Chapter 47: Brainwashing Epidemic!

Recap:

Still, Suijin was inwardly grateful not to have to put himself through that ordeal. He scanned around, looking for anything noteworthy.

Besides the purple stock of hai—PURPLE!!!

He looked to his right, and behind a rubble of rocks was the famous Hitoshi Shinso, who seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to strike before losing interest in it.

As Hitoshi turned around Suijin locked eyes with the boy for a second, and within that second, he started freaking out.

'Hypnosis: If you respond to his words, he can put your mind under his control.'

His metaphorical mind started turning gears, and after taking a look and seeing a glint in Shinso's eyes, his head started blaring alarms.

'Monoma!'

"We have to go, NOW!"

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Suijin instantly turned around, urging Monoma to shimmy away.

  The blonde-haired boy was confused but began gently moving on his way. The comical scene of two boys inching away above the sky played out. 

Though they were escaping, Suijin's mind wasn't calm. No, perhaps it was even more tense. He focused behind him, trying to spot Shinso, to no avail.

  After a few minutes when they were quite a distance away, he calmed down and tried to rationalize with himself,

  'If we're this far away, then he should–'

  "You know you're quite easy to find, right?"  He looked down, seeing the shock of purple hair framing a familiar face. 

Ojirou was carrying Shinso with a blank look on his face.

  'Hypnosis,' Suijin thought. 

Then, ignoring the question altogether, he turned to Monoma.

  "Don't talk to him." Suijin spoke venomously because, with Monoma's personality, he felt that this was the only way to subdue him.

  He ignored the complicated expression on Monoma's face, rather focusing on what he could do to get out of here. 

"Wow, the mighty hero students are afraid of me. I'd think that you'd be a little braver, but you're trying to run away again."

  Suijin planned on ignoring him as planned, yet something compelled him to come out of his thoughts and look ahead. 

And when he saw that look on Monoma's face, he swore in his mind, "Don—" 

"FEAR WHO, YOU?!! WHY WOULD I CARE ABOUT SOMEONE WHO COULDN'T EVEN MAKE IT INTO THE HEROIC DEPARTMENT! AND YOU, SHIMIZU, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO AFFORD—"

  "And that's enough of that."

  In real-time, Suijin watched the blank expression fall upon Monoma's face. At the same time, he released his hold on the bars, free-falling to the ground.

  "Don't let him escape," Shinso said in a neutral voice, like a chess master ordering his pieces around.

  After he said that, with no hesitation, Monoma released his hold and even used his feet to propel himself faster than Suijin's free fall.

  When the weight came upon Suijin's back, he waited until he was low to the ground before using a longshot to propel himself off expected course.

  The force sent the two boys into the street and now dangerous close to the ground, Suijin directed as much of the force to his back and Monoma by default.

  'Recovery Lady'll have to deal with you.' 

Groaning inwardly Suijin stood up, ignoring the moans behind him, and looked up only to see a flying tail coming towards his face.

  'Oh, come on!' 

Suijin ducked under it before rolling backward, narrowly missing a knee uppercut. 

"Impressive," Shinso said. 

Suijin looked at Ojirou's face, seeing the self-agony mixed in with his face at not being able to control his body.

  Quickly cooking up a plan, Suijin stood still, letting his arms out to his side and standing like a target ready to get hit. 

Hypnotized Ojirou obviously didn't let the chance pass by and punched, brandishing his finish in a standard martial art pose. 

Yet, at the last second of contact between his palm and Suijin's "neck," he tilted the arm to the left, making it miss. 

Suijin, who was expecting that, mentally pressed his nozzle in, sending a rather rapid shot to Ojirou's head which knocked the boy straight back onto the ground.

  He took a deep breath before facing Shinso while being on guard for any support devices or anything else.

  Shinso, seeing this, gave a low whistle, clearly impressed by Suijin's display of power. As he did so, he walked towards Monoma, who'd been knocked away from Suijin by the fall and was currently unconscious. 

"You're stronger than I thought."

  Though before, Suijin could bask in it, He ruthlessly took a verbal shot at him.

