Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Taylor POV.
"So, how are we going to do this? Are you coming in a group? " I asked as I began to stretch lazily. We were inside a fairly large area; according to Miss Militia, it was a training zone where the use of Quirks was permitted, and it was sturdy enough to withstand various types of destructive Quirks.
"In a group? We usually train one-on-one," Aegis said, confused. I looked at her, equally confused.
"Oh... if that's how you want to do it..." I said uncertainly.
"Don't you think we can handle you?" Vista asked dryly as she crossed her arms; I just shrugged.
"I didn't say that, it's just... habit, I guess. My quirk is versatile and overwhelming enough to work perfectly as group control, and my aura is huge compared to others, so I can resist several of my classmates at the same time."
"Although we sometimes do one-on-one exercises, I have to restrain myself a bit, or fight alone with my quirk, or with Shusui." I said honestly.
" Ooh, now I'm fired up! I say let's do it! " Antares said as she began to crack her knuckles with excitement.
"I'm in. I really want to see what Ryuma's 'Heir' can do," Clockblocker said with a smile. I heard Aegis sigh and look at Miss Militia, who shrugged.
"I'm just here to keep an eye on things; it's entirely your decision," Miss Militia said matter-of-factly.
"I prefer to stay on the sidelines," Gallant said, raising his hand while smiling gently.
"Yes, me too. As interesting as it is, I've seen what she can do with that katana. I don't want her cutting my things in half; it would take me forever to repair them." Modularis said with a grimace.
"I'll stay on the sidelines too, I'll be watching the fight." Aegis said with a sigh.
And after that, no one else spoke, so in front of me were now Antares, Vista, Clockblocker, Weld, and Flechette.
"Alright, shall we begin?" I asked excitedly. I gripped Shusui's sheath tightly, preparing for combat. Everyone nodded in confirmation as they got ready.
Antares began to fly as she prepared, Clockblocker brought her hands to her thighs, seemed to touch something in circles there, in some kind of compartment, but she hadn't taken anything out yet. Weld simply prepared herself in front of the group, getting into a fighting stance. Flechette began reloading her crossbow as she started circling around me. Vista did the same, but I could see her moving away as she pulled out… brass knuckles and a revolver? Wow… I hadn't seen that coming.
I smiled broadly beneath my mask, letting my insects begin to go wild. The buzzing, flapping, noise of insects colliding with each other, and the hissing of the insects themselves began to fill the room, causing everyone to freeze in place.
Then a huge swarm came in through the ventilation ducts and under the door and began to converge around me. There weren't as many insects as I would have liked, but then again, there wasn't much I could work with inside an old oil platform in the middle of the bay.
But that should be enough.
" LET'S BEGIN." The unsettling click of my swarm made the heroes in front of me tremble.
"Okay, that's creepy, I admit it." Clockblocker said, sounding genuinely impressed.
"Very well! Your Aura levels are connected to the screen. The moment it reaches 15% or less, you're out of the fight!" Miss Militia exclaimed, staring at us for a few seconds. "Begin!" she said before taking a step back. At that same instant, I felt a powerful fist slam into my cheek, knocking me back.
I could see Vista with her arm outstretched in my direction, but she wasn't even close. True, from what I remembered, Vista was capable of making space for herself, compressing it, stretching it, or bending it as she pleased. She was already proving to be a nuisance.
I tried to recall what little I remembered about the heroes before I went to Japan; the heroic scene in Brockton Bay had never particularly caught my attention, at least not enough to know the Wards' complete quirks exactly.
But there were useful little tidbits here and there, like the fact that Vista could only use her Quirk on non-living matter; any living being, including insects, blocked it. I didn't even hesitate to put a wall of insects between us.
I twisted my body just in time to avoid Antares's fist as she rapidly descended. Antares, formerly Glory Girl, possessed what was commonly known as the Alexandria package: flight, super strength, and invulnerability.
I spun around once more, dodging Flechette's arrow. I had no idea what her quirk was, but she didn't seem to be using it; she just appeared to be providing ranged support. That was fine.
Antares spun in the air and tried to hit me again. I threw my head back, dodging it once more, before twisting my body as I saw Weld approaching. One of his arms had transformed into a spear, which he used to try and stab me. Metal manipulation? Or manipulation of its own metallic body? One was more annoying than the other.
