My Swarm Academia: Call Of The Void

About ten minutes later, the fourth trial was complete. Jiro and Kaminari had managed to get through the blockaded door with the former's sonic pulses, but time had run out before much more could be done. While boring, the "villains" had done well.

This time, as the teams came in, All Might rushed to say something before Kai could take control again. But, contrary to expectations, Kai said nothing, letting everyone else speak. Of course, this was because there was nothing much to say. This outcome was more of a matter of bad compatibility than anything else.

Then came the final draw. The results: Kai and Sato as villains, and Ashido and Aoyama as heroes. As the two pairs walked out of the observation room, Kai announced loudly that he wouldn't use his Quirk at all for the duration of the trial, then wished his opponents luck. With that, he and Sato walked up to the payload room, and left behind a shocked audience and confused opponents.

"So, what do you think? Shall we redecorate?" Kai asked. "I think that the bomb could use a new paint job. Then it could really bring the room together. You know, before it blows everything up."

"You… really are confident, aren't you?" Sato said slowly.

"Can't be great without confidence. True whether you are a hero or a villain."

"Fair enough. Is that really the only reason you think you can win without your Quirk? Isn't it better to use everything you can?" Sato asked cautiously.

"Perhaps, but if I was me, having my Quirk, I would never be in this situation where I'm a villain with a nuke in the middle of a city. I mean, why would I go through all this trouble? If I wanted to destroy a city, it's to make a statement. And if I wanted to make a statement, I would do this with just my Quirk, not a nuke. Sure, it would take a little more time, but that would give everyone plenty of time to savor the fear. Furthermore, if I'm making a statement like this, I'm going for domination. And if I'm doing that, I want this planet, and wouldn't like to make it uninhabitable."

"You've… thought this through," Sato said nervously.

"Hasn't everyone? Besides, I was born to destroy the world, and I wasn't going to do that the wrong way," Kai said, patting Sato on the shoulder. "Now, do you want to fight here, or go for an ambush? I have a crossroad that was calling me." With that, he reached back, drew his longsword, and admired the decorations down the blade that had been hidden until now as he walked down the hall.

Sato started feeling uncomfortable. Kai had been acting stranger and stranger all day, and though Kai spoke with a friendly tone, there was still a cold atmosphere around him. And he was talking like he had experience with destroying cities, or at the very least, he'd wanted to.

So he followed Kai out, keeping a wary distance.

They reached their ambush point at about the same time that Aoyama and Ashido entered the building. The heroes progressed through the building slowly. They just couldn't believe that Kai really wouldn't use his Quirk at all. Why would anyone do that? It had to be a trick, right? So on they went, carefully looking around every corner, expecting some monster to attack them at any moment. But nothing happened.

"Could he really have been telling the truth?" Ashido asked nervously.

"But why would he have warned us if so?"

Neither had an answer, and got even more nervous.

It only took two minutes for them to get up to where Kai and Sato lay in wait. They were each down one branch of the hall so that they would catch the "heroes" between them. Kai held his longsword in his left hand with a reversed grip, and his wooden sword in his right.

"Welcome, heroes!" Kai shouted as soon as Aoyama appeared in his sight. Periodically resting the point of his longsword on the ground as if it was a walking stick, he walked toward the junction. "I'm glad you were able to find your way! I was a bit afraid you had lost your way. Well, you found us! What are you going to do now?"

"… Eh?" both Aoyama and Ashido said.

"Not sure, are we? Well, if you want some time to think about it, I could get us some tea. Barley? Green? Or something a little different? It is the season for oolong, after all."

"You're just stalling us, trying to get us to run out of time so you win," Ashido said.

"Nonsense. I really have a new tea I want to try. And why would I stall for the end of the trial? That would take too much stalling. I'm just talking so that Sato can get behind you."

Both Aoyama and Ashido quickly turned around, but Sato was still hidden in the shadows of the other corridor, where he had broken the lights.

Kai quickly closed the distance as soon as their backs were turned, running with soft steps to minimize noise.

"And I said that so that I could get behind you. Sato!"

On this signal, Sato grabbed a previously prepared piece of the wall and catapulted it towards Ashido. Reacting quickly, she swept her hand up and released a stream of acid that shrank the debris to a far less harmful size. Realizing that she was being targeted, she launched herself forward to close the gap so she could get Sato and stick him to the floor, leaving Aoyama to deal with Kai.

As soon as Kai announced his presence again, Aoyama turned and put both of his hands behind his head, getting into his usual beaming pose. Kai kept his eyes on Aoyama's belt lens, reading the direction the beam would come from. As his right hand raised the wooden sword, his left pulled the longsword so that went across his body. Then, Aoyama's beam came. Due to Kai's quick thinking, it bounced from the blade of his sword and hit the ceiling instead.