  Shinso crouched down, grabbing at Monoma's face with his back facing Suijin, who really wanted to take a shot but ultimately refrained. 

Shinso then sat back up and said, "And here I thought I could take down one of the weaker Class 1A's alone. Guess I overestimated myself."

  'If this was me before, that may have hurt.'

  But now? Suijin didn't feel an ounce of guilt. 

Maybe this was Shinso trying to elicit a response to use his quirk on him, or maybe this was his genuine thoughts. 

But, why would his opinion matter? 

There were many in his class Suijin thought would lose to that barrage, and there were some who could've effortlessly dealt with it without as much effort as Suijin put into it.

  Either way, Suijin didn't plan on letting the opinion of someone outside affect him pursuing his goals. 

Suijin didn't know it, but if you asked Enkai what Suijin's biggest gain from these last few weeks, he wouldn't say combat intelligence, shooting accuracy, or knowing exactly how much force to knock someone out without killing them, or anything else along those lines.

  He'd say it's confidence! Suijin kept his vigilance and silence while looking around for any other threats, brushing Shinso's words off without a glance. 

And as his eyes were off of Shinso for a brief moment, he thought he heard a "Tch." Yet the same cool, calm, and collected personality remained when he looked back. 

"Oh well, if you excuse me." Suijin focused on him, wanting to figure out where and how the boy who was practically quirkless as long as Suijin didn't talk would escape. 

So, the moment his hands reached and grabbed a ball-shaped object out of his pocket, a quick, thin shot akin to a rubber bullet hit Shinso's hands, knocking the object away. "AC—"

  'Huh?' 

Suijin saw the pain in the boy's voice yet he instantly became quiet.

  'Is he trying to be manly? He didn't seem like the type for it.'

  The answer was revealed when a black, misty smoke began to fill the area, blocking off sight. 

Suijin put his hands to the ground, wanting to feel vibrations, yet the concrete floor provided to be a poor insulator. In a last-ditch effort, Suijin let off some more rubber bullet-like shots in a hazardous way, yet nothing else came up.

  'Oh well, it's not like he had a flag.' Suijin shrugged.

Shinso checked his pocket where his flag was. While doing so, he held onto his frazzled and sprained hand.

  'That went worse than expected.' He heaved a dry chuckle while taking rights and lefts he'd scouted before.

  The original plan was to defeat Shimizu since he seemed to know his quirk. 

If he did, then in situations like that where Shinso had to fight one on one, he'd be powerless. 

Yet, 'He's far stronger than I thought.'

  'I even sent his own partner after him, kept Ojirou by my side to block against his long-ranged attacks, before sending him in undetected for a sneak attack yet he still dealt with it!' 

Shinso updated Suijin on his list of people who he didn't want to fight against. Although he was already ranked rather high, this time it wasn't just due to the nature of his quirk. 

'He's sound.' 

Shinso couldn't find any holes, edges, or anything to poke at him. Even though numbers one and two on the list were impossible to win against with normal close-quarters combat, there was a smidge of a chance he could do it as their personalities led to a fault. 

But someone like Shimizu, both calm, level-headed, and a long-ranged fighter? He was Shinso's enemy. 

'And he did a number on my hand. Luckily with this, I'll pass through the second round and be able to get healed by Recovery Girl.'

  The boy stiffened, shivering as he thought about how he'd get 'healed.' 

Once he arrived in an area he deemed safe, Shinso got out his flag and looked at it.

  'To think he didn't attack me then… No, I can't blame that, he's just cautious, though his cautious is my fourteen.'

  Shinso found this in the back pocket of Monoma when he searched him under his villain pretense.

  'Play to your strengths, right?'

  He honestly didn't expect much, but when Monoma got knocked out by Shimizu, the distinct color peeked out beneath his shirt, and with Shimizu distracted, all Shinso had to do was block Shimizu's view, and the flag was as good as his.

  'I'm lucky I met that support kid who gave me his smoke bombs for me "sparing" him. I'm also lucky that Monoma was so easy to read… though who would've thought he was playing a guy like Shimizu.'