Capítulo 27: Trial of Fools: Ch 6
New Chapter, new stuff- was gonna wait 'till the weekend to post, because that's when I get better traffic, but then I remembered most people in MHA's age range (Middle school-College) are on spring break.
So here!
-Rain of Sins-
-Trial of Fools: Ch 6-
"Log. New entry. Title: Project Entropy. Subtitle: Today's date."
Izuku waited a moment as the super computer that was his desk opened the appropriate software, and audio recording materials. His logs had been rapidly replacing his previous obsession of notebooks ever since he got his new base of operations. Whereas with notebooks, he would be completely preoccupied with writing for hours on end. Logs allowed him to record everything audibly while his hands were busy with other experiments.
He didn't have to dig through piles of papers to find that one thing he was looking for anymore, it was all easily accessible through a couple of button pushes. Furthermore, the audio was compressed and translated into written word by a simple AI which would also scan over the content of the log, and link it to the appropriate information, data, and charts for the topic.
Overall much, much more efficient.
"Development and trial of Prototype A7 have concluded, and while there are several unforeseen effects, the overwhelming majority of the performance was exactly as predicted. Emitter quirks suffer an average 84.24% reduction in their output, and while Transformation quirks are less susceptible, they are still heavily impacted, with the average reduction output hovering around 57.82%
"Notable side effects include fatigue, dizziness, lowered heart rate, lowered metabolism, and laborious breathing. Despite these I am classifying the project as a success, as even if they are not the specified goal, they are beneficial in combat and even can hinder mutant types- which were previously unaffected by Entropy.
"Entropy Prototype A7, will from now on be referred to as Entropy A7.
"Further development of project Entropy will take place in the future, however the current version is sufficient for now, and I will be moving on to projects Kronos and Rapture. Unfortunately project Kronos is suffering due to a lack of suitable quirks to act as testing materials, something Ujiko has promised to remedy in the coming days. Until then I will be focusing mainly on Project Rapture. End log. Computer, please bring up the relevant documents for project Rapture."
The room seemed to humm for a moment before a holographic screen flickered into view, hanging in the air above the main terminal.
On the screen were the many details of the nomu creation process, as well as the recent data detailing Izuku's cloning and genetic manipulation experiments.
Taking up most of the screen however, were blueprints of a horrifying bioengineered creature, something that was almost against the laws of nature. Unnaturally tall, somewhat serpentine in nature, with long hanging limbs, large black wings, and the face… of a skull.
"Let's get started shall we?"
-Rain of Sins-
Dr. Kyudai Garaki sighed as he adjusted his slightly ill-fitting glasses, and walked through the well lit halls of Jaku General Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in japan, 9th in fact.
However, due to some sort of ill-fated cosmic irony, his poor hospital always seemed to come in ranked 11th every year in throughput of patients. Out of the top 10, and thus, always just out of the spotlight that would put the hospital on the map internationally.
"Sir!"
Garaki grumbled to himself as he turned to address one of his doctors' assistants. "What is it, boy?"
The boy, who couldn't be any older than 16, had brown hair and a freckled face, and quickly backed off at Garaki's sharp tone.
"W-Well, I-I didn't m-mean to disturb y-you s-sir, i-it's jus-"
"Spit it out boy!"
"Y-YOUR PAPER SIR!" The kid yelped. "In your recent paper you said you may have found a cure for cancer!" His eyes fell to the floor and he rocked back and forth on his feet. "M-My mother has been sick for a long time now, so… d-did you really?"
Garaki scoffed. "Unlike some of my fellow 'Scientists' who lie to get on interviews I don't care about, I actually mean what I say! So of course I have." His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Or are you calling me a liar?"
"N-No sir!"
The doctor just sighed.
"Hyaluronan," He drawled, "Is a thick sugar-like substance present in the spaces between cells. Even when cells mutate, hyaluronan can prevent them from further division. Humans produce hyaluronan naturally, but our hyaluronan is different from what we usually make in a lab. It's weaker, worse, a shorter chemical chain."
The boy gave him a look, but Garaki continued.
