Chapter 82: "Come at me like...

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CHAPTER 82

"Sorry I can't let you get away that easily!" Sakura exclaimed jumping passed Yuga and Mina, intending to chase after the two girls. Who was quickly attempting to disappear into the trees?

Another laser beam flashed past her, forcing her to change direction, thankfully the flashiness of Yuga's quirk did not mesh well with the night to make for surprise attacks, the dullness of Mina's acid was another matter.

Sakura started leaping from branch to branch, but the attacks kept coming. Mina's acid and Yuga's lasers were relentless 'forcing' her into a narrow path through the trees. They might've been taking her on directly but they did not want her to narrow the distance between them.

It wasn't her first time breaking through a cage of branches and darkness, but when she came through a clearing she saw a web of tape crisscrossing the forest ahead, creating a maze that would slow her down significantly, of course, this could only be Hanta's quirk.

'Did the girls take a different route while I was distracted?' This was a deliberate setting, so they must've been acting as the lure in this fishing attempt.

She reached into her pouch pulled out a handful of throwing stars between her fingers, and hurled them with an appropriate amount of power and accuracy to ensure they cut through its target, watching the blades slice through the air and the tape creating a path wide enough for her to slip through without issues. She landed lightly on the other side, her eyes scanning the shadows as something else caught the corner of her eyes.

In midair she twisted, blocking off Dark Shadow as he emerged from the trees, his inky body blending well into the environment.

"Should've known that wouldn't stop you!" Fumikage's voice echoed from above.

"And neither will this!" Sakura exclaimed, throwing a punch at Dark Shadow and watching it hit a tree.

"But this might," Kyoka appeared with Shouji behind her, they were propped up in another tree. A recent appearance but this was a prepared ambush instead of a chance encounter. Sakura realized this when she saw the amplifier sitting on a lower branch of where the two were. She could' detect inanimate objects in the dark.

Kyoka unleashed a deafening sound wave that rippled through the air in her direction. Sakura's hands flew to her ears, her teeth gritted against the pain. The sound wave was disorienting, blurring her vision but she managed to stay on her feet. Yuga appeared moments later, his laser belt glowing as he took aim.

"Persistent, aren't you?" Sakura said, her voice calm despite the situation. She broke into a sprint, weaving through the trees as Yuga's lasers and Dark Shadow's claws narrowly missed her. The sound of engines roaring filled the air, and Sakura's sharp eyes caught sight of Tenya charging toward her at full speed, his Recipro Burst leaving a trail of blue light in his wake.

"Now this is creative," Sakura said, her smirk widening. She braced herself, ready for another clash, but the fight took an unexpected turn. A shadow fell over her from above, she looked up to see Ochaco floating high above in the air, her fingertips pressed together, but she wasn't alone in that space. Hanta was with her, a piece of tape tied, connecting the two. However, in his hands, Sakura could see a number of tapes leading further above the two, and right above, being held like balloons, were boulders and several clusters of Minoru's spheres.

It didn't take much for her to realize their intentions, and they followed through. Hanta tightened his grip on the tape and threw his hand down, Ochaco timing to release her quirk.

It nearly reminded Sakura of the time Madara sent Meteor raining down on her head. "Let's see you dodge this!" Hanta shouted, releasing the boulders. The boulders crashed down towards the ground, kicking up the dust. Sakura avoided the barrage, dodging, flipping, and twisting away from the shower. It would've been a better exercise for Sakura to break through all the boulders but Minoru's quirk made it harder. She didn't want to get stuck.

"You're getting better," Sakura called out, her voice carrying a note of genuine praise. "But you'll have to do more than that to catch me."

"It's not over yet!"

Again Hanta threw back his arm, and Sakura realized not all of the boulders had fallen, and that there was a second batch. She caught sight of the edges glinting in the dim light. Despite this, her composure remained solid, as she stayed within the line of attack. There was a new blanket of dust and debris that fell into the air with that second attack. This time, it was only boulders. Could there be more to this? Did this plan go deeper? 

Her thoughts did cross that path, but she didn't go down it. In the heat of battle, you couldn't afford to allow doubt to throw off your rhythm. All you could do was believe in your instincts and take action against them. Better than standing paralyzed because of your own thoughts, allowing them to overtake you like a wave and drown you.

"HERE I COME!"

But it was soon proven that the second attack had more surprises to offer. She heard him, as he hurled towards her, a piece of tape tied around his waist, skin jagged and sharp as the rocks. A competent camouflage and method of attack. Sakura couldn't help but praise, however….

"You should've kept quiet,"

Eijiro emerged with the boulders, hidden amongst them intending for a sneak attack, keeping himself curled so that he could hide that flame-red hair. Coming head-on towards Sakura, she jumped back when he landed but he didn't take long to recover from that fall. Rushing at Sakura, hands open to grab at her.

