--Sunday, August 2, 2172
[How long until reinforcements arrive?!]
Overwhelmed by the endless horde of self-replicating monsters, Vlad King couldn't stay still and left the bunker to fight while asking through the mental link created by Mandalay's quirk. Shino quickly replied in a serious tone while firing laser beams in all directions as she flew over the enormous horde of replicas in her armor.
[The distress signal has already been sent. The nearest heroes are running this way, but they'll still take a few minutes. We can only hold out!]
[Pixie-Bob! Help me gain altitude—with my quirk I can stop them from replicating!] At that moment, Aizawa quickly made his firm request. Ryuko, who was crouched on the ground, responded swiftly while creating a column of hardened earth beneath Aizawa to elevate him.
[Done!]
Atop the enormous column, Aizawa quickly activated his quirk, staring down at the horde of self-replicating monsters, reducing the horde's growth rate by at least 60%. Having accomplished his goal, Aizawa lifted his gaze to watch the apocalyptic-level battle between Saito and the strange woman of light in the distance, just as thick bolts of lightning passed overhead.
As colossal lightning bolts streaked across the sky like an aurora borealis, Aizawa, his hair billowing in the wind, couldn't help but stare in shock at the young man holding black daggers in the air. The sight brought a smile to Aizawa's face, and he soon refocused on the horde of replicants. But before long, he couldn't help but look up again, torn between doubt, worry, and anticipation.
The brutal explosions had vanished—a clear sign that the fight was over—but the question remained: who was still standing? Right then, Mandalay's somewhat anxious voice echoed in his mind, snapping the focused expression back onto the hero-teacher's face. After all, sending telepathic messages in the middle of such a fast and dangerous fight wasn't a good idea—a single distraction could be fatal.
[Eraser Head! Use your quirk to clear a path for Ragdoll to reach Kai!!]
[[I'll help!]]
Soon, Tiger and Pixie-Bob's voices echoed in Aizawa's mind. Simultaneously, enormous air cannons produced by shockwaves blew the treetops clean off in a straight line, and the earth column he was standing on began moving at high speed.
[Now!]
Understanding what the Pussycats were going for, Aizawa replied seriously and activated his quirk to prevent the self-replicating monsters from creating the giant masses of flesh that blocked access to Kai. Soon, Aizawa could see Ragdoll in her yellow armor slipping through the small gaps and advancing toward Kai, and before long, Ragdoll's cheerful voice echoed in his mind.
[Kai won! The woman of light managed to escape, but we already know how to stop the replicating monsters!!]
Along with Ragdoll's voice, Aizawa could see a large number of dark flying slashes carving through the endless horde of replicas, unleashing a bone-chilling carnage. At the same time, Kai's calm voice echoed in the minds of all the pro heroes.
[Among this entire tide of replicas, there's one that functions as a core. If the others move too far away, they lose the ability to replicate and become dumber. But since they can't be killed—or they just reappear—Ragdoll and I are going to capture all the suspects and take them far away so Eraser Head can look at them.]
[[Understood!!]] The Pussycats replied in unison, followed by Aizawa, who added seriously.
[I'll start moving away!]
…
[…]
Vlad King, watching a plan being organized without even being consulted—with a student at the helm—couldn't help but stare at the destroyed forest with a blank expression. But as if it were merely the calm before the storm, within moments the forest practically erupted into motion.
From one side, invisible slashes carved through everything, creating rivers of blood, while from the other, small and precise shockwaves detonated large numbers of replicas.
Meanwhile, the blue-eyed panthers and the white-aura ones, along with earth beasts, colossal shockwaves, and energy blasts, pounded the endless swarm of replicas, managing to push it back a few meters. Snapped out of his daze by the explosions, Vlad King quickly released massive amounts of blood from his gauntlets, controlling it like an extension of his body to attack the swarm.
Soon, Vlad King watched as Ragdoll unleashed a powerful ascending air cannon to create a gap in the swarm and rise into the air while holding four replicating monsters that writhed and emitted horrifying sounds. Using the repulsors on her yellow armor, Ragdoll blasted off into the distance with the monsters, prompting all the heroes to watch the swarm for any change.
Unfortunately, things remained the same, and the monsters continued multiplying exponentially. That was when Kai rose into the air holding limbless monsters. The terrifying young man quickly launched himself in the same direction as Ragdoll, kicking the air to propel himself at frightening speeds—but again, nothing changed.
Undeterred, Kai and Tomoko kept extracting suspects. Kai identified them by subtle differences he could sense with his [En]; since with such an absurd number of strange, distorted "voices" so close together, it was impossible to use his Observation Haki effectively—though his [En] was also struggling.
Sensing isolated raindrops falling from the sky is easy; in the middle of a downpour, the most you can say is that you're getting wet—and his Haki and [En] were similar. Under certain circumstances, these abilities could overwhelm his senses entirely, like being in the middle of a concert: you can hear noise, but identifying anything coherent is nearly impossible.
Meanwhile, Tomoko used her quirk to review the information on the monsters she saw, especially their weak points, searching for a special one. But unfortunately, the replication process wasn't perfect. Each replica was slightly different from the next—variations that made finding the "core" difficult.
[Kai! A monster dodged my attack! I'll take it to Eraser Head!]
While searching, Kai suddenly "heard" Tomoko's voice in his mind, and he quickly replied with a satisfied smile.
[Nice work!]
But to his surprise, at the same time he responded, Kai sensed with his [En] a monster skillfully hidden near the ground behind a "wall of flesh" made of hundreds of densely packed replicas. Detecting the anomaly, Kai raised an eyebrow and unleashed a flying slash toward the spot, cutting through everything until he saw the hidden monster crouching in the center.