"I have a patient I'm taking care of, can't say much, confidentiality and all that, but they had serious cancer- a terrible case. Until, they unlocked a dormant quirk, a mole type transformation quirk. Moles, if you didn't know, have a stronger hyaluronan strand than us, and when he was transformed, the cancer was unable to spread."
He looked back to the kid, who was staring at him in awe, and smirked.
"Does that answer your question?"
"Yeah…" The kid looked up to him with pure amazement on his face, hope shining in his eyes. "Th-Thank you sir."
"Well then, scram!" Garaki laughed as he walked away, coat flowing behind him. "You're distracting me from my science!"
Y-Yes sir!" The boy gave a mock salute and hurried away, a wide grin on his face.
Garaki chuckled and shook his head, muttering something under his breath before opening the door to his office, and locking it behind him.
Alone in his office, where no one would disturb him, and no one could enter unexpectedly, Garaki smirked to himself before raising his hands and giving two loud claps.
One second passed.
Two.
On the third he wondered if he needed to clap again.
But on the fourth, Garaki nearly doubled over as dark gray sand bubbled from his mouth, and slowly wrapped around him.
Five seconds.
He couldn't breathe.
Six.
Seven. He should really look into a better version of this…
Eight.
Nine.
And then, finally, on the tenth second, the sand subsided and spat him out in a dimly lit room.
The doctor coughed, and hacked up the remaining sand. "Good boy Johnny, goo- * Cough* boy."
"Glrawla!" The small four legged nomu next to him let out a happy sound before scurrying away.
Dr. Daruma Ujiko sighed as he removed his glasses in favor of his much more comfortable gear goggles, and began his trek through the poorly lit halls of Jaku Hospital's underbelly- The man who had been ridiculed for his Quirk singularity theory, shunned by a society who had just recovered from the original quirk disaster and didn't want to be told of another one in the far future, and was driven to public suicide over a hundred years ago.
Well… at least officially.
The supposedly dead man hummed to himself as he adjusted his goggles so that he could see clearly in the poorly lit corridor. They were a rather brilliant piece of tiny technology that he'd managed to cram so much into, adding anything else would require going to nano-tech to keep the same size.
With a yawn, he swiped his badge to the side, and a door, previously invisible thanks to the low light, slid upwards.
Inside was only a single table, surrounded by countless terminals and screens, recording as much data as possible.
On the table, was a cripplingly ill looking nomu, covered in large tumors that physically bulged from its body. But strangely, all the bulges had laceration scars over them, and the sin had signs of forced stretching, almost as if they had been cut open, and physically inserted into the body…
"Hello again Mr Sho." Ujiko pulled up a rolling chair and sat down at the operating table. "Are you ready to contribute to science again?"
The mole like nomu only let out a garbled noise of pain in response.
"I'll take that as a yes!"
True science knew no bounds, and for that, it was truly a wonderful thing!
-Rain of Sins-
" Let's split up ." Aoyama grumbled to himself, his voice mocking that of someone. " We're running out of time and I can cover more ground on my own! Yeah, great idea Ida, but now we're split up like a mishmash of a horror movie and something out of fricking Scooby Doo!"
Mineta gave him a pitying look. "You, uh, you good dude?"
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine." The knight glanced back at Tsu and Mineta, and tried to hide his grimace. Him, Mineta, and Tsu, a grand total of half the original invasion force that had managed to make it this far down with him, and only a fraction of their original group's firepower
Ibara was up top. No one had seen any sign of Todoroki since that frozen hallway they found up on floor one, so he was probably caught by some surprise trap. Jiro was out. And Ida was God knows where!
Splitting up and getting picked off one at a time, it was literally something out of a shitty horror flick, how hadn't they seen this coming?
"Don't worry, ribbit." Tsu, noticing his bad mood, scooted closer. "We're almost to the end, and while we can't really match Bakugo in combat, we all have more mobility than any of the defenders- and when all we have to do is get around them to touch the objective, we have a lot better odds than you're probably thinking."
"Yeah, we got this" Mineta bounced.
"You're right, you're right. Thanks guys." Aoyama forced a smile onto his face despite the growing sense of dread. "Let's go show them what we're made of."
And with that final note of fake enthusiasm, he led them down the stairs to floor 4, the bottom of the base.
