed to do more, or else she’d only end up being bothersome. One step, then another. Her thoughts wouldn’t stop wandering. She had a mission to complete. She needed to win this exercise, to keep on pushing her limits and rise to the top, like Haruka would. When was it, exactly, that she’d stopped focusing entirely on becoming a hero? When was it that she’d started wanting so many things, like friends and… and… and what? What was this “wanting” that she was feeling again? It was just like how she’d felt after her fight with Yoshida.
One step, then another. Too many things to think about. A computer worked best when approaching one problem at a time. What she wanted wasn’t important right now. Being praised wasn’t important now. Takeshi’s kindness wasn’t important now. The lingering sensation of warmth and pressure in her hand wasn’t important now. Nothing else mattered - not when she had a promise to fulfill. One step, then another. Fumika hopped gingerly over the gap, taking a moment to catch her breath on the other side, then resuming her pace following after the others. This path would take about 15 minutes to reach the objective, then they’d be fighting again. One step, then another. With what power she had left, she’d only be able to create a few more copies of herself, and maybe a few simple tools and constructs. If she tried to make anything bigger than that, she’d just pass out. Copying Haruka’s strength was completely out of the question. One step, then another. She’d have to find a way to defeat her opponents outside of a direct clash of strength. There was no other option. Her teammates were counting on her to do her part.
One step, then another.
And just like that, her mind was clear again. This was good. The “wanting” that had dragged upon her heart like a weight in her chest, the fears and worries about having to choose things for herself, the warmth in her hand and the heat in her cheeks… All those things were gone. There was only the mission, and her promise. One step, then another. She’d take the path of least resistance, a path so simple even an idiot like her could follow it.
One step, then another. Everything was so much easier when she didn’t have to think about anything at all.
The light at the end of the drain signaled to the others that they were about to reach the end. The end of the drain was about 8 feet above the lake that it drained into.
“Lads, we are about to reach the destination. Watch your step as you descend, as there is a lake below us. It was fun playing with you all...and good luck – pilot, knight, samurai, and Fumika.” The man said, giving his farewell before heading back into the dark shroud of the drain. Soon enough, he was out of view.
Eventually, the team had reached their destination. It felt like a near endless jog for Hatori, so she was almost relieved when they apparently arrived where they needed to go. Amane and Fumika had largely remained silent during the journey, so there wasn’t anything particularly eventful to mention, but Hatori was a bit concerned with the condition their team was in. Soon they would have to fight with another team, with one member already drained.
Takeshi looked to Master Croc one last time and said while giving him a formal bow.
“Thank you, Master Croc.” He took this time to look to Fumika once more who seemed focused on the task of keeping up with them.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked concernedly.
She hesitated for only a moment before answering with a curt nod, her hair wobbling to and fro in an admirable attempt to show resolve in the face of her exhaustion. That response was the best he was getting, so he carried on.
“I’ll make a bridge for us. We must move quickly over it though; I must conserve more of it for combat.” With that, he looked back to the darkness in the drain – more than enough to use. First and foremost, he raised his right hand with two fingers pointing up, much like a shinobi. The others, if they paid attention, would see Takeshi’s own shadow grow darker and darker till it was almost perfectly black, even under the sun. He figured it would be a good place to store his darkness in case they had to fight in bright daylight.
He then, with the same hand spun it clockwise and pointed towards the other bank. The darkness gathered and shot out across the pond and two spikes at the end embedded itself into the embankment. The shadow bridge itself looked about an inch thick and ten inches wide.
“Do not worry, the construct is as strong as steel.” he said with a shiver, motioning everyone to go on ahead.
Hatori winced as her helmet’s visor gradually darkened in response to the sunlight and peeked down to realize that they had just exited out onto a lake. She frowned – she definitely didn’t want to swim, especially with all the gear she was wearing. Thankfully, Takeshi was able to construct a bridge out of shadow; she had honestly expected Fumika to project a bridge for them, though with how tired she was she probably couldn’t even muster the energy to make something like that now.
”Alright, let’s hurry up. I already hear a lot of explosions and shouting...it looks like the fighting’s just going down at the point,” Hatori noted, running across the shadow bridge to the bank of the river. Fumika followed close behind her, tugging her visor back down over her eyes as she emerged into the light once more. A faint crackle of static ran through the ends of her hair, sparking feebly back to life. A little longer… Just a little more. If she could just be useful for a little longer, then-
Amane was as quiet as a mouse the whole trip as he did not have much to say. He stayed at the tail of the pack, not wanting to bother anyone else. He also wanted to keep an eye on Fumika – the girl was as odd as they come, but she had a lot of potential, which sparked some interest in her abilities. She may ask some really,
really stupid questions, but she certainly wasn’t as dumb as she looked. Once they reached the end of the tunnel after a short jog, the samurai made a bridge out of shadows for the group. They could hear how lively it was in the auditorium from where they were at, and Amane cracked his knuckles.
“I'm itching for a fight right about now...I want to see how strong my peers are. This is where I take my leave...” he said before crossing the bridge and making his way onto land, breaking into full sprint towards the auditorium.
”Huh? Why is Mr. Knight…? Hey, wait a minute, shouldn’t we all fight together? It’s dangerous, and there might be ambushes. You shouldn’t…” Fumika raised a hand, beckoning him to stop, but as he barged past her, her voice slowly trailed off into silence, her brows furrowing in a frown as she shrank back sheepishly. It was the closest she’d looked to being genuinely upset since the exercise had started, but whether she was angry or afraid or simply gloomy, it was difficult to say for sure, especially given how much of her face was covered by her visor and collar. The ends of her hair twitched with unease, her long “tail” of golden fluff swishing from one side to the other and back again.
”Umm… Okay, okay...” She mumbled at last, tugging gingerly at the fringes of her bangs.
”I’ll just… create another me and do my best to fill in for Mr. Knight, then, too.”
The forest was just as irritating to navigate through as the last time, having the bolt from one tree to another all while carrying Roy, who was much heavier than the two girls combined to her, she was going to make it a point to let him know just how fat he was the moment was they got to the auditorium. Finally, she hit the ground running on a straight path that connected to the open field with the point on the other end, all she had to do was get there and she could finally take a breather and hopefully a drink of cold water because this was murdering her.
“F***...why are you so heavy?” she thought as she lugged the boy around like a rag doll, maintaining her speed. She attempted to go faster, but this was nearly the limit of her quirk. and she wasn’t going to get any more energy from simply moving. At this point. she created more stars that followed her, until even that reached its max of five.
Though Roy was supposed to be resting right now...it felt like another battle to him. He was slung to the right side of Jojo’s body as if he was a teddy bear in a child's arm. There was no concern for his well being. He was bent over staring at the ground, it was moving so fast he had to close his eyes and focus on not throwing up. Why didn’t Jojo just give him a piggyback ride or something? The two of them wouldn’t have been suffering so badly. He prayed that the ride would be over soon enough.
Takeshi quickly followed his team, and as soon as they all made it to the bank he released the shadow bridge and it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Before he could say anything Amane was off running towards the auditorium on his own. Fumika tried to stop him but to no avail. She looked upset and after she mentioned making a copy of herself he then said,
“Hey… don’t worry about it. It was us three that did most of the work against Master Croc. We will enter from the east door,” He continued, looking to Hatori. He made his way up the bank until his head just peeked over the top of it, but he froze. He had noticed movement to his left and it took him a moment to realize what it was at least...a person carrying another, running at an impressive speed in the distance.
Hatori had little time to respond before Amane rushed forward, seemingly out of his desire for combat. She grumbled at the knight dashed off, as upset as Fumika was. But there was little time to fuss over it, and she turned to Fumika.
”Plus, I don’t think it’s wise if you used up even more of your energy now, Fumi. I don’t want you to pass out or anything,” she added, nodding in agreement to Takeshi.
Fumika seemed to cringe slightly as her plan was shot down, and gave a muffled
”I’m sorry,” as she tugged sheepishly first at the collar of her romper, then at the fringe of her bangs. She couldn’t just stand around and do nothing, though… The others were going to be outnumbered as it was! Wasn’t there something useful she could do?
Quickly looking to Hatori,
“There are two students at our nine o’clock. They are moving pretty fast, and I don’t think they have seen us yet.” he ducked his head slightly to be sure.
“Can you use use your planes to drive them my way? I'll move farther down while you and Fumika stay here hidden and back me up under this cover.””Back you up…? Um, but my range limit is-!” Fumika protested, but once again, she didn’t have time to say anything before the others had already sprung into action. At this rate, wouldn’t she just end up watching from the sidelines, unable to do anything? ...Bothersome. She was being so bothersome. They were being nice about it, but even so, that was no excuse. If she wasn’t going to help them win, then they should have had a different person on their team. And if she wasn’t going to prove herself, then it should have been Haruka there and not her. It was all so… so…!