"Nice try. Maybe one more time? This time, with feeling!" Kai taunted.

"You're being a bit rude, aren't you, mon ami?"

"Hello? Villain!" Kai lunged toward Aoyama, laughing.

Finally, he was back in his element. Though it was awkward holding the longsword in his off hand and in such an unreasonable grip, it suited the purpose of using it as a mirror. Kai was confident he could just dodge, but where was the fun in that? Besides, deflecting Aoyama's beams gave him a ranged option that could support Sato, keeping Ashido on her toes. Kai had no experience dual wielding like this, but he felt like he'd be able to adapt.

It was weird having a teammate, for once. He'd never been able to have one in the field. At least, not one that wasn't summoned.

As Aoyama sent more beams his way, occasionally using them to push himself backwards and build up distance, Kai got better at redirecting them. Now that he was confident in his ability to do so, he slowed down and walked up to Aoyama, deflecting beams as he went. Some got really close to Ashido. He would have aimed for Aoyama, but he didn't want to know just yet what would happen if he crossed the streams.

Ashido had been going back and forth against Sato, who kept ripping pieces of the wall off and throwing them at her. Her reflexes and acid had kept her safe for the most part, but it was tiring.

Though Aoyama had only done short bursts, he had done quite the number trying to strike Kai down, and found himself pushed back to back with Ashido, who had faced a similar problem with Sato ripping chunks out of the walls and throwing them. Though she had set down sticky fluid to slow or trap him, he just dropped some debris and made it walkable again.

"This isn't working," she shouted.

"Then maybe we should, ugh," Aoyama g.r.o.a.n.e.d. He had done too many beams in a short time and was starting to pay the price. His stomach was killing him.

"Yes, perhaps you should, uh, do whatever that was meant. Sounded like a surrender to me," Kai said cheerfully. He tossed his longsword into his right hand and reached it back to put it back into the scabbard on his back. After a couple of fumbles and making a note to practice the motion, he got it right back into place. If Aoyama wasn't going to be sending beams nearly as often, he didn't need it.

"Now, will you formally surrender before I have to incapacitate you? I do feel uncomfortable with attacking a girl, but I won't lose any sleep on it. I've done far worse," Kai said, flaring his Quirk to let his eyes shine from beneath his hood.

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines, especially Ashido. Just who was this guy? He had put away the real sword, but somehow felt more dangerous now.

"I'll take your silence as a refusal. Brave, I'll give you that. You have five seconds to push your skulls together before I do it for you. Try to keep me from doing it- it'll just hurt more."

"What are you-"

"Time's up!"

The whole time he had been talking, he had been closing the gap. Kai swung his wooden sword, aiming for Aoyama's ribs. By instinct, Aoyama stepped backwards, firmly pressing his back against Ashido's. As the sword struck, Kai took his hand off the sword and grabbed Aoyama's face. Continuing his forward momentum, he pushed Aoyama's head back and knocked it against Ashido's.

While they were seeing stars, Kai stepped forward and pulled Aoyama's leg out from under him, leveraging his head to push Ashido down as well. He was a little tempted to maximize damage and make her go flat on her face with Aoyama on top of her, but Kai decided he was being mean enough, and angled him off to the side.

With both opponents on the ground, Kai held them down with one knee on Aoyama's c.h.e.s.t and waved Sato over to help with the capture.

"Well done, well, done," Kai announced to his opponents as he wrapped the capture tape around Aoyama. "Really, you did well. You just don't have enough real-world experience. Good thing you have come here, eh? You'll be getting some of that soon. Just gotta start thinking outside of the box. But you have a good foundation. Or rather, a place to build a foundation.

"Ashido, I'm sorry that we were countering you, but range was the only thing that Sato could have over you. We'll find you a way to compensate.

"Now, if someone would immediately tell that to the rest of the class?"

There was a number of frowns in response to that. What did he mean?

Once Sato properly put the tape around Ashido, All Might announced the results of the trial: victory for the villains. As he finished speaking, Kai reached down and pulled Aoyama and Ashido up from the floor. He patted them both on the shoulder and gestured down the hall that lead back to the observation room.

"Come on, everyone," he said cheerfully. "There are some things that need to be said."

Everyone started walking together. As they reached the stairs that went down to the bas.e.m.e.nt, Kai stopped and reached for his boots.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll be right behind you. There's something in my boot that is bugging the heck out of me."

As they shrugged it off and went on ahead, eager to hear what All Might and the others had to say about their fight, nobody was able to see Kai. His hands were not on his boots, but on the floor. His eyes were bright and streaming purple mist.

"I have many things I need to say," he murmured as the energy pulsed out.

Somewhere, the doomsday clock struck midnight.