Grabbing the monster by the neck, Kai rose into the air while unleashing a rapid succession of slashes to shred the literal waves of monsters that surged upward to attack him. Kicking the ground to gain altitude, Kai waited a few moments until, just as he expected, Mandalay's voice echoed in his mind.
[It worked! All the monsters here stopped replicating!]
[What?! They're still the same here!] Vlad King quickly reported seriously, followed closely by Ryuko and Chatora.
[Same here!]
[Same!]
[There's more than one "core." I'll confirm it soon.] Kai quickly informed them in a calm voice as he shot off at terrifying speed toward Aizawa, who was far enough away. Soon, Vlad King's voice rang out, full of surprise.
[They stopped replicating!]
[Perfect. I ran some calculations on where the other "cores" should be based on the distance between these two. Let's go search, Ragdoll.] Kai explained through the mental link while dropping the monster in front of Aizawa, who quickly restrained it with his bandages.
[Got it! I'll head left!] Tomoko said quietly while looking at holographic screens on her helmet that told her where to search—courtesy of Sage.
…
[Looks like we've got all the "cores."]
After a few minutes, Kai commented while looking down from the air at the swarm that had completely stopped growing. At that moment, Vlad King spoke through the mental link in a somewhat restrained tone.
[And how do we get rid of these? Will they disappear over time?]
[I have an idea—send them toward me.] Kai said with a calm smile, and at that moment the ground moved as if it were water, and a barrage of explosions went off in different directions.
Rapidly, enormous numbers of replicas launched toward Kai from every direction, creating a terrifying image that made Vlad King break into a cold sweat. But soon the only thing the red-clad hero could do was stare wide-eyed, completely filled with horror.
As the massive waves of replicas closed in on Kai in the air, he suddenly began spinning like a top at incredible speed, and soon his voice rang out through the forest.
"Whirlwind Slash!"
With the announcement, terrifying flying slashes erupted from Kai, unleashing a massacre among the thousands of replicas. Like a blender, everything within a 300-meter radius of Kai was sliced into pieces so many times it practically turned to dust—a sight so bloody that even Vlad King, a man who could control his own blood, felt his bones turn to ice.
…
…
…
"We're about to arrive, prepare to jump!"
In an aircraft, a hero dressed like a military pilot announced in a solemn tone, and several heroes in the vehicle nodded seriously. Among the heroes was a beautiful and "wild" rabbit hero with white hair, who gazed toward the forest with a subtle smile while holding back her hair as it whipped in the wind.
At that moment, Mirko's ears trembled softly and focused toward the forest, and a predatory grin formed on her face. At the same time, the pilot-costumed hero announced solemnly, looking at everyone as his hair whipped at high speed.
"It's time; jump!"
Immediately, Mirko leapt through the door without a parachute, then spread her limbs in the air as she fell at tremendous speed with a strange excitement gleaming in her eyes. More heroes jumped behind Mirko, using their quirks to slow their descent, but as they fell, everyone could see a scene that left them utterly stupefied.
Below them, they could all see a literal rain of blood falling upon a young man who appeared to be standing on the air, holding two black swords. As if sensing their arrival, the young man raised his head to look at them, revealing brilliant blue eyes that seemed capable of piercing their very souls. This created a scene that was terrifying and captivating in equal measure—it was like witnessing the rise of a Demon King.
"Long time no see, Mirko."
But everyone quickly snapped out of their stupor when the young man's bright, electric eyes locked onto the rabbit hero and he spoke in a calm but visibly cheerful voice. The rabbit hero couldn't help but laugh into the air with excitement, then asked with an enormous, wild, and predatory grin adorning her beautiful face.
"Kai! Are there any villains left?!"
"With me here?" Kai asked back with a playful smile. Mirko flashed an even wider grin and announced loudly, brimming with joy.
"Then there's only one thing left to do!"
Right after speaking, Mirko began spinning on herself in the air at high speed, and Kai kicked the ground and shot toward her. Just as Kai was about to reach her, Mirko unleashed a descending kick and announced with pure excitement.
"Luna Arc!!!"
Against the descending kick, Kai struck with his sword, producing a brutal shockwave that blasted out in every direction, sending the heroes and the falling blood flying. While using threads from his own clothes to hold on to whatever he could, a blond man with short, elegantly styled hair couldn't help but comment in a serious voice.
"What terrifying power…"
[Calm down, everyone. The threat has already been neutralized. Mirko is simply "greeting" Kai, a first-year student…]
At the same time, Mandalay's voice echoed in everyone's minds, prompting the airborne heroes to let out sighs of relief and start looking for ways to land far from those two maniacs fighting. Though the heroes couldn't help but eye the terrifying blue-eyed young man with caution; that kid set off every single one of their danger alarms.
…
…
…
"A coordinated attack of such magnitude… We need to be even more cautious."
Through a holographic screen, Nezu couldn't help but comment solemnly as he observed the "captured" from the attack. The group consisted of the swarm's "cores" of self-replicating monsters and those who had originally attacked Kai—except for the three who had "fused" with the woman of light.
"Luckily, no student was injured."
Aizawa commented while watching the blood from the replicas covering the ground slowly begin to disappear. Shino added in a serious tone as she surveyed the surroundings.
"But the consequences weren't small. The forest has practically vanished…"
"That's true…" Ryuko said in a somewhat sad tone, looking at the state of the forest, at which point Vlad King asked in a serious tone while looking at Principal Nezu on the holographic screen.
"But what do we do now—continue with the camp or cancel it?"
***
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