Chapter 160: On That Day, Humanity Remembered...
"Hamon Overdrive!"
After Kira destroyed another clone with a punch, he quickly retreated a few steps, placing himself back-to-back with Asui. "Tsuyu-chan, how many are left on your side?"
Asui retracted her tongue, which had just dispelled a clone. "I still have five over here," she said.
Kira's eyes narrowed. "With the three on my side, that's only eight left. In that case, forget them. Let's charge straight up!"
Kira was currently on the tenth floor, not far from the top floor on the fifteenth level. After saying this, he ran straight for the central support pillar. Hamon created a suction force under his feet, allowing him to run up the pillar.
As he sprinted up the pillar, he reached the halfway point and shouted, "Tsuyu-chan, now!"
Asui, who had been dodging the clones' attacks, found her opening. She leaped high into the air, twisting her body and shooting her long tongue out, wrapping it precisely around Kira's arm, connecting them like a rope. Kira then yanked his arm upwards, and Asui used the force to be flung all the way to the top level.
Without pausing, Kira continued his ascent, and after finding the right spot, he kicked off the wall, hooked his hands on the outer ledge, and did a flip, landing on the top floor as well.
Ectoplasm's clones, as if they were weightless, floated up without any leverage, instantly blocking the path of the two students.
In front of them was the passageway to the other building. They exchanged a look and, while dodging the attacks, charged toward the tunnel.
As he ran, Kira cupped his hands and then spread them apart. Special bubbles appeared, and he infused them with Hamon, dyeing them an iridescent, shimmering color. And then—
"Bubble Cutter!"
The round bubbles transformed into sharp, disc-like projectiles. Like real cutters, they spun through the air and shot toward the clones blocking their path.
Clearly, these clones were not durable enough to withstand sharp objects. The volley of Bubble Cutters instantly dispersed them back into smoke.
"That's all of them!" Kira and Asui ran unimpeded into the adjacent building. Asui's vision was excellent, and she quickly spotted Ectoplasm.
"Kira-kun! That figure standing at the main entrance must be the teacher's real body!"
In the center of the first-floor lobby, Ectoplasm, his body concealed in a beige trench coat, looked up at them. "You've done well. You broke through my blockade much faster than I expected."
"I thought it would take a lot more effort," Kira said with a smile. "But I don't know why, it seems your clones are particularly weak to my Hamon, Sensei."
Ectoplasm's clones could ignore normal physical damage. They could only be destroyed by an attack that instantly surpassed their body's tolerance. Kira's Hamon, which could maximize the output of his every strike, was the perfect counter, able to destroy the ectoplasmic bodies in a single hit.
"Actually, the teachers must have put a lot of thought into each grouping, right? A combination like Mineta and Kaminari would have been completely useless in this environment. Which means... you intended for us to pass, didn't you, Sensei?"
"Kira-kun, I admit your analysis is very good. We did arrange the teams deliberately to give every group a chance to break through. But..." Ectoplasm suddenly spewed a massive amount of smoke from his mouth. "That doesn't mean we teachers won't go all out!"
Before Kira's and Asui's astonished eyes, a giant figure formed from the smoke, materializing in the air and creating an enormous, titan-like body. The giant's head reached the ceiling, its cold eyes staring down at them.
"Is that a Titan!?" Kira shouted as he retreated. "Asui! We need to find an opportunity to cut its nape!"
Asui, who had also jumped back in fright, quickly regained her composure. "Kira-kun, what are you talking about? This must be the teacher's ultimate move."
"Every Pro Hero has an ultimate move that can turn the tide of battle. I believe our top student would have learned that in class, right?" Ectoplasm said, his real body's hands now pressed to the floor. "Playtime is over! Compulsory Apprehension: Giant Bite!"
The giant Ectoplasm clone opened its lower jaw, revealing a massive, python-like mouth, and lunged forward to swallow them.
Just as his attack name suggested, it was "compulsory." When Kira tried to retreat, he was held in place by a suction force that had appeared from nowhere. At the last second, Kira tried to push Asui away, but he hadn't realized that at some point, she had wrapped her tongue around his waist. They both pulled, trying to save the other.
But under the laws of Newtonian mechanics, neither of them escaped the blast radius. Tripped up by each other's good intentions, they could only watch as the massive mouth swallowed them whole—
"...Tsuyu-chan."
Tsuyu silently retracted her tongue, her tone a little strange. "What is it?"
"Oh, nothing. I was just going to say that we're both tied up now."
Kira looked helplessly at himself and Asui, now trapped inside the giant Ectoplasm clone. Their arms and legs were completely embedded in the giant's body, with only their upper torsos and heads exposed. It didn't look like they had much room to move.
On that day, humanity finally remembered... the terror of being dominated by them, and the humiliation of being trapped in a cage...
Ectoplasm looked up at the two of them. "It seems you're out of options. A pity. I even left you some time to escape just now."
Kira didn't seem to feel dejected. "When you say 'escape,' you mean for one of us to push the other out of your attack range, right? So, what happens now? Have we failed?"
"No. There is still plenty of time left. Although I don't believe you can break free, I must follow the rules. You will only be judged to have failed when the time is up," Ectoplasm said, a little regretfully. "If one of you had been a half-second slower, you might have had a chance at victory."
"Sensei, don't jump to conclusions so quickly. I haven't given up yet," Kira said, his body beginning to glow with Hamon, the color shifting from gold to a deep crimson. "As long as I can breathe, my Hamon will not stop!"
The crimson Hamon instantly raised the temperature around Kira. The parts of the beige trench coat that made up the ectoplasmic body reached their tolerance limit and dissolved back into white smoke. Kira broke free from his restraints and was about to leap from the body.
"Not so fast!" EWhere Kira had used his Hamon, Ectoplasm had sensed something was wrong. He leaped from his giant clone and shot toward Kira's position. The moment Kira broke free, his prosthetic leg was already stomping down on his chest. Kira's breath caught in his chest, and he fell backward. The white mist immediately solidified, binding him once again.
"Kira-kun!" Asui cried out, worried. "Are you okay!?"
"Cough, cough... I'm fine..." Kira said, looking at Ectoplasm, who still had his prosthetic foot planted on his chest. He gave a wry smile. "Sensei, there's no need for this. I'm just a student. Keeping your foot on my chest... wouldn't this be considered corporal punishment?"
"This is a real battle. I wouldn't be breaking any rules even if I were standing on your head," Ectoplasm said, looking somewhat relieved. "If I hadn't been prepared, you and Asui might have already broken free and escaped."
He paused, then said, "Your Quirk is Hamon, correct? It's a very versatile Quirk. Which is why, from this point on, I will not allow you to make another move."
"Sensei, you really do think highly of me..." Kira said, smiling as if he still had everything under control. He then suddenly asked, "But Sensei... what's that behind you?"
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