The first battle between Midoriya and Uraraka versus Bakugo and Iida was painful to watch.
Anim stood next to Jiro in the observation room as All Might narrated the action on the monitors. The building shook with each of Bakugo's blasts as he chased Midoriya through the corridors, and the green-haired boy was getting absolutely demolished.
"Why isn't he fighting back?" Jiro muttered, wincing as Bakugo landed another brutal hit. "He's just... taking it."
"Maybe his Quirk isn't suited for close combat?" Anim suggested, though something felt off about the whole situation.
Midoriya was running, dodging, getting beaten up, but never once fighting back with any kind of power. For someone who'd gotten into U.A.'s hero course, he seemed almost... Quirkless.
"This is hard to watch," Kirishima said from nearby. "Bakugo's not holding back at all."
The battle dragged on with Midoriya taking punishment after punishment, until finally—in what seemed like a last desperate move against bakugo's coming explosion—he launched a punch at the ceiling. The explosion of power that followed was devastating, completely destroying the roof of the building and sending shockwaves through the entire structure.
(author too lazy to put it all, be happy with this ma readers)
"HOLY SHIT!" Kaminari shouted, then immediately covered his mouth as All Might shot him a look.
"Language, young Kaminari! But yes, that was quite impressive!"
The raw power was terrifying. One punch that destroyed half a floor, but Midoriya's arm was completely mangled afterward. Whatever his Quirk was, it was clearly not something he could control.
"So he does have a Quirk," Jiro said quietly. "But why did he wait so long to use it?"
"Maybe because of that," Anim nodded toward the monitor showing Midoriya being loaded onto a stretcher, his arm twisted at an unnatural angle.
When the dust settled, Uraraka had managed to secure the weapon while Midoriya was being carried out on a stretcher. The victory felt hollow watching their classmate get loaded into an ambulance.
"The heroes win!" All Might announced, though his usual enthusiasm was dampened. "But let's discuss what we observed. Who can tell me what went wrong?"
"Alright!" All Might clapped his hands together. "Next up, Team C versus Team D! Ashido and Jiro as heroes, Kaminari and Yaoyorozu as villains!"
Anim felt his stomach tighten with anticipation. Finally, it was their turn.
They made their way to the prep room, where All Might handed them earpieces and explained the building layout. The structure was five stories tall with multiple rooms on each floor. Kaminari and Yaoyorozu would have fifteen minutes to set up their defenses around the fake weapon before the heroes could enter.
"So," Jiro said as they studied the building plans, "what's our strategy?"
"Depends. What can you actually do with those?" He nodded toward her earphone jacks.
"Sound waves, mostly. I can amplify my heartbeat through them, create directional blasts, or use them to listen through walls." She paused, looking slightly embarrassed. "It's not exactly flashy."
"Flashy's overrated. Can you map the building with sound?"
Her eyes lit up. "Yeah, actually. Like echolocation. I can tell you where they are and what the layout looks like."
"Perfect. I'll handle the direct approach while you gather intel." Anim grinned. "Think you can keep up with someone who doesn't play by normal rules?"
"Try me," she said, and for the first time since the costume reveal, she looked more excited than nervous.
The fifteen-minute setup period felt like hours. They used the time to go over the building schematics and plan their approach. Jiro would use her heartbeat to scan for opponents while Anim provided mobility and direct combat capability.
"Heroes may now enter the building!" All Might's voice crackled through their earpieces.
They slipped through the entrance on the first floor, Jiro immediately plugging her jacks into the wall. Her eyes closed in concentration as sound waves mapped the building's interior.
"Kaminari's on the third floor, moving around a lot," she whispered. "Yaoyorozu's on the fifth with the weapon. She's... making something. A lot of somethings."
"Traps?"
"Probably. The sound signature suggests metal construction."
Anim nodded. Yaoyorozu's creation Quirk made her dangerous in a defensive scenario. Give her time to prepare and she could turn any room into a maze of obstacles.
"Can you pinpoint Kaminari's location?"
Jiro's jacks pulsed with her heartbeat again. "Second floor now, eastern corridor. He's... wait." Her eyes snapped open. "He's coming down. Fast."
The stairwell filled with the sound of footsteps, and then Kaminari appeared around the corner with his finger guns already charged.
"Hey guys! Ready to get zapped?"
Lightning erupted from his hands in a brilliant flash. Anim grabbed Jiro around the waist and leaped, his legs stretching to carry them up and over the electrical attack. They landed in the second-floor corridor as Kaminari's discharge fizzled out below.
"Nice dodge!" Kaminari called out, already charging up another attack. "But you can't avoid me forever!"
"Can you handle him while I go after the weapon?" Anim muttered, setting Jiro down gently.
"I think so. Just... be careful. Yaoyorozu's smart. Whatever she's building up there won't be simple."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Anim took off suddenly towards the stairs, leaving Jiro to deal with a bamboozled Kaminari. He could hear the distinctive sound of her heartbeat amplification echoing through the corridors behind him, followed by Kaminari's yelp of surprise.