"I know I should be quiet but that's not manly at all!" He said, hands swiping at her, and Sakura ducking and dodging him. Her body flexed, but her eyes were straight in one direction; hands folded behind her back, twisting on the balls of her feet making her movements flow. She hopped on top of one of the boulders and Eijiro, just crashed through it, cracking through the rocks. Sakura moved to another and he repeated the move.

"Well then, I guess I've given you enough time," Sakura sighed, craning her neck as she looked down at Eijirou. She vanished quicker than the blink of an eye because Eijiro had lost complete sight of Sakura's very presence. He heard her voice behind his ear.

"You should train your brain as much as your body," She gave him a side punch across his face, the impact sent him flying backward. Crashing into a boulder.

"And always protect your head," 

 But Sakura didn't have time to celebrate. Something glistened against the boulders, and she caught sight of the metallic disks from Denki's support items.

"Who could've—Toru, Tsuyu, you're here too, aren't you?" Sakura called out, her voice carrying a note of amusement. She didn't get a response, but she didn't need one. She knew they were there but so was Denki and he became a more pressing matter when he appeared from behind a boulder, sparks already flying around him. He pointed a finger.

"Sorry about this!" He released a surge of electricity, the disks taking in and directing the voltage but Denki had also released control of his quirk. The current running free was fully charged, he intended for this to be his final attack knowing that this would trip the circuit in his brain and render him temporarily impaired.

The air was crackling with the voltage but Sakura had countered just as quickly as the current. Lighting-style attacks were hard to handle head one, but there were natural counters. And they were scattered all around her. Denki's quirk release was flashy, literally and it through a blindfold over everyone.

When all eyes opened again as Denki stopped his electricity, there was the smell of smoke but no sign of Sakura in the area. Denki was completely wired out, his eyes glazed over as he wandered around the area aimlessly now. Brain dead and recharging. The sight always caused a gaggle of laughter from his classmates, including the first day they arrived at the dorms after Shouta gave his class a firm scolding for their actions in Kamino. Katsuki somehow thought they could all use a laugh after that.

Ochaco and Hanta who were still floating in the air, looked over the area from above. They could see the entire field but they had completely lost sight of their target.

"Where did she go?"

"We can't lose her now!" Hanta said clearing his teeth.

Rikido and Mashirao came out of the shadows, having been waiting for their signal to attack however that chance seemed to have slipped after nearly three minutes passed and Sakura was yet to show herself. Both wearing night vision goggles courtesy of Momo, but even those couldn't find their elusive classmate.

Ochaco reached for her earpiece. "Did she run?"

There was a static response in her ears, "No way, we've been keeping an eye on the area, all directions are clear, she has to be there!" 

"The monitors didn't go off either."

"WHAT THE HELL?! DID YOU MORONS LOSE HER!"

"I'm going to run the parameter!" Tenya told them through the headpiece, they could hear his engines revving in the background of his voice.

Fumikage, Toru, Tsuyu, Minoru, Momo, Yuga, Jiro, and Shouji were up in the trees, creating a parameter to scout and keep track of any movement out of the area they had turned into their arena. It was all part of a plan they had stitched together. However, Sakura already appeared to be picking at the seams. 

"Where did she go!?" asked Mashirao

"We'll find her!" 

The forest floors crackled as more footprints embedded themselves into the grounds of the battlefield.

"She couldn't have passed through the barrier," said Hanta, overlooking everyone as they searched below. 

Mina's binoculars landed on Eijiro, who was leaning up against the tree, he wasn't waking up yet. Sakura must've given him a hit with the intent to keep him down this time.

"Can we do this?"

When they planned this out it had seemed so much simpler, but Sakura was showing to be the biggest wrench.

They didn't have a lot of time to set up the stage and had taken their biggest brains together to come up with this plan. Making what seemed like an endless line of scenarios. It was believed that the only way to beat Sakura was to set up the playing field, and not allow her to realize the rules of the game before it was too late.

Which, according to Izuku, was exactly what Sakura had been doing with them this entire time.

"We all need to work together, and wear her down until she lets her guard down."

That had seemed like such a simple plan and there were simple rules. Instead of searching for Sakura, they would lure her to them. Then they would take her to a prepared area that would act as their battleground. And they would ensure she couldn't escape without knowing where she went. Momo had to work extremely hard, and their brains were fried after all the strategizing. Everyone was broken into groups and given certain roles, which some were still yet to play. Only their main object of attention had gone missing right under their noses!

"Anyone sees anything?" called Hanta.

Before Rikido could reply, a low rumble hit the soles of his feet, shaking beneath him, he barely noticed it before suddenly the earth broke. He was pulled under in an instant, the ground swallowing him up to his neck.

"Sato!" Mashirao shouted, running over to him without thinking why he was in this state it was hard when all he could see was Rikido's head and the rest of him was buried under ground. That was the thing about instincts, that was a message that didn't get delivered to your logic.