… or at least, he would have , if the first step of the decoy dead-end stairs didn't let out an audible click exactly like the last two pressure plates they'd stepped on before.
"Oh, son of a-!"
BOOM
-Rain of Sins-
Nezu let out a tired sigh as he finished the last of the paperwork that finalized UA not needing government assistance in the aftermath of the USJ.
Oh how he wished the USJ hadn't happened, or for it to even have been just a little less bad. For the students to not have been injured, and All Might to not have been scarred. Anything that would have made it not drawn the attention of the HPSC's higher ups.
From an outsider's point of view, turning down help didn't really make much sense, and if something did go wrong again people would question why he hadn't accepted the help. It was free, wouldn't cost UA anything, and rejecting it made him look arrogant to some.
The HPSC just wanted to help, after all, it's what their job was, what they were supposed to do.
…
But he wasn't dealing with what the HPSC was supposed to be.
He was dealing with the people who had practically kidnapped Hawks as a child and tried to brainwash him into becoming a "perfect Hero".
The people who made Lady Nagant a killer, an assassin, and then pushed her so far she snapped and turned on them.
The people who had pushed well beyond what they were supposed to be, what they were supposed to do. So much so that people had started just calling them the Public Safety Commission- after all, why should they be called the H PSC if so little of their work pertains just to Heroes anymore?
His priority was keeping his students and his school safe, the HPSC's priority was keeping society at large safe.
…Those things didn't always line up.
-Rain of Sins-
"Nezu has made it very clear that he won't be accepting any assistance, and has made it even more so that he doesn't want us anywhere near his festival." Dixie drummed his fingers on his desk, and turned to his assistants, his right woman and hand left hand man.
His "real" assistants were off filing paperwork. They, along with a sizable minority of his staff, had been assigned to him by the Vice President. His two bodyguards, however, were people he was allowed to directly hire himself, without the VP's oversight.
Which made them infinitely more valuable.
"Doesn't sound that big of a deal to me sir," Tanya, a young woman with short brown hair said, "Just sneak some guys in regardless. Nezu can't be mad about something he doesn't know."
"We don't even have to do that." Weiss, an older German man with gray hair, stepped forward. "Have Hawks volunteer for security to Nezu, he's not legally affiliated with us in any way, and even if Nezu knows he won't be able to turn him down without looking like a fool."
"The President has already thought of that, and contacted Hawks with instructions this morning, however I think Hawk's is a bit too useful for this situation…" Dixie reached to the underside of his desk, and popped the bottom off of it, exposing a secret compartment. "How unfortunate it is that a situation will suddenly develop next week, and Kinoshita will be forced to call Hawks back to deal with it, leaving him too preoccupied to work security for the festival."
He pulled a manilla envelope from the drawer and slid it to Weiss, before turning his attention to Tanya.
"Nezu's a lot more crafty than you give him credit for, any large operation will be sure to catch his attention. Therefore it won't be a large operation, you're to lead a small team, no more than four people. Your mission is to give me eyes and ears on everything in there, not to take any action."
Dixie slowly drifted to the side in his chair, so that he was facing the black side wall, staring off into space in thought.
"Nezu's made it very clear he doesn't want our 'help', so he won't get it. He wants to try to handle what's ahead without even knowing what it is, and I'm more than willing to let him fail."
That drew odd looks from his companions.
"You know what's going to happen?" Weiss asked, more of an accusation than a question.
"I know something is going to happen, but not what or by who . That's the problem with bread crumbs, they can lead you in the right direction, but they fail to truly substitute for a map."
"Then shouldn't we do something?"
Dixie sighed and drummed his fingers on his chair as he turned back to look at Weiss.
"Sometimes…" He drawled. "You've gotta sacrifice the Rook to promote your pawn to a Queen."
-Rain of Sins-
Gentle Criminal quietly sipped his tea, occasionally stroking his elegant mustache in contemplation as he read through the 6 comments on his most recent video.
Of them, two were a Chinese bot, one was someone asking to do a "La Brava reveal", another was someone advertising their Roblux channel, and the last two were very obviously from La Brava's alt accounts.
