Todoroki Shoto and Aoyama Yuga stood deep in the building, in a large room with the bomb behind them. "Two minutes," Todoroki mumbled, staring straight ahead at the two entrances to the room, both in opposite corners.
"Don't you think this is a bad place to put the bomb, mon ami?" Aoyama asked, scratching his nose. "We are right in the center of the building. The foes will find us easily."
"It doesn't matter if they find us," the heterochromic boy said matter-of-factly.
"So… what is the plan?"
"I freeze the room up. They won't be able to get in."
"… You know Ashido's Quirk is Acid, right? She can likely get through ice."
Todoroki took a pause, and Aoyama's eye twitched. Did this garçon seriously not pay attention to the Quirks of any of the others? He probably doesn't even know mine…
"It will take her a while," the taller boy decided. "And if she does get through, I'll just put another wall up. And I recall that the boy with the tail was barefoot. If I freeze his feet, he will be immobilised."
Aoyama felt left out. He wanted a chance to shine, too! "Yes, but…"
"If you're so worried, you can go out into the building and delay them for as long as possible. Or better yet, leave, for your own safety. I may just end up icing the whole place."
Aoyama frowned for a moment, and then quickly returned to his usual smile. "If you insist. Au revoir." He strode off toward the door, just as the alarm indicating that the match had begun sounded off.
"I'm closing up behind you," said Todoroki, putting up walls of ice as Aoyama left the room.
Ugh! Why'd I have to get stuck with some cool-headed salaud! He will steal the spotlight from me with one flick of his hand, and he won't even get nauseous from it, either…
I'll have to find my own way to dazzle the others… to make a good first impression, to become a star! I just need to find Ashido and Ojiro first! Yes, I will do it! I don't need him!
Smiling confidently, Aoyama skipped off into the darkness of the building.
***
"So, Todoroki can lay down ice, right?" Ojiro posited, as he and Ashido waited outside the building.
"Yeah, he seems crazy powerful!" Ashido shuddered. "If he freezes us with that…"
"Me especially," said Ojiro. "I have no shoes on."
"Huh? Why would you do a thing like that?" Ojiro opened his mouth to explain his interest in martial arts, but Ashido wasn't interested. "My shoes are special! I can secrete my Acid through them and be fine, which allows me to slide across floors like a dancing queen." She spun in a circle, striking a pose.
Ojiro sighed. "Do you reckon you could slide on Todoroki's ice floors?"
She grinned, giving him a thumbs-up. "Leave it to me. I'll melt through anything he throws at us!"
Weren't you just worried about how powerful he was? Outwardly, he said, "I suppose I'll deal with Aoyama then."
Ashido made a face. "He's the one in the crazy armor, right? What is his Quirk again?"
"He fires a laser from his belly. I don't think he'll be an issue."
The alarm sounded.
"Okay," Ojiro cracked his knuckles. "They'll expect us to just enter normally like the last match, so I'm gonna try something else. Let's split up and communicate through the earpieces. You good with that?"
"Huh? Sure! I can handle myself. No problemo, Oji-kun."
"Ah… yeah. Alright, you go in through the front door. I'm takin' a climb." He bit his lip, and then leapt up toward the second-floor ledge, using his tail to swing up onto it. Looking back down, he saw Ashido mouth the word "awesome" and then enter the door. Sighing, Ojiro moved on along the ledge, looking for a good window to go through.
***
Mina Ashido was feeling pretty good. First of all, she was getting a chance to face off against one of the top performers from yesterday's Quirk assessment, someone she had a good counter towards. And the whole class was watching, which meant she would get to show off. Tenth place? Not for much longer after I burn through all of second place's defense! On top of that, Todoroki was probably the hottest guy in class based on her immediate observations. She kind of wanted to show off to him a little bit, too.
Oh, you could just FEEL the sparks fly between Midoriya and Uraraka in the last match! Yay! Class romance is already brewing, and I'll be the catalyst. Oh ho ho, I'm the queen pulling the strings.
Mina LOVED it when people got together, and she just knew this class would be perfect. Hero school? The best opportunity to save your one true love, or fight alongside them! Nothing gets those feelings goin' like near-death experiences! With that in mind, it stood to reason that she'd be disappointed upon learning that Len and Toru weren't actually dating like she'd suspected. Toru WAS the friend Len had wanted to meet up with after the entrance exam, but they were just friends from middle school, nothing more. Like me and Kiri.
In any case, Mina HADN'T felt disappointed, and that confused her. She also wasn't feeling this whole impress-Todoroki-by-kicking-his-ass plan as much as she originally thought, and that confused her too.
These things ran through her head as she walked through the dark hallways of the building, and she wasn't focused on her surroundings. This had consequences.
"Huh?" She had tried to lift up her left foot to take the next step, but it didn't come up. It was stuck to the floor.
Mina tried to step forward with her right to yank it off, but it was stuck as well. "What the fu…"
There were bits and pieces of white tape all over the floor and walls. The Capturing Tape!
"Hehehehehe…" an accented voice cackled. Mina turned to look down the dark hallway… and got a blinding eyeful of laser.
"ARGH!" Aoyama must not have directly hit her, because she felt no heat-related pain, but it did feel like her skull was splitting open from the sudden flash to her eyes. When the laser stopped, she blinked hard, barely seeing Aoyama dance nimbly forward like a ballerina. "That's all the laser I've got before I turn sick, mademoiselle, so I decided to resort to more conniving efforts. Bwahaha! I hope everyone is watching!"
"Ugh! Creep!" Mina threw out a wide spray of acid from her left hand, but there were still glowing shapes moving across her eyes, and her aim was poor. He dodged easily. Mina swiped a fist at him, but he ducked, and was suddenly behind her, up against her back. She was so stuck that she couldn't turn her body all the way.
Aoyama pulled out the rest of his Capturing Tape and was now forcing her to lean forward so he could attach it to her back. Mina squirmed and shook as much as she could. "Gerroff me!" He wasn't very firm or heavy, so the movements did throw him off, but he kept coming back and trying again, trying to hold her down, running out of breath. "Stop… struggling… mademoiselle…"
Because she was now buckled over, Mina was forced to look at the ground, where there was some more tape, and… some partially disintegrated tape? Right in front of her?
My acid can spray through the tape! Oh God, I'm such an idiot. Setting her face determinedly, she secreted acid through her special shoes and burned through the tape on the floor. Immediately upon freeing herself, she spun in a circle, swinging Aoyama off of her. He hit the floor with a high squeak of pain.
"Impossible! How did you escape my snare?" He scrambled away in disbelief.
Mina gave chase. "Through the power of queen's acid, twerp!"
"Woe is me! This can't be happening! I…"
Something hit him in the back of the head, and Aoyama swayed, his eyes rolling. Then he fell to the ground, out cold.
The thing was revealed to be Ojiro's tail, which he now swung back around to his back, relaxing and sighing. "Sorry about that. It took me a minute to find you."
Mina blinked, staring at his tail. "Holy shit. How dense is that thing?"
"Come on. I found where they've put the bomb, but I need your help."
The hero team moved on forward, leaving the unconscious Aoyama behind.