𝟢𝟦
"I like your hero costume. It's spooky." Yanagi commented quietly as your team gathered in one part of the forest, observing your white flag with a big red B on it.
"Huh?" you glanced down at your costume before awkwardly replying, "Oh, thank you. I like your kimono. It's very pretty." 'Weak 🍑 compliment, y/n.'
"You really think so?
"Yeah."
Tokage and Oshikata watched you and his the awkward goober interact, a little flowery aura surrounding them, 'Adorable.'
The plan was simple. Enough.
Tokage would fragment her body and send it around the forest to keep tabs on Honenuki, Shishida, Kuroiro, and Shiozaki, and to also locate Togata, accompanied by a couple of strong scented bubbles created by Oshikata in order to mask her scent from Shishida.
The opposing team would most definitely be sending Kuroiro over, so Yanagi would be staying with Oshikata and the flag so she could use her Quirk to stop Kuroiro just in case.
As for Monoma. You and him would be handling anyone that managed to remain standing after the little surprise Oshikata had so kindly prepared for them.
"You have to be sure to remember the plan," you warned, standing with Monoma a couple minutes after the sirens blared as a sign that the exercise had begun, "It might take a few extra minutes of getting used to."
Tokage had already set off with a couple of Oshikata's bubbles, a fraction of her mouth lingering to report back to the group.
"Right..." the boy murmured with a small frown, "If this doesn't work, we're definitely going to get wiped out."
"Nah, we'll be fine. If I can at least hold out long enough for you to get to me, there will be nothing to worry about." you replied with a shrug, "If anything happens to you, our entire team will fall apart and we'll definitely have no chance against that Togata guy, so stick with the plan."
Monoma deadpanned, "Hey now, isn't that a bit..." 'What is she yapping about?'
"Focus, Copycat." you interrupted, "Okay?"
"Alright."
As you were continuing to discuss something with Monoma and Yanagi, a dark figure within the shadows of the trees watched you all for a moment longer before ducking back into the darkness.
You spotted it from the corner of your eye, and a sly little smirk made its way onto your face.
"We cast the bait, and it looks like we've got a bite."
The shadow retreated, slipping through the shade of each of the trees before finally reaching the other end of Ground Omega. Shiozaki was there, her vines enveloping the entire space around her team's flag and stretching across the forest.
Shishida had already gone off into the forest to track down Team B by scent, Honenuki accompanying him.
Out of the shadows popped Kuroiro.
"Team B has their flag protected by some kind of bubble. I couldn't see through it, and it looked pretty tough too." the boy told Shiozaki, "It seems like Monoma has some kind of secret weapon tucked up his sleeve. One strong enough to handle Togata-senpai, allegedly."
"Do the others already know about this?" Shiozaki inquired and Kuroiro nodded, "Very well. I'll remain here and ensure that the opposing team will be unable to take our flag."
Kuroiro nodded, "Right. I'll try to learn a bit more, so please keep everyone away from here for- what is that?"
The two of them paused, watching as a flurry of bubbles slowly approached the two of them.
Kuroiro sniffed then scrunched up his nose, "Eugh... who the hell decided to burn 💩 out here? It feels it like my nose is burning...!"
Back at Team B, the fraction of Tokage's mouth spoke, "Light 'em up, Oshikata-senpai!"
The bubbles hovering around Shiozaki and Kuroiro sparkled before exploding, setting off chain explosions that uprooted trees, shattered the earth, and sent both Shiozaki and Kuroiro flying.
Kuroiro hurriedly ducked into the shadows for shelter but Shiozaki wasn't as lucky, the explosions blasting right through her vine defenses and inevitably striking her.
It was a while before the explosions ceased, and Kuroiro peeked out of the shadows to find one of Tokage's eyes scanning the area. Part of her mouth pieced itself together, forming a grin.
"Shiozaki is out of commission. If I restrain her now, three out of five will be taken care of!" Tokage chimed.
'It's too dangerous to approach her now.' Kuroiro thought as the girl's body pieced itself together enough to form two hands as she cuffed the unconscious Shiozaki, 'But... what happened to Shishida and Honenuki? She said three out of five, were they already caught?'
As Kuroiro retreated to go investigate, Tokage watched him go with a smirk before the fraction of her mouth back by Oshikata hummed, "Kuroiro is headed towards Shishida and Honenuki. Be ready to light up the second cluster of bubbles."
"Right." Oshikata murmured before glancing at you, "Maruyama-chan, are you ready? Or do you need more time?"
"Nope, I'll head over now." you confirmed before glancing at Monoma, "Everything in order?"
"Timers have been set, I've still got just under ten minutes before I lose access to Yanagi's quirk." Monoma replied, "Don't get completely destroyed, okay?"
"Sure. I'll go on ahead." you kept it at that as you rushed off into the forest to go find Shishida and Honenuki.