He went ahead and liked both of La Brava's comments because he knew it'd make her happy, and was about to reply to "xX_End3r-I(YE)ce_Xx"s comment, asking how Roblux could possibly be more interesting than his dastardly deeds, when the door to his study burst open.
"Gentle!" La Brava smiled like she'd just won the lottery, despite panting heavily from how fast she'd run to get there. "I've found it!" She squealed and ran towards him. "I've found what will take your career to the next level!"
"Oh?" Gentle closed the laptop, his video and xX_End3r-I(YE)ce_Xx completely forgotten. He didn't want to get his hopes up too much- this was the fourth time she'd said this, after all. But those had been his most successful videos to date, and La Brava always put so much work into finding these leads, it would be so rude to not give her the proper attention.
"It's the UA sports festival! It's still happening!" The 22 year old loli bounced excitedly, not acting her age at all.
"The festival? I thought they'd canceled it after the tragedy at the USJ." And it was a tragedy, two Heroes put into critical condition, an entire class of children- children , beaten bloody and nearly killed! The fiends behind that were well and truly Villains, they didn't have the honor to be criminals.
"That's what the HPSC said, but I got into UA's systems and it looks like it's still underway, and will be taking place next week! They're planning to announce it on Friday!"
"But what does the festival have to do with us? I have no interests in harming children…"
"It's not that! They've ramped up security through the roof! Literally! Hawks volunteered for security this morning, and countless other high ranking Heroes have too!" She grabbed his hand and looked up at him, her eyes glinting with pure excitement. "With my hacking and your speed, we can get in without being noticed! Then if we photo bomb the awards ceremony-"
"All of Japan will be watching as we make it past the best in the country! La Brava you're brilliant!" Gentle jumped to his feet as the scene played out in his mind's eye- Him and La Brava's faces forcing their way onto every screen in every house of Japan, with blinding smiles.
This was his chance! No. This was their chance to etch themselves into the history books! To keep themselves from being forgotten!
"La Brava, hear me now!" Gentle clenched his fist, determination burning in his eyes. "This will be our great success! This will be our turning point! I swear on my prized mustache, WE SHALL NOT FAIL!"
"Oh Gentle!" She swooned, tears in her eyes.
And he wouldn't, La Brava had put her faith in him countless times, and had worked hard to give him this opportunity.
He would NOT let it go to waste!
-Rain of Sins-
"Hey, Round Face!"
Ochako "Eep!"ed, and was startled out of her trance of staring at a rock in melancholy, by Bakugo's bark.
"The cameras say that four eyes is getting too close for comfort, he's somehow managed to loop all the fucking way around and is approaching what was supposed to be our emergency exit to the Third floor, which would put him a rock's throw away from us."
"O-Oh!" Ochako dusted herself off, stood up, and gave a salute-smile combo, happy to finally have something to help with. "What's the plan?"
"Momo's dealing with the ice cube, and cabbage head chickened out- if you can distract Mr Perfect, I won't have any problems with the remaining three stooges."
"I, uh, well…"
"Don't tell me you can't even deal with motor-butt."
"Oh n-no! I can do it! Don't worry!"
"Good." Bakugo sighed and waved her off as he began tracking back towards the camera room. "Cuz' I've gotta stay here and defend the objective."
"Oh… Oh, ok." She deflated, but forced her smile to remain. "G-Good luck…"
Bakugo responded with a lazy wave over his shoulder.
And so Ochako wandered off, telling herself that she was finally actually helping, but her mind traitorously whispered Bakugo's words over and over to her, reminding her of what she really was on this team…
A Distraction.
-Rain of Sins-
Aoyama watched as Bakugo sent Ochako off, before ducking back behind the corner to converse with his teammates.
"Alright, I have good news and bad news." He whisper-spoke to them. "Good news: Bakugo just sent Ochako off for some reason, and Momo's nowhere to be seen, so we only need to deal with Bakugo." He gave them a moment to process that, before continuing. "Bad news: we still actually have to deal with Bakugo."
"Where's Ochako going?" Tsu asked, tilting her head.
"No idea, but they probably don't know where we are yet-"
"Dude, we just fell through the ceiling not two minutes ago, we don't even know where we are yet."