One step, then another. Huh? Why was she running after him? Takeshi had said to stay back and provide support. And yet, before she even knew what she was doing, she was following as closely behind as she could, calling back over her shoulder so that Hatori wouldn’t worry.
”Then… I’ll provide support!” With those words, she rushed straight after the samurai. Worry… they’d seemed worried about her, but she’d told them not to worry, hadn’t she? It was fine. Even if she passed out, it would be fine. Just so long as… so long as she didn’t get in the way. One step, then another!
Unsheathing his sword once more, he ran south down the bank easily keeping his footing despite the incline. He looked back when he heard running behind him to see Fumika following him.
He just said...sighing, once he got a few dozen feet away, he came to a stop then crouched down and waited for the opportunity to jump up and grab all their attention. He looked to Fumika and said,
“I thought I said…” He stopped when realized he did tell her to back him up from this cover...but she must have taken that into account and had to be near him to do that…. Depending on her strength and distance which only she knew.
“Alright, just stay behind me. I'll engage both of them,” She nodded very emphatically, her hair twitching a bit with nervous energy as she ducked down a short distance behind him.
The teenage pilot nodded and swiftly threw several dart planes, which immediately began flying in the air.
”Yeah, I see them...they’re not going that fast. My planes will easily catch up,” Hatori replied; within a few seconds, the planes accelerated to nearly a hundred kilometers per hour. She could easily go faster at the cost of more energy, but it wasn’t necessary for the targets they were going to deal with. The planes soon tailed JoJo and Roy in the sky and suddenly began firing at the two; half of the fleet sped across them to fire at them from the front in an attempt to surround them. Hatori could still see them in the distance, though if they were to go out of her line of sight, she had a spy plane within the fleet prepared so she could switch her vision.
JoJo panted rapidly, only focused on getting to the auditorium. Because of the goggles, it wasn’t like she could look at her surroundings anyway, so what happened next was probably the most logical conclusion to their position. Pellets started to rain from above, firing all across their sides and backs thankfully missing, enough spraying and eventually they were hit more than couple of times, causing Joann to curse out loud having what felt like being stung by a bees a hundreds of times over. JoJo was beginning to panic if she could outrun them in the thicket she might be able to just tough it out, but her eyes saw a second fleet of what looked like planes firing from the front, cursing again her plan to go into the tree was completely shot down as they had already gotten to the soccer field. The front was being covered and the back was advancing on them she didn’t want to be hit again for obvious reasons. Looking over to the right she saw the river and decided if she was careful she could skate around the planes if she was fast enough.
“Please tell me you’re charging after being in the sun and your quirk does it naturally like mine…because we're probably going to have to fight in a little bit,” she started talking and running trying to build up some kinda plan with her teammate before they were inevitably ambushed.
Roy had been aching on both arms. It was rather hard to regain energy, as the trees blocking out some of the raw sunlight, but he was managing. He felt Jojo clench tightly on his body as to not lose him before taking tight swerves in attempt to dodge the incoming projectiles. Some of the shots tagged Roy, which felt like being pricked. The boy let out some grunts in response. He whipped his neck to the right to see see what was shooting at them, but it was quite hard to get a good fixation on what was raining hell on them. He turned on his comm link so Jojo could hear him clearly.
“Yeah, I'm gaining more energy, but I will have to use it sparsely as our methods of generation are different." Hatori frowned as it was hard enough to get a good aim at the two at this position; the planes she was controlling was near perpendicular to her, making it harder to properly measure distance. But by what she could tell, it seems like she was spraying enough pellets to at least make some of them connect. She was considering running in to deal with the two at a close range, where Takeshi could help. Everything was falling into plan as her planes rotated around to force the two to run southward, right into Takeshi.
Takeshi watched as Chiwa started her attack. When Jojo stopped and turned towards the south and he got up and sprinted, his head low enough so he could just barely see her and managed to get ahead of her. It didn’t take her long to get close, and he jumped up in her path. He stayed close to the trees and swung his sword at her when she was close enough aimed at her left arm.
Joann continued to lug Roy around and talk at the same time it was good to know he was getting there with some form of energy because something far more annoying – Takeshi – someone she really didn’t care to see again. Thanks to being at her maximum, unlike the first time they fought, his movements were a lot easier to track and thanks to her goggles she even had time to think of a few options.
“Roy, flash now!” Joann waited till just the right moment to drop Roy in such a way he wouldn’t slide too far and so that she could spend some energy to blink out of the way of his sword. Because the planes were still firing when she suddenly just ‘vanished’, with bullets still flying towards her now on a crash course with Takeshi.
“Huh?” was the only thing he could get out. Things began playing in slow motion as his adrenaline began pumping. The boy protected his head with his arms and tucked his body closely to minimize damage. He was not prepared for Jojo to ask that of him, and hit the deck with a large thump. The helmet of his costume suffered a large skidmark in the upper right corner, his body vaulted up a few feet into the air before slamming into the ground again. It was as if Roy jumped out of a moving car almost. The lights on his suit were flashing brightly and his speed began to slow more quickly than expected, but how?
Spikes. There were spikes protruding from his body, digging into the dirt to halt his speed under control. Despite him gaining balance, Roy still suffered some damage as the cuts on his arms were reopened. Once he grabbed hold of the reins, Roy sent a concussive blast to the ground with his right hand, propelling him into the sky. This threw him off balance once again as he had miscalculated and overshot. The way his body was he was mid flip with his head pointing towards the ground. At this rate he wasn’t going to land on his feet but on his hip and he had two choices. Sacrifice himself or save himself.
He chose the heroic way, clenching his left arm with his right hand Roy held his aim steady before firing off 3 blasts of solar energy toward Takeshi. Though unlikely for all of them to hit him, he was sure one would at least prevent him from going through with his strike. In the background Roy hit the floor tumbling, kicking up dirt and dust before laying in the ground struggling to get back to his feet. He let out of couple coughs as he dug his claws into the earth and getting onto his knees.
“You have until the end of the semester to prove yourself.”He was going to prove he had what it takes, and that yesterday was just a fluke.
“If you fail, you will be immediately expelled.”Failure was not an option, he had to move forward and make progress.
But right before he lost sight of his target, a flash of red appeared in his periphery, and a brightly-colored shape came darting into view. Fumika rushed into the fray, eyes flashing as in an instant, that faint pulse of light told her everything she needed to know.
A raking shower of paper projectiles, followed by three orbs of light rapidly closing in on their target. There wasn’t time for her to switch to Playback and defend Takeshi, even if she had the power left to do so. And, even if she managed to hold against those, that girl was still an issue. Energy had coursed over her entire body and she vanished - an electrical Quirk. Trying to fight her would be useless. The boy in the air was shaping energy, too, but it was self-contained. No interference. She could have blocked it, but… No. A trick. The girl who’d vanished was circling around them… She could re-materialize any time she wanted, and when she did, Takeshi would be too busy with everything else to stop her! No, he wouldn’t even be able to see it coming! Fumika herself couldn’t block whatever attack she had planned - the energy would tear right through her projections. That meant... She had to lighten his load somehow, or else they’d both be beaten for sure!
The fact that she had a choice whether or not to sacrifice herself never even occurred to her. She just did what Haruka would have done. She wasn’t as fast, but still… One step, then another. She leaped with as much force as she could muster, reaching out her arms and placing them on Takeshi’s shoulder even as he completed his ill-fated swing.
”I’m sorry, Takeshi!” She apologized preemptively… and then shoved him away as hard as she could.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as countless strands of independent memory were taxed to their limit. The ends of her hair singed and sparked furiously, but the solution was nowhere to be found. No time to block. But... Takeshi was completely out of the line of fire. Then, it was fine. It was just going to hurt a bit was all.
She ducked her head as best she could. One projectile struck her shoulder, but only pierced the outer layer of her jacket before stopping in the foam underneath. Another grazed off one side harmlessly, but two more struck her dead in her stomach and chest. She could feel the air rushing out of her lungs, but by the time she could process the pain, she was already feeling far worse. Lights flashed across her vision and the red glow beneath her visor flickered and faded as another bullet struck her across the temple, a faint spray of red running down her forehead as it grazed across her scalp. Fortunate. If she hadn’t ducked, then the jarring in her head would have been worse. Right, it could have been so much worse than this, so this was fine.
Her head was spinning. The lights dancing before her eyes coalesced into three solid orbs. Right, it wasn’t over yet - it hadn’t nearly begun. Ah, it already hurt so much… Wasn’t this enough? There was still a fraction of a second to react, but it was hot and she could hear the crackling in her ears and… and… Fire. The fire was coming. It would wash over her again, creeping across her back and then-
No. One step, then another. She’d regained her footing. There wasn’t even time to draw breath, but still, she could at least direct her fall. Backwards. Away from the fire. Away from the heat. Away - never far enough away, ever closer, spiraling inward toward her. No choice. She’d come this far. What was a little more? Emerald sparks flashed from the tips of her hair, and a momentary surge of green erupted in front of her. The orbs would explode the moment they came into contact with her, right…? Then in that case… The “her” that they came into contact with just had to be the wrong one!
