Chapter 43: Ten Days!

Rin stood in a corridor of concrete targets that Cementoss had shaped into human-sized silhouettes. His Scale Gauntlets stored his scales and fired them like gatling guns.

Both gauntlets erupted simultaneously. Scales launched in a sustained burst, each one whistled through the air and embedded itself in the targets. The first volley hit center mass. The second hit a half-second later. The third. The fourth. A continuous stream from both arms, the scales overlapping in flight, creating a wall of razor-edged projectiles that shredded the teacher’s clone from fifty meters out.

"Dragon Barrage!" he said when the gauntlets ran dry. The clone was in tatters.

Kaibara's Ectoplasm clone barely dodged.

The move started as a sprint. Then Kaibara jumped. His legs came up, both feet aimed forward in a dropkick position, and then Gyrate activated. Both legs began rotating from the hips down, the spiral accelerating until his feet were blurs, the drill gloves on his hands nothing compared to the spinning force of two gravity-trained legs turning at full RPM.

He hit the clone feet-first. The clone was pierced directly through.

"Spiral Rush!" he said, landing in a crouch.

After requesting another clone from Ectoplasm, the two fought. He caught an incoming punch from his clone on his spinning left forearm. The rotation deflected the fist sideways, redirecting all the force away from his body, and his right arm, already spinning, drilled into the clone's exposed stomach.

"Drill Counter!" He straightened up.

Shoda faced three Ectoplasm clones in an open area.

He was a lot faster than he looked. The first clone swung and Shoda ducked under it, landing a hard right to its ribs. Then a left to its hip. Then a right to its shoulder. Three points of contact on one clone in under two seconds, each one a real hit.

He backed away.

"Fire."

Three Twin Impacts detonated simultaneously.

The clone's ribs, hip, and shoulder all caved inward at the same time. Three separate amplified impacts going off in concert. The clone folded in on itself from three directions.

"Delayed Detonation!" Shoda said. He adjusted his visor. "I can hold up to five impact points before triggering. Working on getting it to seven."

Yanagi raised her hands.

Eight objects orbited her body in a tight ring, circling like a planetary system with her at the center.

"Phantom Storm."

The ring expanded outward and the objects launched in a spiraling pattern, each one following a curved trajectory that made them nearly impossible to dodge individually. Ectoplasm’s clones tried. Two got through. One rock caught its shoulder, the rebar caught its knee.

She pulled the objects back. They returned to orbit.

"Spirit Shield." The ring tightened, the objects accelerating until they formed a blur of spinning debris around her body. The clone threw a punch. Its fist hit a chunk of concrete orbiting at high speed and the clone's knuckles cracked.

Yanagi stood at the center of her shield, hands limp, expression flat.

"How ghastly…" She smiled.

Awase sparred with his clone at close range, trading punches and blocks. Mid-exchange, his right hand forced the clone's forearm to the floor. He activated his quirk and the clone's arm bonded to the concrete floor.

The clone tried to pull free. Awase was already forcing its other arm to bond with the wall.

"Quick Weld!" he said. "Works best if they aren’t a better fighter than me."

Across the gym over the course of the week, other students refined what they already had. Tetsutetsu pushed his partial hardening further, learning to switch which limbs were steel mid-combination. Kamakiri's Mantis Spiral stopped making him dizzy after day six. Kendo's Gatling Impact went from eight cycles to twelve before cramping. Shiozaki's Vine Crucifixion got faster. Setsuna's Lizard Reflex became less instinct and more technique. Shishida's Re-Beast transitions sharpened from a full second to a half.

Several students visited the Development Studio to modify their costumes. Rin's Scale Gauntlets were recalibrated for the higher launch speeds his gravity training demanded. Pony's boots were modified with grip pads for Horn Surf stability. Tsuburaba got an oxygen tank for extra usage for his quirk.

Manga didn't visit the Development Studio. His costume didn't need modifications. His quirk didn't really require external support.

His body, mind, and voice were the only tools he needed.

Manga stood in his training area with his notebook open on a concrete bench beside him. The pages were filling up. Headers in bold at the top of each section: Attack God. Defense God. Capture God. Support God. Under each header, words and word-pairs, some circled, some crossed out, some starred.

His Ectoplasm clone stood across from him, reformed after the last combination had destroyed the previous one.

"Alright." Manga cracked his neck. "New combination."

"You've destroyed four of me today," the clone noted. "I'm running out of enthusiasm for this."

"This one's different. It's a capture combo. This one's going to feel cold."

"Of course it is."

"Zaa-zaa." Heavy rain. 

The word erupted from Manga's mouth and the effect was immediate. Water appeared from the air itself, condensing and falling in sheets, drenching the clone from head to foot in under a second. The training area became a localized downpour, water pooling on the concrete, running in streams toward the drains.

The clone blinked water out of its eyes. "I'm wet now. What comes next?"

"Kin-kin."

The temperature plummeted instantly. The water on the clone's skin froze in place. The puddles on the ground became sheets of ice. The streams stopped flowing and turned solid. The water in the clone's hair, on its clothes, between its fingers, in its eyelashes, all of it crystallized in the span of a heartbeat.

The clone was encased. Not in a block of ice like Endeavor’s son would produce, but in a shell of frozen water that followed the exact contours of its body. A perfect mold. Every finger. Every fold of clothing. Every surface that had been wet was now locked in place by ice.

The clone couldn't move. Its mouth was frozen shut. Its eyes were wide behind a thin layer of frost.

