Chapter 92: Tail and Tactics

GAH

Along with the sound of surprise from being pushed out of the way, Ojiro widened his eyes, watching as his classmate and apparent Savior, Ida, performed a front flip, narrowly missing the hand that threatened to grab onto his leg, dragging him into the rubble-filled abyss.

Quickly composing himself, the Vice President sped away from the area, not missing the faint metallic sheen that could be seen on their proctor's uncovered hands.

"Impressive, had you not doged—"

At that moment, the shine from the sun reflected off of the metal nails, and the gap in Power Loaders following words already spoke to him of the answer.

'My Legs…' Ida's eyes widened upon understanding the implication, realizing how close he had come to a serious injury.

Images spiraled through his mind—memories of him visiting his brother in the hospital, of how he almost lost himself in the anger and grief upon learning that his brother had lost his hero career.

Ida realized that had he not dodged, he too may have been out of the future.

Either fully playing into the villain's persona or this simply being his personality, Power Loader ruthlessly spoke, clearly reading Ida's face.

"What? Did you think that being a hero would be easy? You could come into this with half-hearted desires, not willing to stake anything."

Ida stayed silent, still stuck in his thoughts, and seeing so, Power Loader followed up, "Well, let's see how long you last with that…Hero."

With that, the pro utilized his quirk to quickly dig into the ground, which was made up of thousands of metal scraps.

'No doubt he's familiar with the area.' Ojiro thought, surveying his surroundings.

He and Ida found themselves on the opposite end of a scrap-filled wasteland from the shining exit, their destination should they hope to win.

Their objective? Traverse through these lands where the scrap was deeper than their entire height and harder than solid and successfully escape the land, or…

'Defeat Power Loader.' An unlikely scenario.

Whoosh

Along with his final thoughts, an unsettling feeling filled Ojiro's heart, causing the boy to instantly go on high alert.

It had been a few seconds since Power Loader disappeared, and the logical choice would be to go toward the unprepared, defenseless Ida.

With that thought, the blonde-haired boy turned and planned on running towards his teammate while shouting for caution.

Yet years of training with various dojos and against various opponents prepared him for even the slightest rumble.

Knowing that even Power Loader wouldn't be able to appear from the rubble silently, the boy trusted in his instincts.

He instantly bent his elbow so the pointy end stood out before shoving it toward the ground!

Surprisingly, for any possible bystanders, it was at this moment that the non-combatant pro emerged. Ojirous elbowed, heading towards him.

Tch

With precise movements, the pro brought up his palm, catching the powerful blow and holding it there in a stalemate.

It would seem that he had Ojiro trapped, but the small grin the boy couldn't help but let out had a foreboding feeling befalling the Pro.

!!!

And it would seem as if he was right, as with inhuman flexibility, the boy spun out of the Pro's grasp, twisting his body so that he was jumping away from him.

Yet the tail, with its inhuman read spun around its goal being clear, Power Loaders metal mask, and by pardison, his head!

'Interesting.' With calm movements, the pro ducks back into the hole he previously burrowed out of, making sure to cover it, and disappears into this foreign wasteland.

Yet that action itself didn't let Ojiro have his nerves put to rest; perhaps it set them up even more as he tracked where the fading vibrations were heading.

"IDA!" A quick shout, as he didn't have the time to physically make it there, snapped the boy out of it.

And as if on instinct, Ida, due to the severity of the tone, used a Recepro Burst, burning more fuel than normal yet momentarily granting him the fuel to evade the metal jaw, intending on chomping him in two.

With a smirk, the 'Villain' returned.

Ojiro knew Power Loaders pattern, a habit he believed the Pro had due to his non-combatant nature.

He attacked, then attacked, and then waited, content with letting the clock run down and them simply failing.

'But I won't!' He resolved.

Thus, seeing his classmate about to fall into the same slump as before, he did something that most people would expect of him.

SLAP

He slapped his classmate.

Then, using the shock of his action, the boy stuck while the irons were hot and said, "I'm sorry, but I hope my action woke you up."

Ida just nodded, perhaps still out of shock or finally realizing Ojiro's original intentions.

"I don't want to fail. Not again; right here, right now, we have the chance to utilize everything we have to move forward, forgetting the past and painting a new future."

Ida nodded in complete agreement, though the boys were thinking of two different things when reflecting on the sentence.

'For my brother, for family, and for Myself, I WILL pass.' With that, he put aside his reservations about the past, thoughts that locked him up and still haunted him.

Meanwhile, Ojiro was thinking, 'This is a chance, an opportunity for me to redeem myself, to prove that I CAN stand with those with more powerful Quirks…'

Ojiro had a pause in his thoughts, reminiscing about how the person to whom he gave his ticket to the third round lit up the stages just as he hoped to.

'Just like Shimizu, eh?'

Snapping out of his thoughts, the boy turned around quickly, whispering the rough outline of their plan.

"Done taking it now?" A mysterious, familiar voice spoke out behind them.

!!!

Immediately, Ojiro spun, jumping towards him, planning on using his tail to overpower the man, yet just as the man himself planned on making him regret his decision with a swipe of his sharp-clawed hands, Ojiro…jumped away.

In the midst of the pro's stupor, he was forced to pay attention as a bunch of dust, rocks, and pebbles suddenly came hurling toward his eyes.

The pro closed the top and bottom parts of his metal mouth, overhanging his head and enclosing his world in darkness.

Instantaneously, he prepared himself, planning to react to anything that would be thrown his way in these few seconds of chaos.

Yet…nothing happened.

'NOTHING HAPPENED!'

His eyes widened as he planned on diving head first towards the ground, where he would use his quirk and familiarity with the area to reach the exit before Ida blocked the boy from victory.

Yet a large THWACK colliding with his cheek sent him flying in the opposite direction of his target and opening his lid and eyes, he saw the speedy boy already nearing his goal.

He looked up, righting his body, and saw the boy dressed in his Karate Gi, legs spread in an anticipating position.

"This is my Determination." He seemed to say.

[Tenya Ida and Mashirao Ojiro have passed their Final Exams.]

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