And so, Roy could see clearly as “Fumika” was struck head on by all three projectiles. The ground shook with the impact as heat and light washed over where she’d been standing, and smoke clouded the air. But to Takeshi, on the other hand, positioned as he was to one side, the real outcome of the attack would become immediately clear. Burned and battered, but still conscious, Fumika rolled backward out of the smoke, coughing and wheezing as she tried to force the air back into her lungs, tried to force herself to stand.
Hatori smiled at it seemed like they had surrounded the two, but in that moment, a concussive blast temporarily cut her control with her planes as she covered her eyes. The planes stopped idly in motion, slowing its fire.
”Damn... I forgot about their Quirks. It won’t be that easy…” she thought as she regained her vision...and the girl was gone. She completely stopped her fire afterwards in confusion.
What was that?But there was little time to respond. The bullets that she had just fired towards the girl were now heading for Takeshi, who was right behind her. And within a second, Fumika came rushing down towards him, pushing him out of the way as the bullets landed square onto her. Hatori widened her eyes, shocked at the realization that she had unintentionally hit her own teammate. The three solar blasts were initially going towards Takeshi were instead in the line of fire of Fumika, seemingly finishing her off...
Takeshi should have remembered the blink ability Jojo had, but he was already in mid swing, but he did hear Jojo yell flashbang. He narrowed his eyes but the bang never came...he was suddenly shoved to his left, causing him to fall over. But when he hit the ground he tucked his shoulder and rolled sideways onto his feet, turning in time to see Fumika being hit by Hatori’s planes. He was in such shock that she tried to protect him once again he hesitated for a moment...which costed Fumika dearly. He tried to throw up a shield for her so she wouldn’t get hit by the more powerful attacks but it was too late. His eyes widened as she fell, rolling to the ground. He quickly moved towards her, but halted in his tracks as she raised a single hand.
”Don’t worry about me…!” She coughed weakly, her breathless voice hard to hear over the ringing in his ears after the explosion. Fumika was covered in soot and uprooted dirt, the fringes of her hair were still glowing and smoking, and blood was dripping down from her forehead. Nevertheless, she couldn’t afford to make him worry about her - not when that worry would lose him valuable time. So, ignoring the lingering pain as best she could, she screamed out a warning at the top of her lungs.
”The enemy… She’s coming back! Look out!”From Hatori’s perspective near the side, it was unclear what had happened; another flash of light had blinded her once more, with smoke further obscuring the battlefield. There was a light tremor shortly after the impact. But now she was barely able to think. Her friendly fire didn’t cripple her confidence, or if it did, only briefly – no, it just ignited the fury that was inside of her. Of the ones that caused her to hit her own teammates. It was unforgivable. And they were going to
pay.
JoJo used her blink for the first time at maximum output and it sent her body on a wild ride, she didn’t just move like lightning, it was as if she became lightning and it felt amazing! She literally had to pull herself together to re-achieve her physical state, but when she did her body was already reacting on its own without her having to put the thought process in. When her brain took back control over the body she was already mid swing her fist cocked back, and the girl was already performing a Haymaker with enough force behind it to rival a jackhammer. Joann’s body continued to follow through with the attack at the same time the burst of energy exploded from her body as a result of the blink releasing a massive portion of her built up energy taking her from full to just under half.
Takeshi looked up just as JoJo blinked into existence a foot in front of him, just registering Fumika’s warning at the same time. She was already cocked back in a haymaker, aimed for his his face. Reacting quickly, he shifted his weight, his left arm now lifting up and knocked Jojo’s hand to the right so she would punch past his face, then, with his right leg he gave a short swift kick to her knee which was closest to him attempting to buckle it.
She took a few heavy breaths; Hatori’s buttons were definitely pushed, but she wasn’t one to go into a blind rage.
Think...Takeshi mentioned who the two were before. JoJo and...Roy, right? The girl can manipulate electricity, and the boy can make light constructs… she thought at she moved her planes towards Takeshi and JoJo, producing more in the meantime. Meanwhile, a smaller fleet had separated from her larger one, hovering closer to Hatori not only to defend herself if the other girl, JoJo, tried to go for her instead, but also to make sure that Roy didn’t try to stand back up.
So, if her quirk is related to electricity, then what’s her weakness? Hatori thought, grumbling to herself. There was nothing around her that immediate clicked to Hatori as a way to deal with her.
Maybe there’s something more to her Quirk...there has to be something more. Or maybe... ”Takeshi, fall back!” Hatori shouted after Takeshi had done his counter-attack. Immediately afterwards, Hatori’s planes came from the side to fire towards JoJo. She had a plan now – it wasn’t a very complex plan, but it was something.
”Take this!”Joann gritted her teeth as her punch missed. Worst of all she was being shot at again, thankfully it seemed as if Takeshi was too enthused with the idea of tripping her that he didn’t hear his own teammate, but she did. JoJo took the fall even going so far as to push her body further forward, the momentum of her fist continued to curve since being redirected causing her body to twist. Joann hit the sand behind Takeshi on her shoulder taking the pellets she dodged thanks to him into consideration if he would be struck by them she’d get back to her feet and get away from the water, being so close even if she was less than half full now would send her right back to zero and that’s not helping anyone.
Takeshi did hear Hatori, however he wanted to make sure he gave her as much time as she could, as he noticed most of the bullets from her plans were aimed at the ground. With Jojo’s quirk as electricity, he racked his mind on what Hatori was thinking, figuring out what she was planning. While a fair amount did hit him once Jojo fell behind him it felt the impact like marbles hitting his armor. A few hit his face causing him to wince and take a step back in pain, He lifted his arm to protect his face while he concentrated. He quickly had shadows collect on his sword and span out about a foot wide on either side, making a large paddle. He swung his new weapon a few times towards Jojo, trying to get all of the fine dust blown over to her while Hatori’s planes was making even finer dust now on the sand she was standing on. At the same time as his swings, he moved over to Fumika, ready to cover her when the moment was right as he didnt know how how big this would be. His free hand was already gathering another shadow to build a wall.
Roy fought tooth and nail just to pick his body up off the ground, the cuts on his arms were reopened and clogged with dirt and grit. He would need some serious disinfecting after this. Roy managed to get to a kneel before a dust storm overcame him and Jojo. It was difficult to see but his helmet managed to prevent any dust or dirt from getting into his eyes. Despite this there was still a problem.
He couldn't see the next attack that was sent by Hatori, all that could be heard is the impact of the bullets as they collided with the ground. With each barrage he could hear them getting closer. Natural instinct made Roy want to back up and run the other direction as he feared for the unknown. The boy got up on all both feet before sliding his left foot back. The bullets were closing in on him and a decision would have to be made soon. He planted his right foot hard into the ground before bringing both hands to his left side and squatting. The LED lights on his costume shined brightly as a handle sprouted his hands before the rest of his plan was made reality. The construct represented a large Japanese cherry blossom fan.
Roy cocked both hands back before swinging the large construct, the fan slowly sailed through the air. It was a struggle as the large semi circle strongly resisted the air. He could feel his muscles screaming as he sent the dust storm right back at the attackers.
Hatori looked at Takeshi as he seemed to pick up her quickly formulated plan, and she was already concentrating her fire onto the ground below JoJo and Roy, kicking up even more dust as she was creating more and more planes by the second. However, she had not expected for Roy to get up, and soon he constructed a bright-colored fan and sweeped it across. She thought the solar construct would have set off the dust storm, but it seemed that he still had enough control of his constructs to confine its energy.
It looks like they’re not using their Quirks...it’ll make dealing with them easier now, Hatori thought, trying to dodge the dust storm so the two enemy classmates didn’t try to blow back the dust storm and catch them in the potential firestorm. She was running back towards the bleachers, and this time went for a more direct attack towards Roy.
Meanwhile, another fleet splitted from the larger one, going around to hit the boy from behind, anticipating that he would try to use his solar constructs to shield himself. Hatori had a set of parchment paper at the ready – while not fire-resistant, it was heat-resistant enough to not immediately burn out from his constructs.
Fumika groaned, trying to rise to her feet, but the aching in her stomach made it a slow process. Her hair snapped and fizzed at the ends as errors rebounded through her system, sending wave after wave of pain like a dagger through her skull, such that she hardly would have even noticed the gash in her forehead by comparison were it not for the blood oozing slowly down her forehead, fusing with the dirt and soot that had caked her during her fall to form a disgustingly warm, sticky red ichor that threatened to cover her right eye completely. She rubbed it away as best she could, leaving a red smear upon the formerly pristine white back of her sleeve.