You simply followed the path of bubbles, slowing to a halt and hiding behind a tree the moment you caught a whiff of whatever nice 🍑 cologne Shishida wore. There Honenuki and Shishida were, looking at the bubbles which surrounded them with wary looks.
"Bubbles?" Honenuki wondered aloud.
Shishida sniffed one before cringing away, "They're probably meant to mask the other team's scent. The scent these things are emitting is strong, and not very pleasant either."
"Oh yeah, I kinda smell it too now." Honenuki murmured before lifting a hand to swat the bubbles away, "Let's just get rid of 'em."
"Honenuki! Don't touch those bubbles!" Kuroiro shouted as he emerged from the shadows, "They'll explode!"
Honenuki paused, flinching away, "Seriously?!"
"A ton of them appeared by our flag and exploded as soon as they got close enough." Kuroiro explained, "Tokage probably has our flag now, so we should do our best to make sure she doesn't take it back to her team."
"She got the flag?!"
"Already?"
You frowned as a fraction of Tokage's mouth and eye floated over to you with a quiet, "Maru-chan, I'm in serious trouble...!"
"Don't call me that-!" you began in an angry tone, before quieting down a bit, "What do you mean?"
"Togata-senpai already got me!" Tokage whispered frantically, "I think he's heading your way!"
"Seriously?" you demanded, your heart actually stopping for a second, "Damn it, whatever. Tell Oshikata-senpai to set off the the bubbles."
"What? But you'll get caught up in the blast!"
"I'll be fine!"
"Whatcha talkin' about?"
You and Tokage froze before looking down to a face which was peeking out of the ground. Blue oval-shaped eyes stared up at the two of you and the face grinned.
"Tokage. Do it."
"But-!"
"DO IT!" you snapped before the face turned into a full goddamn person, the dude emerging from the ground out of nowhere and striking you right in the chin.
"💩!" Tokage's mouth and eye zoomed away into the forest, shouting one last, "Fine, I'm sorry!"
'Don't apologize.' you thought, as you recovered, staggering back as your eyes locked in on the one who popped you in the chin, 'I volunteered,'I'll shoulder the consequences.'
The bubbles sparkled once more, and a chain of violent explosions were set off all at once. Shishida dove for cover but you were quicker, grabbing a fistful of his fur *since he was lacking a shirt* and backing yourself up against a tree to use him as a human meat shield.
Ow, that had to hurt- you felt bad. But at least he was stunned enough for you to swiftly handcuff him.
Kuroiro had taken cover and was long gone by the time the explosions stopped, leaving you with Honenuki and potentially that Third Year. Wherever he was- oh. You spotted Honeyuki sinking into the softened earth. You rushed at him, managing to slam your fist into his helmet but ultimately failed at stopping him.
"Damn. I caught Shishida, but the other two are headed for the flag." you called to the part of Tokage still nearby, "Let the bubble boy know, then piece yourself back together so you won't have to regenerate."
"No, I want to help more. It sucks that I got captured so quickly, and I've got around two more minutes before I'll be unable to report back to you and Oshikata-senpai, so let me help you out some more!" Tokage insisted while you rolled your eyes. "Stubborn 🍑."
"Woah! You're making full use of Oshikata's Quirk, arentcha?" that same boy from before chimed as he popped out of the ground with a little smile, "You've already managed to capture Shishida and Shiozaki too! Impressive!"
One look at him and your face was on fire as you hastily covered your eyes and turned your face away, "COME ON, MAN, WHERE ARE YOUR CLOTHES?!"
"Ah- sorry, my bad. That happens from time to time." the boy apologized, his tone all upbeat and 💩 while you were trying to mentally bleach your brain.
"Urgh... as uncomfy as it is, I'm not risking taking my eyes off you." you grumbled as you focused on his face and his face alone. 'It's always the blonds that are crazy...'
━°⌜ ゴゴゴゴ ⌟°━
Back by the flag, Tokage's other mouth was reporting back to Team B, "Maru-chan is facing off against Togata-senpai, while Kuroiro and Honenuki are headed this way."
"Huh. So Maruyama did have it all figured out." Monoma mumbled as he recalled all the yapping you had done during your little planning phase, "We'll handle Honenuki first, then capture Kuroiro so I can copy his quirk. I'll head over to assist Maruyama afterwards."
"Please hurry!" Tokage pleaded before pausing, "Oh! Here Honenuki and Kuroiro come!"
Right on cue, out of the woods came the man himself.
Not Kuroiro, just Honenuki.
"Three people? Seriously?" Honeyuki murmured, "No worries, I can work with this..."
"Don't worry about having to take three of us on at once, you're Yanagi and Oshikata-senpai's last concern!" Monoma replied with a little grin, "I know I'm not much, but you'll have to face little 'ol me instead."