Mashirao wasn't the only one being overtaken by panic and instinct, a few others were also being washed away by that unexpected turn of events and coming out of the shadows. The ground erupted beneath Mashirao's feet, and he was knocked off his feet, his head swinging back from the impact and he lost consciousness before he even hit the ground again. Sakura crawled out of the ground, craning her neck and wiping some of the dirt from it.

"I see why Kakashi liked doing that so much," She stretched out her arms "If you couldn't find me above, behind, or in front, where else would you look?"

Ochaco and Hanta watched from above, their eyes wide with shock. Ochaco quickly pressed a finger to her earpiece, her voice urgent. "She's here. Sakura's here!"

Mina, Fumikage, Yuga, and Minoru were springing out of the foliage. The first to move was Mina, gliding on the soles of her feet full of acid with the grace of an ice skater. Fumikage, Yuga, and Minoru kept to distant attacks. But they were unaware, if they looked close enough they would've seen it and realized that Sakura was no longer crouching in stillness. And that her stance had shifted.

It was over in less than five seconds, Mina, Yuga, Minoru, and Fumikage were on the ground, unmoving. She had blurred through, dodged, and countered them before a proper attack could even be thrown from either of them.

"So, you've all decided to team up together. What brought this on? You know there's only one bell, right?" She jabbed but her words were met with silence she could feel their eyes on her, and she knew that she tugging on their nerves like the strings of a guitar.

Her ears didn't catch it in time. The roaring engines of Tenya's. He came rushing through the forest, at a different speed than before. Unbeknownst to her, this was his trump card, one he had recently trained to reach a speed he had little control over. Unlike his legs, his arms were not as fast, and he relied on taking Sakura head-on to fulfill his role. Barely managing to catch her clothing and drag her along with him. He gripped her once she had fallen over his shoulder before she could be knocked away.

"Got you!" Tenya shouted, his voice strained as he struggled to maintain control. Everything was streaked in a blur of dark colors, Sakura's hair whipped in a single direction and almost felt it would stay like that from the pressure being pushed onto it.

However, that journey didn't last more than a few seconds before Sakura saw something else fill her vision. A wall of ice encircled them the rest of the way, and the walls were high. Something she would've noticed if she had been up in the trees unless this was just a recent construction.

Tenya's new Recipro Burst was too fast for him to stop completely, but he shut off his engines, his body skidding across the ground as momentum carried them forward. Sakura twisted in his grip, her legs coiling like springs, and with a powerful kick, she broke free, flipping through the air and landing. However no sooner had her feet touched the ground, she felt a new heat coming her way. The flames were intense, making the air shimmer. Sakura twisted her body avoiding it, and took a single high leap, landing on the icy wall where she could get a new perspective of the makeshift arena.

She spotted Shoto, but before they could even have an exchange of words, she felt the heat of yet another attack. A familiarly powerful blast that required gauntlets to reign them in and keep from injuring the bearer of that ferocious quirk. Sakura was in the air now and saw Katsuki hurtling towards her like a missile.

"Howitzer Impact!" The explosion was deafening, the force of it sending Sakura flying backward. She hit the icy wall hard, the impact sending cracks spider webbing across its surface. But she didn't land on her back with her belly exposed like a vulnerable game. She adjusted mid-air, her body twisting to absorb the blow, and landed in a crouch, her eyes falling on her next target. And it wasn't Katsuki or Shoto.

It was easy to spot him when his power gave a green charge of light, and it had more presence than anyone elses quirk. This wasn't something Sakura had admitted to Izuku before, but over time she had become familiar with the essence of his power, in one way that was unique to anyone elses. There was an aura that she could detect every time he used that power of his. Before she even saw him charging at her with his eyes practically glowing with determination and before his fingers even curled to release that wind force.

"A four-way strike. So this is what you've been planning,"

The class had coordinated their attacks perfectly, using their strengths to create a seamless chain of assaults. Tenya's speed, Shoto's ice, Katsuki's explosions, and now Izuku's raw power—they had thrown everything they had at her, and for the first time, Sakura felt the weight of their combined effort. However, if they thought this was going to be enough pressure to make her knees buckle, then they had miscalculated how much more weight they needed.

As Izuku's fist came hurtling toward her, Sakura's lips curved into a small smile. "Are you finally going to take my advice to heart? And do what I instructed you from the very beginning of this test?"

There was the faintest twitch in the movements as Izuku made his way towards her. Yes, he had finally been able to piece together what they needed to do, and he felt a bit distraught that he had failed to realize it sooner. Sakura had attached the strings to pull at all of them from the very beginning, a mix of strategies that played on their psyche in the simplest manner. She was holding a shiny object above her head in one hand, and the key in another.

'Come at me like you want to kill me,'

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