Data was missing. It wasn’t much, but several key strands of her hair had been burned beyond use. She couldn’t remember which blouse she’d worn on the third day of February of that year. Or had it been a sweater? Someone had consistently called her by the wrong name in the fourth grade of elementary school, and since she’d never bothered to correct him, the entire class had gotten her name wrong, but she couldn’t remember what exactly it was they had called her. When she’d told Haruka about it, Fumika distinctly remembered her laughing about it… It must have been some kind of pun, but what was it? And the stroke order of the kanji for day… Which side did you write first, again? And that time her parents had taken her and her sister for a drive and had a flower viewing party at the start of spring… She’d been so happy on that day, because everyone had been smiling, but now suddenly her heart fell as she realized that she couldn’t remember what their faces had looked like, or what precisely she’d seen looking down from that hill. It had been so pretty, and had made her feel warm inside whenever she remembered it, but she hadn’t thought of it for quite some time now… and now suddenly she couldn’t recall more than a dim, indistinct shadow of the image no matter how hard she’d tried. It was strange. Frightening. She wasn’t used to not remembering things perfectly. But it was fine, because other people lived like this all the time, so it would just be petty of her to be angry about it, right?
No matter. None of those had any bearing on her combat skills whatsoever. She could still fight, and a fight was what was at hand. One step, then another. It was pointless to get distracted by pain or by loss. A computer worked best when it focused on one problem at a time.
There was dust everywhere. She wiped away the last of the blood that had adhered itself to her eyelashes and quickly slipped her visor back into place as she finally managed to stand. Her eyes flashed red, particles cutting through the fog to see clearly what was happening. The paper girl was continuing to provide fire support from a distance, while Takeshi stood protectively in front of her… She’d told him not to worry, though, right? Wasn’t it a liability for him to have to shield her like this? And where were the enemies? One of them seemed to be trying to bat away the dust, to little avail - it rose again just as quickly as he forced it back. But the other - that electrical girl - where did she go?
Joann kicked herself away from Takeshi panting coughing and wiping the dust flung at her, though it was annoying it gave her a decent idea. Still tired from having carried three people around since the beginning and then having to fight right after. Gritting her teeth JoJo decided to do what she always does in these situations and that was to suck it up then power through, turning herself over on her stomach and kicking upward to a standing position she bolted off making a large semi-circle around the fighting arena to charge up energy. Even though she had practiced all night she never could figure out how to make her electrical energy sprout from her hand and give a form, but she did learn how to gather it in one place like her fist. It hurt immensely like a balloon filled with too much air about to pop, but she learned that the striking power more than tripled at the cost of a lot of stored up energy, with that she decided to double it up on both fists; interlocking her fingers with one another JoJo jumped high into the air and ground pounded the sand, sending it scattering in all directions.
“Roy, RUN NOW!” She screamed staggering back having just sprained both her hands, giving her what looked like a first-degree injury before backing up in her own way before running off to the distance to get out of the dust cloud and what she hoped was the auditorium.
Takeshi narrowed his eyes to protect them from the dust from Roy as he tried to clear the dust with his much larger cherry blossom fan. Cursing to himself he released the makeshift fan he created on his sword and focused all his energy into his quirk, sheathing his sword. The line of shadow that was supposed to protect them from jojo’s direction incase she used her electricity quickly stretched around Fumika, large enough for her them to lie down in. At that moment, she pointed suddenly, her red gaze flashing beneath her visor.
”Over there! She’s coming back!” He noticed Jojo running around him, building up her electricity.
He turned and wrapped his arms around Fumika, with one hand placed on the back of her head. spinning as he did this, he fell to his knees. Using this motion to pull Fumika down with him so she was laying on the ground while Takeshi was kneeling on one knee. His hand protected Fumika’s head from hitting the ground. The takedown took less than a second, and when Fumika would look up to him, she would only see him with his eyes cinched shut as he concentrated.
He focused all the shadows around him and all of his own personal shadow into this construct. A sphere suddenly shot up around them, just big enough to slide over Takeshi’s back. He positioned himself so his back was to Jojo as she jumped.
Fumika gave a quiet gasp, but it didn’t seem to be from the shock of falling so suddenly. She was staring upward, but behind her darkened shades, her gleaming scarlet eyes weren’t focused on Takeshi, but rather a point behind him. The sparks… the dirt. As the energy arced outwards, the heat would… The uprooted grass, and chunks of plant matter within the soil kicked up to form the smoke screen would all ignite, the fire jumping outward from source to source. Already, in the back of her mind, she could hear the sound of the fire, the sound of everything collapsing around her. She remembered the flames washing over her sight, blinding her with their brilliance. And that chillingly hot, creeping agony licking her back… The black shape that came darting through the smoke. The arms that were wrapped protectively around her.
It would happen again.
The faint beeping of the electrocardiogram. The spring wind blowing through the open window, its distant howl as if it was in mourning. And that tiny shape lying in front of her, once so grand, now so pitiful… The fire crackling, the frantic cry, the crash of breaking glass, and that same sight she wanted so desperately to forget. Why, why,
why was she still smiling!?It would happen again…!
”Takeshi, the fire… the shockwave…” She whimpered, tugging suddenly at the sleeve of the arm that held her. As she spoke, Takeshi would come to realize that, for the first time, she who had just fearlessly faced down a shower of bullets sounded genuinely terrified. But it wasn’t herself she was worried about. She’d faced these flames before. Rather…
It would happen again!
Before even Fumika knew what she was thinking, she wasn’t seeing Takeshi, but rather, a different dark shape standing over her amidst the flames - and she already knew all too well how this would end.
”You’re going to get hurt! Run… Please, run!”By now Hatori was visibly frustrated.
Ugh...this is not going as I hoped it would… she thought, trying to backup even more, onto the stairs of the bleachers. It didn’t seem like what she was doing as enough to put down the two opposing classmates, and she was strongly considering bringing out the bigger planes, until…
A short tremor, and the dust around them started to ignite in a near instant. It was apparent that JoJo had set off the ignition with an electrical attack, but now Roy had spread the dust cloud that it was covering up Takeshi and Fumika, with Hatori herself just outside of it. She didn’t have time to react, with the inferno scorching parts of her sleeves and her right pant leg. The paper in her arm also accelerated the flame.
Thankfully, Hatori was able to react fast enough and drop the paper she was holding; only a some of her clothing was actual cloth, so she quickly got down and patted it out. While she may had avoided the fire, part of her lower leg and right elbow suffered minor burns, and Hatori quickly felt the sting of her injuries. Some of her paper stacks were also burned away, and the two ran off...but that was the least she could care about.
”Fumika! Takeshi!” she shouted, grunting as she tried to stand up; she wasn’t incapacitated, but the burns still hurt. She bit her lip – not only did her plan fail, but it ended up hurting her teammates more than it hurt them, or at least she thought. She remembered that Fumika and Takeshi had their own Quirks that could protect themselves, but if they couldn’t react in time…
All Roy could here was a warning for him to run, following an explosion. Jojo seemed to always warn him after the fact. The little paper planes beaming at his arm stung badly as they opened his wounds even further. Now he was tasked with the giant shockwave hurling towards him, the swarm of paper planes, and his low energy reserves. He was breathing heavily after swinging the giant fan, the giant shockwave was not helping him at all neither. Things were looking bad, Roy released the fan construct before curling his body in a ball. The bullets from the airplane began traveling all around his back. It felt like he was being swarmed at this point by colony of bees. Roy flexed all his muscles, the led lights on his his costume flickering off and on before staying on. Soon Roy was enveloped in a round ball of energy, by curling his body he reduced how much energy he would need to cover his body. Now in a constructed hamster ball, Roy braced for the impact of the shockwave while inside. Covered in sweat as he anticipated the blast.
WOOSH!The blast sent the hamster ball construct with him inside rolling past Hatori and the bleachers. The heat was intense, but nothing Roy couldn’t handle; his quirk allowed him to handle higher temperatures than the average human being could. Roy’s costume was also fitted with built in heat resistance. The biggest challenge was surviving the shockwave. The boys helmet clanked against the shell of the ball as he rolled through the dirt and sand before finally slowing down 15 yards behind the pilot girl. Once the ball stopped rolling Roy released the energy, laying in the grass on his back as the outskirts of the firestorm singed the dirt around him. He took this chance to catch a quick breather, Roy pulled his mask up only revealing his lips. He took a deep breath of the somewhat fresh air. Which was mostly burnt and mixed in with sand particles. Nevertheless he managed what he could.
Joann didn’t want to even be involved in this fight, she just wanted to get to the stupid auditorium and defend, why couldn’t they just have kicked rocks the moment they saw Takeshi and the paper planes. The next thing she could hear was a loud BANG, looking back even for a second out of curiosity turned her entire world upside down as her body was flung backward and engulfed in a firestorm that soon followed. There were no screams she was already out cold long before the fires hit, shattering both her legs in the process so even if she was still awake there was nothing she or anyone could do for her. Fire devoured her body, cooking the poor girl alive, thankfully she wouldn’t die from this, but anyone watching could do nothing but look on in horror as the immediate area smelled of burned flesh.