'I don't like this... Monoma's quirk let's him copy other quirks, right? He doubt he'd copy Tokage's, even if he used Maruyama's I probably wouldn't be able to tell, and I doubt he has been using Oshikata-senpai's . That narrows it down to Yanagi's.' Honenuki thought as he glanced up at Team B's flag safely kept within a bubble dome, 'I don't like this...' he pressed a hand against the ground, the earth beginning to soften, 'I should back off and wait for Togata-senpai.'
"Oh no you don't!" Tokage shouted as her foot reassembled itself, flying through the air rapidly and smacking Honenuki in the side of the face, "Yanagi, keep him still!"
Yanagi was already on it, Honenuki being surrounded with a pink aura while one of Oshikata's bubbles kind of swallowed him whole and floated on up above the bubble dome where the flag was chilling.
It was only after he was high up in the air that Yanagi let out a breath of relief and deactivated her quirk. Easy enough, things hadn't taken a bad turn.
"Oshikata-senpai! There's Kuroiro!" Yanagi warned as the boy popped out of the shade of the trees, making a mad dash for the bubble dome around the flag.
"On it!" the third year exclaimed before the bubble dome closed in on itself until it only surrounded the flag, lifting it into the air until the bubble was out of Kuroiro's reach.
"Damn..!" the boy cursed, attempting to duck back into the shadows only for a light pink aura to surround him as Yanagi used her quirk on him, 'Damn it, I got too desperate!'
Too desperate indeed.
Kuroiro was restrained and placed in one of Oshikata's bubbles which floated up to join the one Honenuki had been trapped in. Monoma set to head off and help you, but not before he tapped Kuroiro with a cheeky little, "I'll be taking that Quirk of yours, thank you very much!"
"Hurry up, damn it, Maruyama is getting her 🍑 beat!" Tokage shouted at Monoma, "You don't have time to waste rubbing our win in their faces, especially when we haven't even won yet!!!"
Monoma heaved a sigh, "Fine, fine, I'm on it."
As he turned away his little cheeky look disappeared as a grimace appeared on his face, 'We've gotten this far. Can't screw it up for them now.'
Yeah, if he didn't wanna screw up, he needed to get there quicker. You could take a punch, and Togata realized that, so he switched up on his goal.
You were able to keep track of him while he was above ground, even with how fast he was, but it got a little tricky when he phased through stuff.
'Fast.' you thought as you darted out of the way to avoid having those handcuffs slapped on your wrists, Togata immediately disappearing into the ground following his failed attempt to restrain you.
'Really fast.' you thought as you lunged through Togata's intangible body to avoid his next attempt at capturing you only for the dude to become tangible again and send you flying right into a tree.
Your vision spun as you forced yourself to stumble right back up and keep moving, 'I should get a helmet or something. Just to be safe...'
Despite getting whacked around, you had learned quite a bit during your little game of "don't get caught" with Togata. For instance, when he deactivated his quirk while any part of you was phased through him, you were sent flying away.
It hurt so, so much. Honestly, the entire situation had you rethinking your costume design.
He also didn't seem capable of knowing if you had moved when he was phasing through the ground. You tried taking cover in a tree right as he went underground and watching him look all perplexed when he came back up.
He was also very capable of being surprised, as you did manage to hit him once after swapping locations while he was underground, predicting where he'd come up, and smacking him on the back of his neck just for funsies.
You regretted not punching him, HE CRACKED YOUR DAMN RIB. You weren't even overreacting this time, you were certain he'd cracked a rib!
You relayed this information to Tokage, and could only hope that she managed to get the info to Monoma after a hit to the nose that almost hurt took the fight a little further away.
'Why do I even bother?' you wondered as you hid behind a tree for a moment of peace, 'Bah, weakness, right.'
"Your name is Maruyama Y/n, right?" Togata chimed as he popped out of the ground again, "Come to think of it, that name is familiar! I've seen you somewhere before!"
You didn't get to answer, as you were immediately punched in the gut. It hurt, practically knocking the air out of you, and you wanted to just skedaddle. Still, you couldn't waste this perfect opportunity!
Most of the other times you tried landing some punches of your own, your fist would phase right through Togata while he'd remain on solid ground no problem.
'Foot.' your eyes lit up, 'Crush his foot!'
Wait- no-
Before you could think twice, you stamped down on the older boy's foot with all your might. It was nothing impressive, but you couldn't exactly aim for his balls for numerous reasons.
The third year jolted and was suddenly falling back under the ground, so you took a gamble and aimed to knee him in the nose. It worked, and you were able to gut check him too just for good measure.
'Monoma!' you thought, gaze moving to the shadows in the tree line as Togata sunk back into the ground before popping up again a distance away. Right where she wanted him.
Monoma emerged from the ground, a light pink aura surrounding the third year to keep him still right before he slapped the handcuffs on the young man.