The third and fourth floors were suspiciously empty, which only made him more cautious. Yaoyorozu had had fifteen minutes to prepare, and she wasn't the type to waste that kind of opportunity.
He reached the fifth floor and immediately saw the problem.
The corridor leading to the weapon room was a minefield of traps.
Anim could see them clearly now—small metallic discs connected with themselves embedded in the floor that had to be pressure-sensitive bombs, thin wires stretched across the hallway at ankle height and some at waist height connected to what looked like net launchers, and small devices mounted on the walls that crackled with electrical energy.
"Fifteen minutes well spent," he muttered, studying Yaoyorozu's handiwork.
This was exactly the kind of strategic thinking that made her dangerous. No flashy mirrors or misdirection—just good old-fashioned booby traps designed to stop any advancement. The bombs would trigger if he stepped wrong, the nets would tangle his stretched limbs, and the electric shockers would probably hurt like hell.
But yesterday, something had changed.
During his evening training, he'd felt it for the first time—a warm energy that seemed to flow from somewhere deep inside him. He'd managed to wrap it around his body like a protective layer, though he had no idea what it was or how he'd done it.
Ki, maybe? The word had popped into his head from those fragments of his past life, along with vague memories of characters using similar energy.
Worth a shot.
Anim closed his eyes and reached for that same feeling. There—a tingling warmth in his chest that he could spread outward when he concentrated on it. It wasn't much, barely perceptible, but it was something.
He let the energy flow over his skin like a second layer, then started running into the corridor.
The first pressure plate clicked under his foot, and the bomb detonated with a sharp crack. Smoke and lead pellets filled the air, but the energy around him seemed to deflect the worst of it. Small bruises appeared on his arms and chest, but nothing serious.
"Interesting," came Yaoyorozu's voice from the end of the corridor. "Most people would have been knocked unconscious by that."
Anim kept running, bulldozing his way in, triggering trap after trap. Each explosion was carefully calculated—enough force to incapacitate, not kill. Lead pellets bounced off his energy-covered skin, though they still stung. Nets shot out from the walls, but his stretched arms tore through them before they could fully deploy.
The electric shockers were the worst. Even with his protective energy, the voltage made his muscles spasm and his vision blur. But he pushed through, each step bringing him closer to the weapon room.
"Five bombs, three net traps, four shockers," he counted aloud as he reached the doorway. "Not bad for fifteen minutes of prep time."
Yaoyorozu stood ready in the center of the room, an electric baton crackling in one hand and a riot shield in the other. She'd positioned herself between him and the fake nuclear weapon, and her dark eyes were calculating his next move.
"You're tougher than I expected," she said. "But those traps were just the appetizer."
"I figured." Anim rolled his shoulders, feeling where the electricity had left his muscles tense. The protective energy around him was already fading—whatever it was, he couldn't maintain it for long. "Nice baton. Going for the non-lethal takedown?"
"This is training, not a real fight. Though that energy you're using is fascinating. Some kind of defensive Quirk enhancement?"
"Something like that." He wasn't about to explain the powers he remembered about Buu. "Ready when you are."
Yaoyorozu moved first, shield raised and baton swinging in a practiced arc. She'd clearly had combat training beyond just her Quirk—her footwork was solid and her attacks were precisely aimed.
But although maybe not the same amount of time, Anim had been training with Kirishima for months, and his body was designed for this kind of fight.
He ducked under her first swing, his torso compressing to avoid the crackling baton. His stretched arm reached around her shield, but she was already moving, spinning away and creating distance.
"You're good," he admitted, straightening up. "But I've got advantages you can't plan for."
His legs and torso stretched suddenly, carrying him across the room. Yaoyorozu barely got her shield up in time to block his punch, but the impact sent her skidding backward.
"Capture tape," she said quickly, her body glowing as she created binding material. "If I can just—"
Anim's arm stretched past her defenses, touching the bomb before she could complete the creation. Her weapon clattered across the floor as she stumbled forward.
"THE HEROES WIN!" All Might's voice boomed through their earpieces. "EXCELLENT WORK, BOTH TEAMS!"
Yaoyorozu looked at the distance between herself and the bomb, then at Anim's stretched arm still touching the bomb before breathing a deep sighing.
As they made their way back to the observation room, Yaoyorozu walked beside him with renewed energy and obvious curiosity.
"That protective energy," she said. "I've never seen anything like it. Is that part of your quirk? But wasn't it elastic body mutation?"
"I just found about it yesterday," Anim said honestly. "Still figuring it out myself, but my quirk shouldn't be only elasticity."
"Fascinating. It seemed to provide both physical protection and energy absorption. The applications for hero work would be incredible."
Anim nodded, though privately he was wondering if this was just the beginning. If he really was developing the abilities he remembered from his past life, then what he'd used today was probably just a fraction of what might be possible.
He was getting excited, he still remembered the numerous possibilities that could be done with Ki alone, like Goku doing a Kamehameha?