Takeshi winced as the explosion shockwave slammed into his sphere. He honestly was not expecting it to be that powerful, his construct barely managed to survive the blow. Despite the heat outside of the sphere, Takeshi was now shaking visibly. His once solid stance now was weak as he almost fell on top of Fumika as she tugged on his arm. He was suddenly very dizzy and tried to shake his head to right his equilibrium, but it had little effect. He was just grateful that he could not focus his energy into maintaining the sphere as much, but suddenly he was feeling really tired...
He heard Fumika say something. It took him a second to realize she was telling him to run. That he was going to get hurt. Wobbling slightly as he shook his head.
“N-no… I’m not going...to run. I’m gonna protect you for once,” he replied, extremely exhausted, as if he was about to fall asleep at that instant. He forced his eyes open wide in an attempt to wake himself up and gave a tired smirk at her before focusing his attention outside of the Sphere.
The roar of the fire died down, and he was sure it was safe to release his construct. After a moment, the construct poofed out of existence. He looked around as he fell to his side, his breath shallow despite how quickly he was breathing. Clear signs of hypothermia. He saw Jojo nearby on the ground and still had some flames on her, but wasn’t moving. He knew he had to do something. He reached out, his hand shaking horribly and tried to focus. Blood came out of his nose as he pushed himself beyond his limit.
Shadows would suddenly wrap around the entire body, snuffing out any fire that was left, and at the same time, the shadows acted as a full body Ice pack. He would hold it as long as he could, at least till help arrived.
As the barrier before her eyes peeled away, Fumika stared in shock at the scene that was revealed before her. The entire field had been burnt and scorched, with a few lingering flames still consuming what little was left of the grass. Black dirt and white ashes mingled amidst the rubble as the ground cracked and crumbled from the force of the mighty blast. It was a picture out of hell, or perhaps out of an old memory.
Takeshi staggered and slumped to one side. Before she even realized what she was doing, and before the pain from her cuts and bruises could register, Fumika had forced herself to her feet, extending her arms to catch and support him as best she could. She winced a little, giving a quiet wheeze of pain and effort as his elbow connected rather unceremoniously with her already bruised gut on his way down, making the already difficult job of holding him up even harder. Was he heavy, or was she just weak? Maybe it was just because she was already so tired, but it was hard to so much as stand supporting him as she was.
But she had more pressing concerns. She’d expected him to feel hot, but actually, it was just the opposite. It was hard for her to so much as touch him, as even though her thick gloves and romper, his entire body was like ice. Was this a side-effect of his Quirk? Come to think of it, in her Recordings of him during their previous battle, his body temperature had seemed rather low, but… This was as if he’d nearly frozen himself to death! And he’d done all this… He’d done all this…
To save her. Because she’d needed saving. It had happened again, just like she had known it would. Instinctively, she averted her gaze, not wanting to look at his face… not wanting to see that same smile that she couldn’t understand.
His hand. It was outstretched, but towards what? Wait… There had been others, right? The boy behind them - that nice boy who had invited her to work with him during Cooking class the previous day, Kusayanagi Roy - as well as that electrical girl who’d been so ruthless in her attacks. And Hatori had been watching from a distance, too… Was she safe? Had the blast reached her, too?
As she frantically searched amidst the rubble, her eyes flashing red once again, she got her answer. Hatori had evidently been caught on the edge of the blast, but seemed relatively unharmed. The boy with the tattoos had been - that is, Roy had been launched away, but despite being closer to ground zero, seemed to be alright himself - or at least, not much more injured than he already had been. But the electrical girl? Where was the electrical girl?
The shadows crept across the ground. Takeshi’s outstretched hand clenched as their sluggish movements grew more swift. And there, still wreathed in glowing embers, was…
Fumika gasped in horror. Of course, she knew full well what that kind of proximity to such intense flames could do to a person. Her own back was proof of that. But how much more terrifying, for the flames in question to ignite from one’s very own flesh! What if she’d tried to project something within that dust cloud? Even the slightest spark might have set it off… If she herself had been a little more reckless, she might have suffered the exact same fate. Why? Why had things reached this point? This was supposed to be training, right? They weren’t trying to hurt each other, right? So then, why was this happening again?!
No matter. She shook the memories of that scene from a year ago from her mind. What would Haruka do? No, what had Haruka already done? She had to help, had to get that girl out of there before she burned to death... Even if it meant throwing the match, she had enough energy left to do that, right? She could hold Takeshi herself, and if he couldn’t move, then she’d just have to carry him safely away from the lingering fire and smoke. And that girl… If she couldn’t carry her herself, then she just needed to make a her who could!
Her eyes flashed green as the bar around her head continued ticking down into nothing. Flicking faintly, two images of Fumika rushed forward through the lingering flames that licked at their heels, taking hold of the girl wrapped in shadows.
”Please, just hold on… I’ll get you to safety…” She rasped out. The smoke was choking her. It was hard to breathe, hard to even keep her eyes open. But if she shut them now, then that girl would fall…! One step, then another. She dragged herself a little further forward, still shouldering Takeshi’s weight as best she could and trying to support him.
”I’m sorry,” She whispered. Her eyes were beginning to water, but it must have just been the stinging smoke.
”I’m sorry I’m so slow...” One step, then another. Why was it that, if she was supposed to be a hero, when it really counted, other people always suffered instead of her? She should have done something, should have protected them no matter what the cost. It already hurt so much, what was a little more pain? If she’d only been a little stronger, she could have protected herself. She might even have been able to protect that girl, if she hadn’t panicked right when the explosion went off. She’d been looking right at her! Why hadn’t she been able to do anything? Why had she frozen right when it mattered most?
She’d gotten distracted again and blinked. Jojo’s body phased through her now-intangible clones… Only for the copies to blur and vanish completely as another Fumika re-formed beneath her, catching her and taking another step. Fumika’s vision was tinged completely with red. Oh, right. Her forehead was still bleeding. It was hard to raise her eyelid. Had the blood coagulated already? Not to mention that her eyes were still stinging with pain from the smoke. Her vision was getting blurry, but… but… One step, then another. Right, just a little more. The fires had mostly burned themselves out here.
”I’m sorry,” She apologized again. Her legs were about to give out. She slumped forward, but managed to take most of the fall by landing on her knees in order to let Takeshi down gently. Next to her, her copy similarly deposited Jojo, taking as much care as she could to avoid aggravating her injuries any further. A quick scan revealed the scope of her wounds. Her vitals were fine, but the lower half of her body, particularly her legs… She averted her eyes. She couldn’t bear to look anymore, because she already knew the rest. After all, this had already happened before, and yet, she still hadn’t been able to…!
”I’m sorry, I can’t carry you… My legs are still shaking… I can’t… my eyes...” Her voice had faded into little more than a mumble now. What was she looking at anymore? The burnt schoolyard before her eyes and the schoolyard from her memories converged into one, and she could no longer tell whether the haze over her eyes was because of the smoke or because of her fatigue. Were her eyes even open anymore? It was hard to tell. Her whole body felt so heavy, yet at the same time light as a feather as it trembled at the slightest motion. The fire all around her buffeted her with waves of heat as if she was in an oven, but the chills running up her spine and crawling across her skin were so cold. Her ears were still ringing. She couldn’t hear anything - not even the crackling of the dying flames. The girl, was she still breathing? Was Takeshi getting warmer or colder? What if they died because she’d been too slow to react? The ringing in her ears gave way to the beeping of the EKG, while the form before her eyes was replaced by another. Was she awake or asleep? Was this a nightmare?
No, there was no time for that. This time… There had to be something she could do this time! Help… She needed help. The communications device had an emergency frequency, right? With a trembling hand, she reached down to the pouch on her belt, but she couldn’t seem to remember where the button was or how to unfasten it. When she finally worked her jittering fingers around the flap and pulled it open, she nearly dropped the communicator on the ground before she could safely withdraw it and turn it on. Changing frequencies, she recalled that when requesting emergency services, it was best to be as concise and as calm as possible. Calm. She needed to be calm. She took a deep breath. Concise was easy. It was hard to speak anyway. She just needed to be calm.
”Is anybody there? There’s been an explosion. Everyone’s hurt. We’re at the soccer field. Please, come quickly…!” Her ears were still ringing. Had she been too loud? Was she whispering? Was she screaming? Had anyone even heard her? Was help even coming? Even if it did come, would it arrive on time?
As she slumped in the dirt, Fumika realized that the outcome she’d feared most had finally come to pass. She’d gotten in the way, gotten in over her head… And because of it, everyone had gotten hurt. She still clung to Takeshi’s arm, realizing only then that she’d forgotten to release it. And yet, no matter how long she waited, even in spite of the heat lingering in the wake of the explosion... he wasn’t getting any warmer.
Laying in the ground breathing heavily, the injured kid inhaled the smokey air. He got sat up, knowing full and well that he was running on empty.