Togata, after literally having his foot broken, was rattled enough for Monoma to slap some cuffs on him before he could notice him.
There was that familiar loud blaring noise, followed by Snipe voice, "All of Team D has been captured! Team B wins!"
You grinned, 'Nice!' you felt something warm and wet on your arms beneath your costume, but you didn't need to look to realize what it was.
"Ah 💩..." you mumbled.
Let's be for real, your team should've lost. But your monthly dose of luck had been used up to ensure victory.
You ended up retreating to Recovery Girl's office to have your cuts properly treated, though there was no luck in getting them to heal completely.
That, and because you wanted to apologize to Togata.
For breaking his foot. It was completely unintentional!
After your cuts ceased their incessant bleeding and your arms were wrapped up nice and snug, you requested to know about the third year's condition when it was time for you to leave.
"I kinda crushed his foot, so..."
"He's alright dearie. His foot is all healed up now, and he returned to class right after I healed him up. He should be heading off to hero training about now, so you might be able to catch him if you hurry."
You left the office in a hurry looking around in search of Togata and found no sign of him. You had to get back to class, so not much more time could be spent searching. You'd have to apologize later.
"Damn..." you mumbled, "I didn't get to apologize."
"YO! TEAM B FRESHIE!!!"
You flinched and whirled around, eyes widening at the sight of Saihara rapidly approaching. The older boy skidded to a halt in front of you with a cheerful, "Whew, glad I found ya! I've got like- two things to say, so I won't hold you up for long!"
"Oh, well, okay..." you murmured with a slow blink, 'Ah. He's the one who beat down Kaibara.'
"First of all, I'm real impressed by your team's performance during the second match! Especially you! It's not every day I meet a freshie who can take hits like that from Togata-kun and still keep moving!" Saihara exclaimed, golden eyes glimmering, "Second thing, you know where Kaibara-kun is?"
"Kaibara?" you shook her head, "Well, no."
"Let him know that I'm lookin' for him! He's got a ton of work ahead of him, and if he's available, I want him to come train with me sometime!" Saihara chimed, "I see great potential in him, and I wanna help him train up! You too, if you don't mind coming!"
"Err, well, I'll relay the message to him."
Saihara gave you a violent slap on the shoulder with a luminous grin as you choked a bit, "Thanks, Maruyama-chan! See you around!"
As the third year pranced away, you rubbed the back of your neck before heaving a sigh, "Coast is clear."
You turned her head, and there Kaibara was. He was peeking out of an empty classroom, face decorated with bandages and bandaids, courtesy of Saihara's smack down during their match, and one of his arms was even in a cast.
"Running from from the psycho third year?" you inquired as the dark haired boy emerged from the class with a sigh, walking over to join you.
"Yeah. He's been chasing me around ever since class ended." Kaibara grumbled, "Recovery Girl couldn't heal anything aside from my broken shoulder since I was so exhausted, and even that didn't fully heal, so I've gotta go back tomorrow."
"Err, well, he seems to have really taken a liking to you. He even offered to train you." you pointed out, "That's a good thing, right?"
Kaibara's expression was absolutely mortified.
"He did this to me during a training exercise."
"...you've got a point."
The boy regarded you for a long moment before inquiring, "Worried about Togata-senpai?"
"No." you grimaced a bit, "Kinda."
"Don't worry about him. I saw him earlier and he looked fine to me." Kaibara assured you as you began walking together, headed back to the classroom.
"I know, but still! I broke his foot!" you pointed out, 'Sure, I've broken other peoples' feet and much more but this is way different! I'm gonna be in so much trouble!'
"Saihara-senpai broke my arm." your dark haired classmate replied with a shrug, "Consider Togata-senpai's broken foot as payment for my broken arm."
'He's really ticked off about that, huh?' you thought in amusement before glancing down at the cast. You saw different signatures there. One from Tsuburaba, one from Awase, one from Tokage, one from Komori. Even one from Saihara, though it looked like there was a bit of a struggle...
Your hand twitched a little before your balled it up into a fist, 'Maybe it's best that I don't right now...'
"Want to sign it as well?"
You looked up in alarm when you realized you'd been caught staring, "I- er.. well, I'm not, if- uh..."
You'd never been asked to sign a cast before.
Usually you were the reason for the cast.
Kaibara exhaled through his nose, smiling a little as he offered a pen to you, patiently waiting as you stared at it before mumbling a small, "Thanks."
You both stopped, Kaibara staying still as you leaned over a bit to carefully write on Kaibara's cast.
"By the way, Maruyama-chan, are you planning to..."
"To...?"
"The going out to eat thing. With Awase, Tsuburaba, and Tokage." Kaibara elaborated, "Is it still a plan?"
You opened your mouth, then closed it again before letting out a small tsk as you continued walking.
"...I'll think about it." 'You win this time, Tokage.'
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