Chapter 163: Overwhelming Strength
"Time's up!"
The 30-minute exam period was over. Aside from Team Kirishima/Aoyama and Team Ashido/Kaminari, all the other groups had passed.
"Damn it! Cementoss-sensei is just too strong!" Kirishima hammered the ground, his face full of regret.
Bakugo shot him a disdainful look. "A Pro Hero like Cementoss, who can only create cement for passive defense, is easy to beat."
"That's because you can fly, Bakugo! I can't!" Kirishima rubbed his temples and shouted, "I knew it! I'm still not strong enough! I'm going to have to train extra hard during the summer!"
"My stomach hurts," Aoyama groaned, clutching his abdomen, a cold sweat on his face.
In their battle, they hadn't taken Cementoss seriously at first. Kirishima had just brute-forced his way through layer after layer of the concrete walls Cementoss had created, while Aoyama had been lying back with his hands behind his head, striking a strange pose and shooting continuous lasers from his navel with a look of bliss.
It must be said, the Pro Hero's endurance was on another level. This nonstop barrage had continued for over twenty minutes. By the time Kirishima and Aoyama were feeling exhausted, Cementoss was still completely unfazed on the other side. When Kirishima had finally decided to try a different approach, Cementoss had already sealed them in completely. In the end, they didn't have the strength to break through the final barrier.
Asui walked over, her hands dangling. "Kirishima-chan, you don't actually have to destroy the entire wall. For Cementoss-sensei, the most important thing isn't stamina, but building materials. If you had just used your Quirks to logically destroy the existing materials and turn them into useless rubble, you probably would have had a chance to win."
"Ohhh! I didn't think of that at all!" Kirishima clapped his hands in sudden realization.
"Kirishima, if you think Cementoss-sensei left you an opening, you should have seen the Principal! He completely backed us into a corner!" Kaminari said, clapping his fellow failure on the shoulder with a sigh. "I didn't even see the Principal during the entire exam! All I did was dodge collapsing debris that was coming from God-knows-where! And in the end, I got lost in all of it!"
At this, Kirishima asked Bakugo curiously, "By the way, Bakugo, you were fighting All Might, weren't you? How did you win?"
"Tch!" Bakugo spat, annoyed. He looked at Izuku Midoriya, who was lying on a cot, laughing and talking with Recovery Girl and Uraraka, his own expression dark and uncertain.
Thirty minutes earlier.
If Ashido and Kaminari were facing a gradually building despair from not being able to see their goal, then Midoriya and Bakugo had to face that despair head-on.
Of course, if they were facing All Might at his peak, no one could have beaten him, let alone two mere students. So, to maintain a relative sense of fairness, All Might was wearing special, ultra-heavy weights on his arms and legs. He had to use two-thirds of his strength just to keep his balance on those weights. But even so, All Might at one-third of his power was still far stronger than an ordinary Pro Hero.
All Might. Whenever an ordinary citizen mentioned that name, it brought a wave of excitement, because they knew he was the Symbol of Peace. Whenever a criminal lurking in the shadows mentioned that name, they couldn't help but tremble in fear, because they knew that an encounter with All Might meant their story was over.
Bakugo and Midoriya were now experiencing that feeling, albeit from the position of heroes.
From the start, Bakugo had no intention of cooperating with Midoriya. The moment he entered the exam site, he had begun to search for All Might. But he was constantly being followed by an annoying, nagging guy who kept insisting they should run away.
Because Midoriya idolized All Might, and for... other, special reasons... he didn't want to fight him. He was single-mindedly focused on escaping. Bakugo didn't want to explain himself to him and just searched for All Might at his own pace.
Bakugo couldn't stand his pessimistic attitude. Before they had even found All Might, he had already thrown a punch at Midoriya.
Run away? Are you kidding me!? That's All Might! Even though Bakugo was confident in his own future, believing he would one day surpass All Might and become Number One, he was also self-aware.
Even if All Might's speed was suppressed, it was still far beyond what they could currently achieve. No matter how much they ran, they would eventually have to face him head-on.
They didn't have time for infighting. To announce his arrival, All Might threw a heavy punch. The wind pressure, like a hurricane, blew from the exit gate to their position in the center, destroying all the buildings along the way, leaving only a trail of overturned earth.
"So strong... All Might is just as strong as I expected!"
Bakugo had this thought almost immediately after engaging him. In the blink of an eye, All Might was upon him, grabbing him with one hand. No matter how much Bakugo blasted his explosions at his face, he wouldn't let go. And then—he had been slammed heavily into the ground.
On the other side, that useless Deku he despised had, as expected, just frozen up, making no move at all as All Might appeared, simply letting himself be swatted away.
As I thought. A useless bastard is just unreliable.
With this thought, Bakugo had set off a flashbang at point-blank range, and in the moment All Might had closed his eyes, he had rolled out from under him, moved to a safe distance to catch his breath, and then... charged right back in.
And again, the moment he had charged, he had been instantly subdued and pressed to the ground. No matter how confident he was on a daily basis, in the face of this overwhelming gap in power, he felt his own powerlessness.
Just as Bakugo thought the fight was over, that they had no chance of winning, the useless Deku he had always looked down on had actually thrown a punch at All Might, pulling him out from under him and, using the very moves he had copied from him, had begun to drag him away to escape.
Bakugo's spiky hair, every strand of which represented his pride, would not allow him to be saved by that useless bastard. He had jabbed Midoriya in the shoulder with his elbow, forcing him to let go.
They had both fallen in the alley.
And then, they had started to argue. Bakugo had roared at him, but—
"Stop yelling at me! It's because you're always like this that no one can ever talk to you!" Midoriya had shouted, enraged. "We're in the middle of a fight! Can't you at least consider the situation!? Can't you be more like the Class Rep!?"
He wants me to... learn from that bastard Kira!? Bakugo's pupils contracted. That's right. That Kira bastard has already passed his exam. He's probably watching the monitor right now, laughing at me!
That bastard is definitely laughing at me! I said I was going to have a showdown with him in this exam, and here I am, throwing a stupid tantrum!
"YOSHIKAGE KIRA! YOU'RE WATCHING, AREN'T YOU, YOU BASTARD! WELL, I'M NOT GONNA LET YOU GET THE LAST LAUGH!" Bakugo had roared through gritted teeth.
"Kacchan, you..."
"Shut up! Listen to me!" Bakugo had roughly grabbed the front of Midoriya's costume, his eyes filled with rage. "You want to win, right!? Fine! From now on, you listen to my commands! No matter what, we have to win this fight!"
While All Might was searching for them, Bakugo had deliberately attacked, drawing his attention. But at that moment, Midoriya had already gotten behind him, holding one of Bakugo's sweat-storing gauntlets. He had pulled the pin and, at point-blank range, had unleashed a maximum-power explosion.
Even All Might couldn't just ignore this attack. He had raised both arms to block his face. Seizing this opportunity, Bakugo and Midoriya had run for the exit with all their might.
If All Might is just going to block our path no matter what, then we'll just restrict his movements and make it so he can't! And if he chases us again, I'll just blast him with the gauntlet again!
Bakugo's plan was perfect, but All Might hadn't given them much time. He had quickly caught up to them and, before Bakugo could even pull the pin, had sent him flying, his body slamming heavily into a nearby building.
As Bakugo had roared and charged out of the building again, All Might had used Midoriya, whom he was holding in his other hand, as a weapon, smashing him into Bakugo, and then... had pinned them both under his foot.
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