“Damn it, JoJ-” His green eyes widened as he looked straight ahead seeing the destruction caused, it was no more a lush green field. Everything was scorched as if the area was bombed. Roy bit his lip as he mustered the strength from his body to get up. Not realizing how hard he was biting down, the guy was trying so hard he began bleeding from the mouth. Finally he got to his feet, looking a wreck. The sleeves on his costume war torn and bloody, his helmet scratched and half on. He began moving forward, focusing hard on walking over to Jojo. Ignoring the fire as his boots began to catch on fire. He was slowly roasting in the battlefield but he didn’t care not one bit.
Left, right, left, right… He kept moving forward despite about to kick the bucket himself.
“Idiot...you didn’t have to go that far...”Soon the wind blew on the fire and smoke a bit, giving Roy some insight on the destruction. He saw a long haired ahoge carrying Jojo out of the fire before the the fire blocked his view once again. Roy let out a sigh before patting the fire off on his foot. At least Fumi was alright and she was helping out Jojo.Roy kept moving faster, the adrenaline in his body giving him a little pep in his step. He stepped in a large patch of fire, some of it hitching a ride. First on the back of his left leg, then his left hand.
Grrrr... Soon he made his way out of the firestorm standing in front of Fumika, Takeshi, and Jojo. He stood in front of them, parts of his body ablaze. He looked at the samurai guy who was pale, Roy made a layer of energy on the inflamed areas. The fire stuck to the solar energy like glue before the boy brushed the construct off his body and it fell to the floor. He moved closer to Fumika with a hand up in the air.
“Time-out, was just checking if you and Jack Frost over here was okay. I could feel his body temperature all the way from here. It’s cutting through the hot air like a sharp knife.” Roy got closer before placing a hand on Takeshi’s shoulder, this man felt like a glacier. It almost hurt to make contact with him for so long.
“Thanks for helping my teammate Fumika, it means a lot. I can help this guy from here, you should see if that pilot girl is alright.”The first thing Hatori noticed was that Roy was able to make it out of the firestorm with a solar ball construct that he had made, though the strain and exhaustion he was putting on himself seemingly aggravated his wounds from before. She sighed in relief and stood up, rolling her burned sleeves so that both ends were at about the same height. The firestorm died down quickly as the fire had no fuel to burn once it ignited the dust in the air. Through the ashes and smoke that now clouded the burnt field, the girl was able to see Takeshi’s shadow constructs attempting to smother the flames out of the body…
The body. Parts of JoJo’s body were a deep red and brown, unnaturally bloated and blistered due to the burns she had suffered – she definitely had the worst of all five of them, practically being at ground zero of the firestorm. Hatori covered her mouth, both out of some sort of guilt and shock at what she had just done.
When the worst had finally come to pass, Hatori ran towards the three, ignoring Roy for now – the activity was the least of their problems, and she honestly couldn’t care if they failed or not. Fumika was even more tired than before, having expended even more of her energy to try and save JoJo and Takeshi; the latter’s pallor and elevated breathing indicated that he was suffering from some level of hypothermia, seemingly due to his Quirk. Thankfully, Roy was already there to help Takeshi out – his solar constructs could hopefully help bring his core temperature back up.
Hatori could only manage to look at Fumika and JoJo for a moment.
”Are you alright, Fumi? You should take a rest, too...you look really drained right now, and any more and I think you’ll pass out,” she muffled from the oxygen mask before deciding to take hers off and offering it to the two. Her mask wouldn’t be able to take in fresh air without the oxygen tank, but even without it, it was a sufficient filter to the air around it. She lay closer to the ground, where there was more fresh air.
”Give this to Takeshi...I think the smoke could be forcing him to breathe heavier than he already is now.”She finally shuffled away, using her sleeve to act as a makeshift filter in the absence of her mask. Making sure that the emergency team arrived on time, Hatori searched within her undamaged leg pocket and pulled out several planes before throwing them into the air, acting as a signal.
Takeshi was so focused on making sure the shadows were helping Jojo for as long as he could. Though he did hear Fumika say sorry a few times, what was she saying sorry for? She didn’t cause this. He wasn’t going to let her get hurt either, she already helped him a few times. He got slightly irritated. Not at her, but that his mind felt like it had a fog in it.
“Stop...s-s-s-s-saying sorry.” He said through his teeth. His jaw clenched as his body was shaking uncontrollably. Despite this, he actually managed to walk on his two feet, not wanting or liking being this vulnerable or weak looking. One of the few lessons he took from his father, never show weakness.
“I-I-I did this. This is…all on me.” His mind was foggy, but even he knew he was stupid in allowing this to happen. Allowing himself to think like he used to...the one thing he didn’t want to be.
As they knelt down, he didn’t object. But he released the shadows from Jojo, as he couldn't bare the cold any longer. He felt instant relief, as if someone turned off the AC. Though he was still freezing.
“You’re the hero Fumika…” He added after a moment before he heard the sound of Roy coming over and calling him Jack Frost. He then shook his head.
“I-I-I’m fine!” He said with a sharp tongue, trying to push himself up, but he didn’t even have the strength to do that at the moment. Though it was at this moment he noticed his arm was still being held by Fumika. Even if he could have stood up, he was sure he would have been dragged back down. In all honesty he had been dealt more life threatening blows, and more painful injuries before. He knew very well that he pushed himself farther than he had before with his quirk, usually because he didn’t want to show how weak he was with it.
Hatori came by and offered him her mask. He simply shook his head weakly after coughing painfully.
“No…. give it to Jojo for the moment till someone arrives.” He managed to say before he started shivering again. The pilot girl blinked before moving the mask towards JoJo’s mouth, glancing back at Takeshi. He seemed like he was trying to hide the pain that he was currently in, and sighed quietly to herself. The smoke was finally starting to subside, though the air was still quite unhealthy to breath in, and so she kept the mask on JoJo.
Fumika didn’t know how to react. Out of everyone who might have come to help, she hadn’t expected it to be someone she’d been fighting as hard as she could just a moment before. The light-shaper… no, Kusayanagi Roy. He was definitely a kind person. Even though he himself was hurt, his first course of action was to come and try to help Takeshi? Whether it was her surprise or simply her fatigue, she found herself at a loss for words, so she simply lowered her head in a feeble attempt at a bow and mumbled a
”Thank you,” under her breath.
The next to arrive was the paper girl, Hatori, saving Fumika herself the trouble of going looking for her. She seemed alright, and offered help as well, but the exhausted heroine found it hard to even look at her. The immense destructive power she could so freely let loose...the results of her attack, and the knowledge that Fumika herself could have just as easily been in the same position that Jojo was now made it difficult for her to think of any way to respond. Even though Hatori was talking to her kindly, she couldn’t help but be somewhat scared of what might happen if she said the wrong thing and bothered her.
Right… she seemed worried, but Fumika herself was fine - at least, by comparison to everyone else. After all, Takeshi had protected her, so… She had no right to ask them for a break, or to claim that she was somehow worse off than them, especially when Takeshi was trying so hard to keep pushing forward himself. That would just be selfish of her - unforgivably bothersome.
”I’m… fine,” She managed. The smoke was clearing, little by little, but her voice was still hoarse and shaky, and her eyes were still threatening to water. She held it back and kept control. Of course she wasn’t crying. She wouldn’t even think of doing such a thing. That would just bother everyone even more.
”Takeshi… saved me, so I’m fine.” Once again, Hatori sounded concerned about her passing out. Was it really that big of a deal? It happened all the time, so she’d gotten used to it, but the others seemed strangely concerned. Surely, it must have been a bother to worry about all the time, right?
”I can… keep going. Even if I pass out, you can just leave me behind. It’s fine. I’m used to it.” She hadn’t really specified whether she meant “being left behind” or “passing out,” but that distinction never really occurred to her. Both were true, in a sense.
But whether or not Hatori was angry at her was only part of the problem. After all, Takeshi had sounded angry at her, too... Was her apologizing that much of a problem? He must have meant that if she had the energy to apologize for her mistakes, she shouldn’t have made them in the first place. That was understandable. This was her fault, and she should have done better. Apologizing after all was said and done wouldn’t change that. Whatever anger or resentment he might have felt at her for forcing him into such a situation was entirely justified. If he didn’t ever speak to her again, or if he yelled at her, or even if he hurt her to get even… All of those things would be entirely warranted. After all, she’d caused him to get hurt like this when she should have been protecting him for the sake of the whole team.