Finally, I smiled, grasped Shusui, felt the familiar warmth, and began to move. Water Breathing: Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin. I raised my sword above my head in a fluid motion and slashed vertically downward with force. Several cuts struck simultaneously. One shattered an arrow, three struck Antares' fist, forcing it to change course, and the rest struck Weld's spear, severing its tip.
I could see the surprise in their eyes. First Form: Water Surface Slash. I launched a horizontal slash in the direction of Antares, aiming for her arm, which received the blow. I could feel my sword being stopped abruptly as if it had hit something incredibly hard above Antares' skin.
Her invulnerability shield—it would be a real nuisance to fight against it—protected her from the damage, not the force behind the blow, so Antares was thrown back. I didn't even turn around when I felt someone move behind me; without even looking or turning my head, I moved my head to dodge Weld's attack.
I spun my body, Sixth Form: Whirlpool, attacking in Weld's direction as I spun fiercely, generating a whirlwind of air, only for my eyes to widen as my sword whizzed past without harming Weld at all. I looked at Shusui; for a moment it was as if… as if she folded in on herself? As if she were shortened.
I didn't even have to look to know that Vista had avoided my swarm long enough to momentarily shorten Shusui's distance so that Weld wasn't hit. Truly impressive. I was about to move, but I felt Vista move; she fired her revolver.
The insects above her saw the direction of the shot before the bullet left her, which confused me even more. She shot at the ceiling. Her hand was raised as she fired.
Flechette fired at that moment too; the crossbow wasn't that fast, so I prepared to dodge as my bugs took in the whole picture. Vista's bullet had just curved. The damn Vista bullet, headed for the ceiling, made a sharp turn of almost 130 degrees and pointed precisely where I was.
I flooded Vista once more with my insects, swung my sword, and intercepted both projectiles. I blinked slightly. Plastic bullets? Vista is using a replica gun?! The plastic pellets Vista just used were bigger and harder than normal; they would definitely leave a horrible bruise on any civilian who hit her with it, but still, it was still a toy gun?!
Did she choose it? Did Public Relations force you to use something like that? Did they give Vista a freaking toy?! So she can face villains!? For the love of— Ruby uses high-caliber ammunition! Sinon is constantly firing her Hecate at us! This is simply ridiculous.
I clicked my tongue. Could it be that they only use it for training? I'd have to talk to her later; for now, I went back to focusing on the fight.
I could see with my insects the next two attacks, the first was Weld, she turned her hand into a sword, I only dodged it before hitting hard with my sword to repel and open his guard, then I kicked her hard backwards.
The next attack came from Clockblocker. It made a circular motion from her. I didn't even look at it; I just removed Shusui's sheath from my hip and intercepted the… yo-yo? A rather strange yo-yo. I could hear some kind of mechanism inside the yo-yo. Even so, I used Shusui's sheath to intercept it. The yo-yo kept spinning and got tangled uselessly around the sheath.
I was about to use the sheath as a lever and force Clockblocker to come closer, but the sheath froze in place, no, the rope and the yo-yo were frozen, trapping my sword's sheath in the air without being able to release it, so I let go.
Clockblocker had the ability to freeze anything she touched in time, and she used several yo-yos; like, a whole bunch, she simply released the frozen yo-yo and took out two more from the compartments she had, and she seemed to have even more.
Vista fired three more times, one through the swarm, and two shots that seemed completely random, where there were no insects in the way, and just as I expected, the bullets curved precisely and headed straight for me. Every single shot was aimed at me with extreme accuracy, as if she could see me.
…or sense. Observation Haki? Part of her Quirk? Does she distort space? Or matter itself? Either way, it wouldn't be surprising if her power came with a Thinker component; if she can sense which objects she can deform, it would be easy to create a kind of mental map around herself. Turn my body and cut the bullets.
Vista was truly a nuisance. Without hesitation, I twisted around, forcing my insects into Vista's visor. In my experience, it wasn't necessary to bite people; simply forcing my insects to walk on a person's body, especially their face, near their orifices, would make them scream and lose their rhythm, and Vista was no exception.
She shrieked loudly, which made Weld and Flechette spin around, but Antares kept moving downwards, and one of Clockblocker's yo-yos was heading in my direction. I just spun around, slamming my foot down. Thunderclap and Flash. I vanished, and the next instant I was next to Vista, still distracted and unable to see thanks to my insects. The insects inside my haori completely covered us; they didn't attack, they simply positioned themselves around us, disrupting Vista's quirk in all directions to prevent her from escaping or doing anything.
