Chapter 48: Scheme's Thwarted by Mysterious Tail

Recap:

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 to determine where Shinso ran to, yet the concrete floor proved 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.

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"Haah... Uugh... Aaah."

Turning around, Suijin saw Ojiro sitting up while clutching his head. 

While quickly walking over and supporting him, helping him to stand up, Suijin caught a quick peek at his head, noticing that the expected purple bruise wasn't there. 

He inwardly shook his head. 'The resilience of the strong.'

"T-Thanks, Shimizu."

The second the disoriented Ojiro got to his feet, his first thought was to again let the blood rush to his head by doing a deep bow, which would further increase his distortion.

  Knowing this, Suijin quickly waved away his worries, "It's fine, that's what heroes should do."

Ojiro heaved a puff of air, and the silence caused the two to look around, causing both their eyes to fall upon the slumped body whose battered form was littered with wounds.

  'Maaaaaabbbyyyeeeee I did a bit too much with him. In my defense, like the Ojiro situation, some people have weird durability.'

While he was thinking so, Ojiro had gone over to Monoma's body and started…patting the boy down?

"Seems like he got to it."

"To what?" Suijin had walked over and was next to the standing-up Ojiro by now.

"His flag."

"Oh, that's nothing—"

But if he had actual eyeballs, Suijin's would've popped out of his head by now.

"HE HAD A FLAG!"

Ojiro, though probably channeling his inner Shoji, kept the same face and nodded.

"When I was under his control, I could still "see," and when you two were crawling above, he spotted a flag in Monoma's shirt."

'I got played.' 

Suijin would be lying if he said his pride wasn't a little bit stung. Being duped by someone you thought was easy to read didn't sit well with him, like he was the one moving to the strings attached to him. 

But he tried to put that aside—not that it worked—but he tried to and focused ahead on how he was going to pass this round since, although he didn't have an exact timer, he should only have a few minutes left.

'Maybe I can track those two behind; their plan was feasible. But if they don't have one, then I'm screwed, aside from the fact that they may be gone by now.'

But as Suijin was cooking up more plans, Ojiro surprised him.

"Oh right, here."

The tailed man reached into his shirt and pulled out something; that something was the red-colored flag that Suijin was searching for. 

Making eye contact with the gobsmacked Suijin, he explained, 

"When Shinso brainwashed me, he had me confirm that I didn't have one, but halfway through, he ordered me to be on standby as he interrogated a support student."

"He momentarily released control for some reason, most likely due to the strain of using it all through the first round since I vaguely remember him complaining about how he was tired from controlling nine people in the first round."

Suijin made a mental note to add that tidbit of information to his list later.

"During that release period, I saw a flag hidden under a pipe. So I grabbed it and stuffed it into my clothes; we then met up, and after a...harsh debacle, I ended up under his control."

"Harsh Debacle? What did he say? You like someone or something, and you sputter out incoherent noises that fulfill the response condition of his quirk or something."

Though Suijin said that speculatively, when he looked up and saw the beet-red face, his mouth dropped.

  'Seriously? Who would it b—Oh Hakagure. I do remember the two staying together often.'

"Are you sure?"

Suijin, changing topics, returned to the flag as he wasn't too sure about taking it; with the time left, it was almost guaranteed failure should Ojiro give it away.

"Yeah."

The blond-haired boy looked up to the sky with a far-away look only he himself would understand.

"I failed; I'm not weaker than him, yet I was under his control. If he asked me to attack another contestant, he asked me to commit despicable acts."

Suijin heard the grit with which he said that; he saw the furrowment of Ojiro's brows and wanted to console him, but before he could, it was all gone, like the boy found peace within that short period.

"I can't move forward. Not knowing the conditions, I thought that my passing would be a mere fluke and come at your expense. I won't change my mind for me, so it's yours."

Suijin said nothing else but nodded, and Ojiro, like a weight lifted off his chest, smiled before walking away.

'Well, that should be my last interaction in the sec—'

Like the gods enjoyed Suijin's peril at being wrong, when the boy looked up, he saw someone with multiple arms held together by a thin skin-like film.

  His trademark mask stretched from the lower portion of his face to the bridge of his nose. 

And the silver hair that hung down like a paid actor

'Shoji!'

Suijin quickly hid the flag behind him while tensing his body; he didn't want to meet his childhood friend this early, as he hoped they would both make it to the finals.

'I can try to run, but physically, he outclasses me, and with my little water reserves, I could only get a few seconds of distance before he catches up.'

Suijin's mind ran, trying to avoid an encounter with Shoji; yet another part considered what that entailed.

If Shoji was truly flagless, then if he wasted his time on Suijin, then he'd be out.

'What do I do?'

Shoji took that decision away when, like the wind, he turned around and left. Suijin, who had been loosely paying attention, recalled the image of Shoji's face. 

His eyes read a message: [Not Now] were the words Suijin seemed to glean from the facial expression.

"AND THAT'S TIME, CONTESTANTS. EVERYONE REPORTS TO THE STADIUM WITH YOUR FLAGS, AND PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU'RE BEING WATCHED RIGHT NOW, SO ANY FIGHTING WILL RESULT IN AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFICATION FROM ALL OTHER COMPETITIONS."

'Now it's over.'