"But-" He continued, ignoring Mineta. "I think we can turn this to our advantage! Does anyone have any ideas on how to defuse a living warhead? I have three, but Momo's not here which leaves me with two, and I have no confidence in either of them."
"Well…" Minetea trailed off and scratched his neck. "I wouldn't say I have a good plan, but it's probably the best chance we'll have to beat Bakugo."
-Rain of Sins-
Momo ran.
Well, that wasn't technically true. Running meant using your legs, and she was on a beefed up electric scooter- she would have used a motorcycle, but the underground hallways were too narrow, and the turns too sharp. So, correction:
Momo scootered. She scootered very hard, and as fast as her electric engine could possibly take her.
Todoroki was clearly pissed, at what she wasn't entirely sure. He'd just been angry since she first caught sight of him on her cameras, but she really did wish she knew, because even if it wouldn't actually help her, him being enraged was making her job a lot harder!
"Stop running and FIGHT ME!" Shoto slid around a corner, light frost covering his body, and fire burning in his eyes. With a roar he flung his arm forward, tracing it along the ground, and causing a large glacier to spear towards her, the size limited only by the fear of collapsing the entire building.
Momo leaned to the side, causing her vehicle to sharply swerve right as she flipped the engine to overdrive at the risk of burning it out, but even then she only managed to dodge by the breath of a hair because of the extra kick off she gave as a boost.
"C-Crap! That was too close!" Her teeth chattered as she drove off, her scooter barely managing to keep from slipping, even with all the tiny spikes she'd added on the wheels.
As Shoto cursed, and used his ice to propel himself after her once again, Momo contemplated how she'd gotten into this situation.
She had no confidence in herself to beat Todoroki in a fight, even in peak condition- which she certainly wasn't in right now, tired and drained from spending so many lipids to create all the traps.
It was just a bad matchup for her, it took time and mental concentration to create things, but Shoto could just flash freeze her in the grand span of half a second, well before she'd even be able to think of what to make, let alone even start the process.
No, she'd be well and truly out of her depth. Or as Bakugo would elegantly put it- " You're fucked. "
So instead she'd developed a two step strategy that would ensure, even if she couldn't beat him, her team could still win.
Objective one was the most simple, and if she could just hold out a little longer…
Momo dodged another ice spike as she swerved around one last corner, and entered into a large open room, mostly empty except for a large stairway that led up to the collapsed main entrance for the subway station.
Shoto growled as he followed her around the corner, frost adorning his breath with every great heave. He glanced around the room and his frown turned into an icy smirk as he crept forward.
"It's over, you ran into a dead end. Give up or I freeze you." He paused, only ten or so feet away from her now. "You're trapped."
Momo couldn't help it, she really couldn't, maybe she'd been hanging out with Bakugo too much, because as soon as Todoroki said those words, she broke out laughing.
He visibly paused and gave her a concerned look. "Are.. are you ok?"
"Nope!" She chirped.
"...You're not ok?"
"What? No, no, I'm fine! I was responding to the trapped comment! I'm not trapped-" She grinned wildly as she flipped open the end cap of her scooter's handlebar, revealing a red button. "YOU are!"
Shoto's eyes widened in panic as he turned around, but it was already too late. The support beams on either side of the hallway that they'd just come through exploded, and the entryway collapsed in on itself, and with it went the only exit to the room. The only way to get back to the objective, without Cementos to get them out- something that'd only happen after the game ended.
Shoto slowly turned back around, eyes glaring at her with nothing but menace. " That was a very stupid idea."
'Yeah…' She had to agree with him, it kind of was.
Objective two: Survive.
-Rain of Sins-
"Ha! Is that all you've got!?" Bakugo laughed as he snagged a flying Mineta by the leg before he could bounce past him, and hurled him at Tsu, the impact sending them both tumbling to the ground.
"You thought you could just run by me? That'd be hilarious if it wasn't so fucking insulting!!"
Bakugo propelled himself forward with an explosion, flinging himself towards Aoyama with a mad grin. To his credit, the knight held himself together, stamping down his fear to aim and fire off the largest beam he could.