I didn't even hold back, Water Breathing: Third Form: Flowing Dance. The first upward blow struck Vista's chest with force, making her groan. I appeared behind her. Vista gritted her teeth, ignoring the insects on her face, and raised her arms to shield herself, even though she couldn't see. Unfortunately, the next blow came from behind her, making her scream.
I moved quickly, with each blow I fluidly rotated my position to avoid hitting the same place, disconcerting Vista; no two blows fell in the same place, my body rotated and moved fluidly with large curves, but faster and faster.
I could feel all the other heroes coming to rescue Vista. Too slow, Flechette's arrows arrived first, but I easily dodged them. Antares arrived afterward, like a goddess of fury. I felt a wave of fear surge within me and immediately pushed it away, into my insects.
Could someone influence emotions? That was new, but I dismissed it; there was no time to be distracted. Antares would arrive immediately, but it was enough time to strike and further weaken Vista's aura.
Antares finally arrived; her fist aimed for my head. I waited until the last instant, and then, Sun Breathing: Fake Rainbow, Antares opened her eyes as her fist pierced my afterimage. Instead, I reappeared once more beside Vista. Sun Breathing: Flame Dance. A continuous downward vertical strike followed by a horizontal slash, both striking simultaneously.
Vista groaned as she was thrown back with force, her aura dropping enough to disqualify her from the fight. I spun around and watched Antares' fist coming in my direction. I ducked where I was, lifted Shusui, and placed my palm on the base of the hilt. "Water Breathing: Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust !" Shusui performed a precise, swift, and accurate thrust, striking the midpoint of Antares' fist and stopping it with a powerful explosion that sent my insects flying.
I gritted my teeth as I felt myself strike an immovable object once again. Antares' eyes widened as her fist stopped. I took advantage of this surprise and moved once more. I thrust Shusui horizontally with all my might, striking Antares not to cut her, but to forcefully knock her away. It worked well when she was launched several meters, but it was of little use against a flyer who could reorient herself in mid-air.
I clicked my tongue and saw two yo-yos approaching me, one on each side, both horizontally as if they wanted to trap me. I prepared to jump when I saw Antares coming towards me from above. I could feel Weld running towards me, from the opposite direction of Clockblocker. They're trapping me.
I was about to cut one of the yo-yos when both froze horizontally before reaching me, creating two almost horizontal lines, completely immobile, close enough to my body to close in and restrict my movements, preventing my escape. I gathered my swarm enough to cover my position and movements, dropped to the ground, and—
I remained still, still covered by my swarm. I could see Antares, Weld, and Flechette adjusting their attacks to target the sides, as if they were waiting for me to roll so they could freely strike at me when I left Clockblocker's yo-yos. Unfortunately for them, they only hit the ground where clones made from my insects were standing.
I stood up and ran along the path Clockblocker had created. Her tactic had prevented me from moving to the sides, yes, but it had created a direct path towards herself, so I took advantage of it.
I appeared in front of her immediately. I could see her panicking, though her body reacted instantly. She tried to touch me with her hands. I used Shusui to strike Clockblocker's wrist, forcefully pushing it upwards.
Then I let dozens of attacks rain down on her body. She had less Aura than Vista, so her aura quickly diminished. I used another Fake Rainbow to dodge Antares' attack from behind me.
"I'm getting tired of this!" Antares shouted furiously. I just chuckled. Finally, I faced her and Weld, who had arrived. Sun Breathing: Thirteenth Form. My body moved fluidly from one form to the next. Antares' shield seemed impenetrable, so I only used it to stop her advance and focused on Weld.
Despite being made entirely of metal, Shusui was stronger. I slowly began to deplete her Aura levels and break parts of her skin, as if it were cracking. Even so, Weld was easy.
Flechette, on the other hand, I had no idea what to do with her. It would be easy to defeat her, mainly because she hadn't seen her use her quirk. Did she even have a quirk? Did she only use her crossbow? If so, she would just have to find a way to defeat Antares; the arrows were easy to dodge and stop.
I tried using my insects to annoy Antares, but besides earning a small shiver from her, she barely flinched; my insects couldn't touch her. I frowned; it was truly a huge nuisance.
When Weld was finally defeated, I focused solely on Antares. My Thirteenth Form was nowhere near what Izumi could do. It wasn't as fast, as strong, as fluid, or even as elegant as Izumi's, but it was still the strongest form of Sun Breathing.