And yet, he didn’t do any of those things, but instead spoke to her kindly. What he said didn’t make any sense to her. What did he mean, calling her a hero? She hadn’t… She hadn’t done anything. She hadn’t saved anyone. All she’d done was watch while everyone else got hurt, even when she herself could still stand, when she still had enough energy to project something. Surely, there was something she could have done to prevent the blast? Of course, most options she could think of would have resulted in herself combusting instead, since even a single spark from her projections would have been enough to ignite the cloud. And with Takeshi so close to her, it might have only hurt him more…
Actually, it was all well and good to think that she could have done something, but was that really the case? If she’d tried to project anything, she just would have set off the explosion even closer to everyone else. She couldn’t have even supported Takeshi’s shield without causing a fire inside it. Then… was there really nothing she could have done? Surely, that wasn’t true. That was just an excuse, a way to try to shirk her responsibility. Haruka could have done something about this… She should have been able to manage something, even if it was just a pale imitation of her. Right! If she’d just been able to muster a little more energy, and if only she hadn’t been so cowardly... she could have blown the cloud away with one of Haruka’s supersonic kicks before the fire could spread! At most, she herself would have just suffered a few more burns - but it wasn’t like she hadn’t already endured worse, so what was a little more or less now? Everyone would have been saved that way, if she had just been… if she had just been a little bit stronger.
She’d been sitting silently for too long, but still Fumika didn’t reply to his kind words. In the first place, she didn’t know how to reply in words of her own. All she could do was act, even if the right course of action appeared to her merely as a hunch. So, she simply pulled him closer to herself, loosely wrapping her aching arms around his frigid body and trying to move him as gently as she could, not wanting to aggravate his injuries.
”Let me help.” Her voice was uncertain, but firm. As always, she had no idea if she was making the right choice or not, but she wanted to do
something. ”It’s warmer like this, right?” It wasn’t much, but if it’d help him keep warm, then it was better than simply watching powerlessly. She never again wanted to experience that same feeling of helplessness, watching the one who had saved her suffering in her place. She hadn’t been able to protect him, or anyone else. Her words, no matter how heartfelt, amounted to nothing. This was the most she could do.
Oh, right… the outer layer of her costume was insulated, so the warmth wouldn’t go through, would it? Reasoning thus, she tugged at her collar, peeling back the velcro and unzipping the front of her romper, tugging it back and letting its upper half slide halfway down from her shoulders like a loose jacket, before gingerly lifting it up and draping it over Takeshi’s back as best she could. It was a little strange to be partially undressing like this, but it was still fine, right? Although the outer layer of her costume had gotten scuffed up and stained, its opaque black lining was still completely intact. Besides, even if the skintight jumpsuit that formed her costume’s innermost layer was rather thin, it would still cover her scars, so it wouldn’t disturb anyone.
Well… maybe that was an overstatement. Fumika herself was beginning to feel a little “disturbed.” That is to say, it felt a little bit strange, feeling the weight of his body pressing down so close to her heart. She could feel the imprint left in the wake of even the slightest movement with perfect detail, as though it had forced past the barrier between them and inscribed itself gently upon her skin. She only realized then that the warmth she’d felt up until that moment wasn’t just from the heat of the flames, but rather, was coming from somewhere inside her, and was now rushing eagerly forth from her, offering itself freely to the frigid body beside her. She scoured all her memories, but couldn’t quite find anything she could compare to the strange sensation she was now experiencing. It seemed a bit… a bit what? There was part of her that felt… scared? No, it wasn’t fear, but then why was it that she wanted to run away? Why did thinking about it like this make her feel even warmer? Wait, warmer? Then why was it that she felt so cold that she could hardly refrain from shivering? Hot or cold; which was it? Did she have a fever? It wasn’t “hurting,” and it didn’t seem to be “wanting” either, but her unknown feelings seemed to be telling her to draw back, cajoling her for making some unknown mistake. But this path was simple, and it would help, wouldn’t it? Then it was the right choice. But what, exactly, made her feel so sure of that? What was it that made the fire less scary, that made her uncertainty go away? As she’d feared, she couldn’t understand it at all. Her efforts to comprehend it were getting nowhere, so she gave up on thinking about it, but that didn’t stop her face from turning unusually red. Maybe she did have a fever after all.
Takeshi glanced back at Fumika as she mentioned helping. His eyes lifted in surprise as she took him in his arms. He was still in shock and really couldn’t answer before she realized that it wasn’t warm enough. As she started to undo her costume Takeshi got red in the face.
“W-wait…” he was starting to say when she pulled him in once again.
He remained frozen for a moment, unsure what had just happened. His face hot despite him being so cold. Once he felt the warm though coming from her he couldn’t help himself but slip his hands under her romper and around her back, pulling himself closer to her with his own arms, to that heat that was generated inside her insulated romper. He noticed her shivering as well. He didn’t know what to say, as he just focused on this warm feeling. But he did come up with a simple…
“Thank you…” with a whisper in her ear.
Fumika started, only partly from the frigid chill that suddenly wrapped itself around her waist and tugged her closer. It was hard to feel, as the skin there was somewhat numb in some places and tender in others, but a strange prickling feeling drew her attention to her right hip and to the center of her back. The realization caught her so suddenly that she couldn’t entirely suppress a gasp and an awkward sort of squirm. His hands were touching her scars. Even through the thin garb she wore, surely, he might notice the unevenness, the rigidness of her flesh in those places, right? It was an unnatural feeling. He’d be disturbed. But maybe he hadn’t noticed yet… After all, your hands got numb when they were really cold, right? Then, before he could tell…!
So, perhaps a little too forcefully, she slipped down as though to escape his grasp, and then half-leaned, half-crawled forward, curling up slightly and leaning her forehead against his chest, such that his hands slid up to her shoulders and away from the secret she wanted so desperately to keep. Perhaps his body was simply getting warmer next to her, but suddenly, the chill she felt seemed to be replaced by an even more potent burning sensation, particularly in her cheeks.
He had thanked her. It wouldn’t do for her to be so fidgety and silent now. He was expecting an answer, but all she could really muster was a numb sort of
”You’re welcome,” which she stammered out as best she could with her teeth trying to chatter and her words faltering before they even left her mouth. She didn’t really know why, but she found herself squeezing him a little tighter as she spoke. Maybe she was afraid that if she didn’t hold him steady, his grip might wander back down and risk discovering her scars?
Hatori sighed and looked away – it seemed like everything had been resolved for now...though after being so concerned over her classmates’ well-being, she had nearly forgot about the activity. She could argue now that it mattered little...but she did all this just so that they would get closer to the objective. It was all on her.
”Are...you two sure that you can handle coming along with me into the school? It’s my – I mean, I can’t stand seeing you two like this,” Hatori replied. At this state, she was already unsure if they should still continue to tag along...but at the same time, could she
really do this all by herself? As much as she would have hoped she could, it was just short-sighted and reckless.
She paused when she saw Fumika move closer to Takeshi and suddenly undo her outer costume. A slight blush formed on her face as well, staring as she tried to regain his warmth with the inner layer of her romper. Hatori took a moment of silence at they embraced one another before she finally decided to cut in.
”I’ll...I’ll let you two tag along if both of you think you can handle it,” Hatori added, standing up and pulling up the visor to her helmet, revealing her face; her eyes were staring at the two firmly as she removed her burnt paper stacks on her right elbow and moved another paper stack near her leg onto the vacant slot.
”But I can’t have you two getting hurt anymore than you already are. I’ll be walking in front.”Hatori remembered that Roy was still there, and she looked at him as well.
”I’m hoping you’re not going to tail us, unless you’re up for round two,” she held out a fresh stack of paper.
”Otherwise, feel free to contact your team and tell them you’re alright. Do you know who else is at the point?”Roy smiled at Fumika and Takeshi having their little moment, he was about to fix the guys cool moment but he seemed to have been enjoying being nuzzled up in her arms. The boy turned his head to the side as he covered his mask,
"Total baby...” he whispered under his breath. The boy turned toward Chiwa who was subtly trying to pick a fight, at the moment Roy didn’t have any interest in tailing them towards the point as making sure Jojo was alright was the main concern he had though he was sure that a staff member was on the way to assist. He took a seat on the ground before removing his helmet. The boy’s hair was drenched with sweat as he tossed the hunk of armor to the side.
“Making sure that Jojo is alright is my utmost priority,” he said, indirectly answering her question. This was when Roy took off his cape and began unzipping his costume partially revealing his chest and abs. Though it wasn’t all too amazing, it was certainly on its way to be top notch eye candy by the middle of the school year. What was even more eye catching was the sun tattoo on the boys chest which pulsated yellow as the sun made contact with it. When his sun tattoo made direct contact with sunlight his energy was rejuvenated at an even faster rate though little did the others know he was merely just trying to cool off. The boy kicked back on the floor as he felt his solar energy reserves slowly replenish.
“I’m not entirely sure who else is at the other point, we haven’t contacted each other since we split up at the beginning of the exercise,” the guy said as honestly as he could. He wasn’t going to rat his teammates out, he looked at Fumika and Takeshi out of the corner of his eye.
“If you want, I could warm him up with my quirk, Fumika, but if he is comfortable as is I don’t mind saving my energy," the boy said as he closed his eyes and took a short rest.
Fumika nodded, slipping herself gingerly back and away from Takeshi.
”Thank you very much for your help… umm…” What should she call him in this situation? She faltered for a moment, before settling on his surname, not wanting to come off as too annoyingly clingy and personal.