Bakugo just grinned wider at the challenge. He blasted above himself, sending him to the ground where he used his momentum to slide under the beam, his metal knee caps sparking as they scraped across the concrete.
Aoyama's mouth briefly opened in surprise before it was forcefully closed by a brutal uppercut that sent him airborne.
"Come on! Where's the challenge!?"
Katsuki stepped to the side, allowing Tsu to fly past him harmlessly, before kicking up his knee and nailing her in the diaphragm. Tsu let out a gwak as the air was forced from her lungs, and Bakugo used the moment she was stunned, to grab her by the straps of her suit and spin her briefly before hurling her at the still falling Aoyama.
"Either toughen up, and put up a real fight-" Bakugo grinned ferally and brought his hands together. "Or shut up and DIE!"
BOOM
The explosion threw the two Heroes in training across the room and into the concrete wall.
"Now stay down or I'll fucking make you!" Bakugo scowled before spinning around, dodging a purple orb, and punting a mid-jump Mineta like a football. "And that goes for you too!"
"Nah, no way dude." Mineta coughed as he dragged himself to his feet. "A week or two ago, if you were a chick, I might have gotten on my knees for ya, but I swore all that off. So you'll have to fight me for real now." The grape raised his fists in a poor boxing form, and forced a shaky smile. "Or are you not man enough?"
"Big words balloon head." Bakugo scowled as he stalked forward, explosions popping off in his hands. "You better be able to back them up, or you're fucking DEAD! "
But just as Bakugo lunged, Mineta hopped back, onto one of his balls that had been hidden behind him, and shot upwards.
But instead of just crashing into the ceiling, he landed on another ball, which bounced him off to words a wall, which had another ball on it, which bounced him to another, and then another, and another, and another!
Faster, faster!
He was everywhere.
Faster, faster!
Bakugo was surrounded.
Faster, faster!
Bakugo was confused.
Faster, faster!
Bakugo was scared.
Faster, FASTER!
He could DO THIS!
Once he reached maximum velocity, he jettisoned himself at his unfortunate target-
"GRAPE RUSH!"
With all the speed he'd built up, Mineta bounced at Bakugo like a bullet, flipping himself mid air so that he'd finally kick that smug grin right off his stupid fa-
"GLuk-"
…
"...Really?"
Bakugo scowled and raised an annoyed eyebrow at the grape, as he tightened his grip around his neck.
"Was that really supposed to somehow fucking beat me ?"
"Nah," Minetea chuckled, but it came out more as a pained choke, and pointed over Bakugo's shoulder, "That is."
The Shining Hero Lancelot, roared as he rocketed across the room, his sword glowing like a thousand suns as it propelled him forward on a wave of light.
"SPECIAL MOVE!"
Bakugo's eyes went wide in panic as the knight practically flew at him. He tried to move, to throw himself out of the way, but his legs refused to budge. Looking down he loudly cursed at the new purple blobs on his feet, and the shit eating grin on Mineta's face.
"LIGHT OF HEAVEN!" Aoyama lifted his blade of light to the heavens, preparing to bring it down with the wrath of a star, " SHINING EXCALABU- "
"DIE!!!"
Bakugo pulled his gauntlet's pin, and the world went white.
-Rain of Sins-
…
..
.
Medical workers hauled a bloody and unconscious Aoyama off on a stretcher while Tsu and Mineta worriedly fussed over his form. In the background, Ibrara knelt on the ground, her hands clasped and her head knelt, softly praying for her teammates safety, while shallow tears rolled down her cheeks.
Over towards the "victors" side, the attitude wasn't much better, despite having been officially called the winners by Aizawa.
Ochako sat off to the side on a broken piece of rubble, twiddling her thumbs with a forlorn look on her face. obviously not knowing how to handle the situation, not even sure if she should even intervene at all… and feeling all the more useless because of it.
Bakugo and Momo were only a couple feet away from her, and were in the middle of an intense argument, with Momo pacing back and forth and Bakugo tapping his foot impatiently.