"Flash Freeze!" Manga looked at his work. "Drench them first. Freeze them second. The water gives the cold something to crystallize. Without the water, Kin-kin just drops the temperature. With it, you get instant ice imprisonment."

He crushed the two words. The ice shattered and the clone fell forward, shivering, ectoplasm steaming in the sudden temperature differential.

"Th-that," the clone chattered. "Was the w-worst one yet."

Manga wrote it in his notebook. Under the header "Capture God," he added: Flash Freeze. Zaa-zaa + Kin-kin. Then he paused, crossed out "Capture God," and rewrote it under "Attack God" with a note: adjustable. Can be capture (thin ice shell) or lethal (deep freeze). Context dependent.

He closed the notebook and looked at the six Ectoplasm clones he'd destroyed that day. Puddles of ectoplasm, scorch marks, frozen patches, and one outline on the wall where the Amplified Impact combination had launched a clone hard enough to leave an impression.

"Done for today," he called to Vlad King.

Vlad King looked at the destruction. Then at Manga. Then back at the destruction.

"Clean up your area before you leave."

"Aw man..."

Pony had rearranged her entire room.

The bed was pushed against the wall. The desk was turned sideways to create a makeshift viewing station. Her laptop sat on it, propped at the perfect angle, connected to a small speaker that she'd bought specifically for this occasion. Three bags of snacks were arranged on the floor: apple slices in one, rice crackers in another, and something called "Anime Mix" that was just trail mix with manga-character packaging.

She'd made a sign. It was taped to her door. Hand-drawn, colored with markers, decorated with small sticker stars.

FRIDAY ANIME NIGHT Episode 1 Screening: 8:00 PM Sharp!

Shoda arrived first. He knocked twice, quietly, and slipped inside with a bag of mochi ice cream.

"I brought dessert."

"Shoda! You're amazing!" Pony grabbed the bag. "These are the strawberry ones, right?"

"Strawberry and green tea."

"Perfect. Okay, sit anywhere. Manga said he'd be here in five."

Manga arrived in four and a half minutes. His bubble displayed a popcorn emoji. He was carrying a blanket.

"I brought comfort." He held it up. "The best shows deserve cozy viewing conditions."

"You're such a dork." Setsuna appeared behind him in the doorway, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. "I'm joining."

Pony looked at her. Then at Manga. Then at Setsuna.

"You... like anime?" Pony asked carefully.

"I like being where my boyfriend is." Setsuna walked in and sat down next to Manga's spot on the floor with zero ceremony. "If that means watching kiddie cartoons, I'll survive."

"They're not kiddie cartoons!" Manga, Pony, and Shoda said simultaneously.

"Sure they're not." She rolled her eyes.

Down the hall, Kendo paused at her own door. She could hear them. Pony's excited chatter. Shoda's quiet laugh. Manga's bubble making some kind of sound effect and Setsuna's voice after his.

She thought about going in. Pony and Shoda were there. Two chaperones. The rule was satisfied.

She went to her own room instead. Opened a book. Read four pages.

Then she put the book down and walked to Pony's door and knocked.

"Room for one more?"

"KENDO!" Pony threw the door open. "Sit anywhere! We're about to start!"

"I'm not here for the anime. I'm here to supervise."

"What a buzzkill." Setsuna smirked from the floor, leaning against Manga's shoulder. "Shoda and Pony are enough for supervision."

Kendo sat down, ignoring her. Pony hit play.

The opening credits of Fullmetal Wizard rolled across the laptop screen. A sweeping orchestral theme. Two brothers. Wizardry. A journey to find what was lost.

Manga's bubble displayed a heart emoji. He'd seen this show four times and it still hit the same way.

Pony was already crying before the opening song finished.

"It's the freaking intro…" Setsuna stared at her. "Nothing sad has even happened yet."

"The music is just so good!" Pony sobbed.

Shoda handed her a tissue with a smile.

They watched three episodes. By the end of the third, Pony had used six tissues, Shoda had explained the magic system to Kendo twice, Manga wanted to pause the show four times to point out specific animation techniques, Setsuna had admitted that the show "wasn't terrible," and Kendo had stopped pretending she was there to supervise.

"Same time next week?" Pony asked as everyone headed out.

"Obviously." Manga said.

"I'll bring better snacks." Shoda offered.

"I'll be wherever he is." Setsuna jerked her thumb at Manga.

Kendo said nothing. But she didn't say no.

Friday Anime Night was born.

Day ten. The last day.

Vlad King called them together at the end of the session.

"You've had ten days. You've developed your quirks, created your moves, and modified your costumes." He looked at each of them. "Tomorrow, you'll face students from other schools. Students who've trained longer, students whose quirks you've never seen, students who want the same license you do and are willing to fight for it."

He paused.

"Class A and Class B are registered at different exam sites. You won't be competing against each other."

Monoma looked devastated at the news. "I was looking forward to..."

"Beating them at the Sports Festival was enough." Kendo said.

"The pass rate is fifty percent," Vlad King continued. "That means half of you could fail. I don't believe that will happen. You've trained harder than any first-year class I've taught. You survived a villain attack. You earned this."

He crossed his arms.

"Get some rest tonight. Eat well. Sleep early." His eyes swept across his twenty students. "Tomorrow, you show them what Class 1-B is made of."

Nobody spoke for a moment.

Then Tetsutetsu slammed his steel fist into his steel palm.

"PLUS ULTRA!"

The class erupted.

"PLUS ULTRA!!!"

“CLASS B!”

“CLASS B!”

“CLASS B!”

The sound bounced off the walls of Gym Gamma and echoed through the building. Twenty voices. One class. Ready.