”Kusayanagi-san. I’ll… leave it to you, then.” It was odd. Part of her seemed strangely hesitant to let go, even though it was necessary. The more she thought about it, the more the doubts and fears she’d felt before began slipping back into her mind. She clung to the lingering sensation of warmth and gentle pressure that still remained upon the surface of her particle shell, but that just wasn’t quite the same.
Even so, she couldn’t help but recognize that she herself was getting so cold that there wasn’t much warmth left for her to provide. Besides, time was limited, and it would be faster that way. Time… right. Even despite all that had happened, the exercise was still going on. She was already so tired, but they hadn’t even made it to the objective yet. The objective. She had to complete the objective. It was expected of her. If she gave up now, even if she felt like there was nothing left for her to do but pass out, wouldn’t she just be dragging the rest of the team down? Takeshi would have saved her for nothing. She didn’t want that.
”I… won’t give up.” She murmured, taking a deep breath as she slowly rose to her feet, tugging the top half of her jumper back on and sliding her hands back through the sleeves. Her trembling hands fumbled for a moment with the zipper, which seemed intent at catching and jamming on everything possible, including the hem of her cuff, the cloth flap beside it, and even her own chest. When had she gotten so clumsy? It was strange… her hands weren’t cold enough to justify this kind of shaking. It wasn’t as if she was shivering anymore, so why just her hands? Was she afraid? Then why did her face feel like it was burning? She slapped her palms against her cheeks and shook her head back and forth as if trying to forcibly dislodge both tremors and heat at the same time, then tugged at the hem of her bangs until she felt some level of composure returning to her. The fire was gone. She wasn’t in danger. Everyone was going to be alright. Nobody was going to die. So, there was nothing to worry about except the mission. And for the sake of the mission, she had to continue. One step, then another - even if that was all she could do. A computer worked best when it worked on one problem at a time.
At last, she was calm again, and so spoke her resolve as evenly and clearly as she could, her deep blue eyes giving that blank yet somehow piercing stare forward that they’d lost so recently, even in spite of their heavy lids and the red haze that surrounded them.
”I want to do what I can to help more. So… it’s fine. I won’t be in the way. Promise.”A small curve appeared on Roy's lips after Fumika’s attempt at thanking him. He glanced over at her briefly before chuckling to himself a bit. After everything that had happened was she still keeping honorifics? The boy rose from his comfortable position to respond. Strands of grass coated his back as it stuck to his sweat soaked back. He held a hand up signaling for Fumika to stop.
“No need for honorifics Fumika, after this excursion I think we are close enough as is to drop the surnames,” Roy said as he began tying the sleeves on his costume around his waist so it would keep out of the way. After he placed the sleeves in a knot, the boy rose from his position and made his way over to Takeshi.
“Alright. I am going to superheat the air now, if you don't want to warm up I advise you step back,” he warned the others before clapping his head together as if he was about to pray. The sun tattoo on his chest began glowing a bright yellow before traveling along the rest of his body. His tattoos began pulsating as he released thermal energy into the surrounding air. It felt as if someone had just opened an oven as the temperature rose quickly, almost immediately breaking 100 degrees and rising. Roy closed his eyes as he imagined the energy seeping from his body and into the surrounding air, by then it had risen to 114 degrees and still increasing. The air was so hot it was starting to get tough to breath for those not used to it. He kept it at a nice and toasty 120 degrees and held it there, the boy stood still like a tree.
“Once you have warmed up, just let me know.”Takeshi pulled back only slightly in surprise as she shifted her position so suddenly, he did not feel the scars on her back as he was too focused on the warmth she gave. But when she pressed her head against his chest Takeshi got a little more red in the cheeks. Now that he had warmed up a little the fogginess slowly went away. He was starting to realize the real position he was in. He was grateful for the distraction when Hatori spoke; he glanced at her and said:
“Once I warm up...I will be able to continue. I am just...more affected by the cold than most people..."Sadly, Fumika pulled away at Roy’s second attempt to offer help. Though he did feel bad, she was shivering as well. He had to be honest, he enjoyed that embrace. Pushing that thought to the side though he looked to Roy as he activated his quirk. Soon, the heat around him raised intensely and rather quickly. He simply nodded at Roy’s instructions and closed his eyes while he waited. It didn’t last long as the blue lips turned back to it’s healthy pink. His shivers were gone as well as he felt an instant relief as if all his muscles were tensed for a long time and just relaxed.
“I’m good now…” he said softly as he slowly stood up, tired still from his sudden full use of his own quirk. But that was all that was left over, besides the bloody nose he had earlier.
“Thank you Roy, Your help is appreciated. Perhaps we can help each other? I feel bad with what happened to Jojo, and you helping an enemy as well after the fact. We can clear the point together.” – he looked to Fumika and Hatori –
“If either of you don’t mind.”Hatori eased up slightly at Roy’s response, and in fact more relieved as Roy offered to use his Quirk as she thought he would to help Takeshi get back up. She slowly started moving back when his heat radiated from his glowing tattoos from his body; she assumed that was how he was able to use his solar constructs, though clearly there should be some sort of limit to how much he could use it. The air around them started heating up, greatly contrasting the chilly spring air, though she was far enough that it wasn’t sweltering.
Takeshi’s hypothermia finally subsided and he was returning to his healthy state, and she looked up at Roy.
”Thanks...Roy,” she added after Takeshi, and raised an eye at his proposal for an alliance. She wasn’t sure if there were any rules that allowed two teams to claim victory or ally with each other, though it didn’t feel very fair for Roy if they just decided to leave him be here.
”I guess he can come with us. We’re short a member anyways – he ran off to who knows where. I’m not completely sure who he was, but it sounded like he was here to replace another classmate,” she responded, addressing Roy. Hatori then pulled up her visor and smiled.
”I’m Chiwa Hatori. And it looks like you already know who Takeshi and Fumika are...either way, nice to meet you.”Roy steadily released his energy until Takeshi said he was fine in which the boy opened his eyes. The bright yellow returning to a sea green. He took a deep breath before sitting down on the grassy land one more time, a slight breeze that smelt of burnt plants permeating the air. Takeshi thanked him for the help and then offered a spot on their team in which Roy raised an eye too. It sounded nice but he didn't want to turn his back on his team who were fighting hard at the point as they now speak. Certainly once they got to the auditorium their truce would end.
“I'm alright really, I wouldn't be of much help as I am right now. I-I deserve a little breather, I haven't had proper rest since we've started,” he said, scrambling on his words as if he was Donny. Roy took a deep breath to gather himself.
“Besides, I can't leave Jojo alone like this...” now he was just making excuses. After all he has been through he wasn't going to give up that easily hell no. But there was no way he would beat all 3 of them on his own. He had no choice but to make excuses. A cold sweat rolled down his cheek hoping they would just leave after this.
“You guys should go on ahead. I appreciate the offer but I'll be alright," he said with a smile that covered up his true emotions.
Having successfully bundled herself back up in her costume, Fumika had watched the exchange in relative silence. To be sure, Roy was a nice person, and he was powerful, too… An alliance between them would definitely be more productive than continuing to fight each other when more powerful opponents still awaited them. However, she also had her doubts about such a thing… Obviously, they couldn’t both win, which would just put them at cross purposes. That would mean… she contemplated the prospect of the three of them turning on Roy after working together with him, and immediately discarded it. That sort of action definitely wasn’t the way a hero operated. Haruka, for sure, never would have tolerated such a thing, and so she herself certainly wouldn’t either.
Nevertheless, she felt equally bad about just leaving him here like this… he was hurt at least as badly as she herself was, and also didn’t want to leave his teammate behind - his teammate who had been injured beyond all reason because of them. And even despite that, he had still helped them - had still helped Takeshi - when the chance arose. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t right that she couldn’t repay that kindness.
But no matter how she thought about it, there wasn’t anything she could think of doing. It disgusted her to do so - it was bothersome to rely on other people without providing anything in return, right? - but all she could do was move on and address this problem when it might next arise. But she wanted to leave something, even a simple assurance, to convey that this wasn’t yet ended…
”Then… if you’re alright, we’ll go,” She conceded, still sounding a little unsure - worried, even, but not pressing the point too finely. She’d said her farewells… but she didn’t - no, she couldn’t turn to leave just yet. There was something else that needed to be said.
”But… um… Thank you very much for helping us. And… um… I’m sorry. Having to fight like this, I mean… But… That is, you still helped, and… and I definitely won’t forget that, Roy.” She didn’t know what else there was to say, so she hastily bowed and shuffled back over to her teammates.
As usual, it was hard to find the right way to convey this sort of feeling. She didn’t fully understand what it was she “wanted” to say herself, as “wanting” to say anything was so unusual for her. But… she’d at least said something, right? She just… hoped he would understand. Roy was a nice person, so of course she’d be worried for him, and for his team, after what had just happened. She just wished she could do more than just worry.
@Feyblue@Aerandir@pkken@NoxxHollow
Mangrale