Her two teammates were literally right next to her, and she couldn't even do anything to help them…
Useless…
"I can't believe you!" Momo snapped. "You were warned specifically about using your gauntlets at close range, when you got them from the support course! And didn't just ignore that, you went a step further and used them point blank! "
"So what? Those backseats don't know shit about fighting!"
"Bakugo Katsuki! You could have killed him!"
The blond scoffed and broke eye contact with her, glaring off to the side and gritting his teeth.
"I don't get it…" He scowled.
"Don't get- Don't get What?!?"
"Why are you so mad!?" He sneered and lifted his head to glare at her. "We WON!"
Bakugo's words were cut off, and Ochako flinched as a loud smack echoed through the room.
"Yes, congratulations Bakugo, you did it! You won !" Momo hissed through the tears in her eyes. "But you did it by nearly killing someone!"
"I- You-" Bakugo growled, trying to stamp down on the red that threatened to spread from the handprint on his cheek and consume his entire vision. "So what!? They're just EXTRAS!"
"They're your classmates Bakugo! We're your classmates!" Momo resumed her pacing, rubbing her arms to reassure herself, unaware of Bakugo's turmoil. "What if you were put up against me , o-or Ochoko? Would you use your gauntlet point blank on ME!?"
Momo was talking, but Bakugo was only half listening, trying to focus on breathing, instead of the increasingly loud heartbeat in his ears. The words conglomerating into one endless stream of noise that raked and scraped across his brain, exponentiating the spread of familiar red haze that was slowly drowning his vision.
"I thought that maybe we were, well, I don't know, maybe not friends , but at least cordial with one another!" She turned to face him again, almost desperate for some kind of answer. "Is that all any of your teammates are to you? Just- just extras ?"
Gently, she grabbed his arm an-
" SO WHAT IF YOU ARE!? " He slapped her away.
Bakugo's eyes widened as he processed what he said, but it was too late…
It'd already been said.
"I-I-" Momo took a step back, honest hurt flashing across her face.
And then she turned and walked away.
Her silence, and the wet drops on the ground that followed her, saying more than any words.
-End Chapter-
Tisk, tisk, tisk- Anger issues are a pain to deal with, aren't they Bak? When your vision starts to 'tunnel' rationality doesn't really compute, and trying to resist it feels like flailing your arms once you've tipped over the edge of a well.
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
Wow, lots of things for one chapter!
So we get a view into the mind of Nezu, and why he pushed back so hard against the HPSC/PSC- he doesn't trust them as far as he could throw 'em. Which, considering it's an organization of many big buildings and thousands of people, and he's only one little mouse, isn't very far.
It's like that "I don't trust words, I trust actions" quote from somewhere that I can't remember.
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
Izuku's tinkering away in his lab, finalizing Entropy (for now) and starting work on the things Nighteye first saw back in his vision. But, like the rest of us, he's mainly just waiting for the festival to finally get around to happening, but he's not the only one!
Gentle Criminal, the sly fiend he is, puts his stake on the festival as well- going as far as to swear on his prized mustache.
(Also, La Brava's 22 according to the wiki- a solid 5ish years older than I thought the show had her as, and as such has made me much more comfortable writing her interactions with Gentle.)
Izuku, Gentle, UA itself, the Safety Commission.
They say no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but with so many factions trying to get their hands in the pot of the festival, your plan's probably gonna wind up running face first into five other people you didn't even know existed before you've even encountered said enemy!
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
And speaking of the festival/UA in general, Bakugo and Momo have character conflict.
What, did you think my glorious character development was only MC exclusive?
Nope. Momo, Bakugo, Izuku, Ochako, Mineta, Aoyama, Tsu, Shoto, Ibara, Stai- ok, well maybe not as much Stain. All of 'em are characters with moving pieces that I can tinker with and can be developed with healthy or unhealthy character arcs.
(Also, I feel so bad for what I'm doing to Ochako, but then I stop, and I think about the eventual story payoff, and, well, I actually feel more bad for tarnishing the bundle of sunshine. But I don't have any regrets.)
Next Chapter: April 1st-4th(ish)
(Also, Join the discord! You can send shitty memes and help contribute to the fic!)
(We're at almost 50(~ish) members)
Https://Discord.gg/Hy7g6UqGQd
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