Sun Breathing wasn't the style she was most comfortable with; in fact, I was sure I wouldn't be able to fully master it for many years, if ever, but even so, it was still the strongest, fastest, and most versatile form I had access to.
Hundreds of blows rained down on Antares as I dodged her attacks; all my attacks were completely neutralized by colliding with her invisibility shield. My insects couldn't do much either, since I couldn't touch her.
It was terribly frustrating; the fight had stalled. I couldn't hit her because of her shield, and she couldn't hit me because I was moving faster than her. I gritted my teeth and used more force, refusing to believe she was completely unbreakable. She had to have some damn limit. I was considering using Armament Haki when I finally felt one of my blows connect with Antares's body.
My eyes widened as I felt my insects touch her skin or her disguise. Did it… break?
Did his shield break? How did that happen? Antares' eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't stop moving. She tried to back away, and I immediately followed. My next blow landed, but it bounced off her shield again. I almost growled in frustration.
I struck Antares once more with force, my blows falling upon her body with fury. This time, I could feel once again how one of my blows hit Antares' body, covered by her aura; it was a completely different sensation than when hitting her shield.
And finally I noticed it: with enough force, her shield shattered before reforming, and it seemed that it was better to strike the same spot repeatedly. I raised my sword and—
"Enough." I heard Miss Militia's voice stop us. Antares and I froze. I moved my sword to deflect Flechette's last arrow, which had been aimed in my direction even before Miss Militia spoke. "It's a victory for Skitter," Miss Militia said.
"What, no? I can continue!" Antares said immediately. Miss Militia raised an eyebrow.
"You couldn't hit her during the entire fight. She's faster than you and strong enough to break your shield," Miss Militia said without hesitation. Antares pouted.
"It's not fair," Antares said with a pout; she didn't even seem angry, just annoyed that the fight ended halfway through.
"Unfair, at least they didn't shove insects all over your face." Vista grunted with a grimace before shuddering. "Seriously, don't ever do that again." Vista snarled, glaring at me from behind her visor. I chuckled quietly.
"Or they hit you directly hundreds of times, ouch, I think it'll leave a bruise." Clockblocker grunted as she grabbed a rib.
"I'm sorry," I apologized, bowing my head slightly.
"Don't worry, it was a good fight." Clockblocker grunted. "Although you're annoying to fight, I see why they have to fight you in groups. It's like you have eyes in the back of your head. Do you have Observation Haki?" she asked curiously. I shook my head.
"Not really, it's my insects, I can feel and see them with them. I placed several on you all the time, so I could track your positions easily," I told them honestly. They all moaned at the same time.
"Your insects are a real nuisance." Vista snorted, grumpily.
"Your quirk too," I said dryly. "The number of tricks you can do with yours is impressive. There's a reason I decided to take you out of the fight first. I'm sure anyone else would have been easily defeated by you. Unfortunately, you were fighting an insect controller, the only thing that interrupts your quirk. You just had bad luck." I told her honestly. Vista froze before nervously clearing her throat.
"Yes, well, I have experience using my quirk." Vista said sheepishly as she looked away.
"And very good, there was little I remembered about your quirk from before I moved to Japan. I thought you could only use it in a wide area, not subtly like shortening my sword or deflecting bullets like that." I said honestly, and I could see Vista's cheeks blush slightly.
"Enough with the commentary, what about us!?" Clockblocker interrupted us, I just sighed.
"I want my case back." I said curtly, pointing at my case still suspended in mid-air by a yo-yo frozen in mid-air. Clockblocker stopped stiffly before smiling nervously.
"If... I can only freeze things, the effect will wear off... eventually." Clocblocker said timidly. I snorted amusedly.
"That was a good fight! We need to train more often!" Antares said as she flew closer, and I nodded.
"Do we have time? I still don't know if I'll just be doing patrols? " I said while looking at Miss Milita confused, she just shrugged.
"We can arrange a joint training session once in a while," she said simply, and I nodded.
"Even so, it was fun, I hope I can work with you," I said as I bowed slightly, attracted my insects and hid them inside my haori.
"Now I see why the Japanese clothes," Modularis muttered from afar. I chuckled. Well, I guess they're not bad people; it seemed like I could get along with them. Still, I'd keep my guard up. I didn't think the PRT would try anything through them, but it was still better to be prepared.