Hifumi x Hailey: Chapter 5 - The Glass Maze
The sun hangs low in the sky. It throws long shadows, cutting through the train station, splitting it into the light and the dark. If only it was as easy to do with the society; separate the good and the bad. But it can never be that easy, can it? This world is grey, and this city is too. Only the shades differ, if even that. Maybe if it was raining at least, it'd help wash away the filth that stains this place.
I stand leaning on a lamppost that gives no light. Maybe it's because they already turned it off, or maybe it's simply another thing that's broken around here. I'm waiting for my dame. The woman who wrapped me around her finger soon after we met. Trouble tends to follow her wherever she goes, and I end up always being the one that has to help her with it. People keep telling me she's not good for me, but I guess I'm another junkie with her being my drug of choice. I'm addicted to her. The fact that she's the one occupying my mind right now, despite the occasion, is just another proof of it.
Today is the day. The day when we will be weighed, when we will be measured, and maybe found wanting. We put all we had into preparations for this day, but will it be enough? And even then, the license is but a step. An excuse to say that when we try to clean this world from the scum trying to ruin it, we ourselves will be able to keep at least a bit of our purity. Something to hide our conscience behind. A tool to fool ourselves into believing in our righteousness. But can such a paltry piece of paper even do that? Especially when it's given by, the way Jugo described it, "a bunch of parasites treating people like cattle, only there to keep themselves on the top"?
-"I see you're still brooding, Babo. Honestly, no more Noir this month for you. I just can't with you like that."
The voice of my dame wakes me from my stupor. I can't deny the power it has over me. Any word that escapes those sweet lips is like magic to me. Enchanting me. Putting me in a trance. I could listen to it for hours. If heaven exists somewhere out there, the angels sing with her voice. I wonder what they think about her use of it when she's less than proper. It'd probably count as blasphemy, and I'm guilty of it too, for instead of stopping her, I enjoy the forbidden fruit of it.
I watch the dark silhouette of her shadow tap its foot impatiently. It makes me think, that I still didn't react to her arrival. In the first place, I was too preoccupied with my thoughts to even notice it until she spoke. What if it was an enemy? Maybe I'd already be sleeping the big sleep. But it wasn't, and my job was not done. There is still the nastiness for me to fight, and to fight it I had to become a part of it. Delve into that den of snakes with a foolish dream that maybe I'll make things just a little bit better one day.
And she's gonna be there, right by my side, fighting the same fight, but also distracting me, offering the illusion of peace, encouraging me to give up and just seek the refuge of her arms. This ain't a fairy tale with a happy ending. One day my crusade will be over. Whether I will fall with a sword in my hand, true to my ideals to the very end, or die the small death of betraying my beliefs, taking the easy path, pretending that there is nothing wrong and I can just find my little happiness with her, that remains to be seen.
I finally look up at her. She wore that new costume, tailor made to fit the occasion. The regulations binding us asked for the hat and the coat, but as usual with laws of any kind, people tend to tread the line, hoping it's wide enough that they won't fall off.
Her overall style is a mix of an idol fashion and a soldier from two hundred years ago. Capitalism and military - a match made in hell, for heaven couldn't make something that would tempt me so much to hold her in my arms right now. The colour scheme was based on that of our school: navy blue and orange, if may be slightly darker than the usual, leaning towards black and scarlet. Her hat only slightly deviates from the standards, probably used as a distraction from the rest of her outfit. The aura of seriousness exuded by a dress with two sets of buttons was broken by the frilly skirt it ended on. But it does not matter much when she put her hands down, for then the cape envelops her, almost fully enclosing her figure from the sight of others.
A part of me wishes to embrace her right now, shield her from the outside world, so that what's under the cape would stay just a secret for the two of us. But I know it's not the time for that.
-"Did I finally catch your attention?"
-"You always have it, Hay, whether it's the real you or the impression you left upon me is a different question. The memory of you is dangerous, the sight even more so."
-"Thanks, I guess? But seriously, we're doing a marathon of romcoms this weekend to get that hard-boiled bullshit out of your system. It's my turn to pick, after all. You look good too, by the way."
Do I? I guess in her eyes I might. After all, she was the one that arranged for my costume to be modified for today.
With my armour repainted, we matched in colours, but there was no idol in my looks nor in my heart. I guess you could say that we also had the military part in common. Mine, however, was inspired by warriors of many centuries past, even if it was later defaced with motifs that were someone's dreams of the future filled with neon lights. If her approach to the hat and cape law was already playing it fast and loose, mine should get me locked up with the key thrown out. Maybe you'd judge that a jinbaori was about as close to the school coat as her cape was, but the fact of the matter was that I don't even have a hat. I have a helmet, the sight of a hat just added on top of it as a decoration. In one accessory, I am insulting both the traditional Eboshi Kabuto and the wishes of our principal.
-"Let's go join the others. Our train shall be here soon."
She grasps my hand and drags me towards our classmates. The phantom warmth of her fingers pierces through my gauntlet. A memory of her touch vivid in my mind to the point I feel it right now, even if it's physically impossible. I lose myself in it and don't even notice when we cross the station.
She lets go of me when she spots our teacher. Depriving me of this contact is a crime for which I will never forgive Rosethorn. I hide the petty feelings in my heart as we board the train.
We are ushered onto the square in front of the NQA building. The place of our judgement reeks of modernity and extravagance. Like the industry it represents, most of it is made just for show. A pitiful attempt at projecting stability, lulling the populace into the sense of safety. Rivers of money flowing in the belief that making people feel protected is more important than actually doing the job.
Depending on who catches your eye, you could interpret the sight of examinees in two ways. The way we stand in our little groups, clearly marked off by the styles of our uniforms, exchanging judging glances, itching for a fight; we might seem like an assembly of mobsters from various gangs, waiting for the sign to begin a bloodbath. But if you focus on the lost gazes, nervous shaking, the attempts to hide behind one's classmates; to you, we might look like cattle waiting to be slaughtered. Both images are correct. The predator and the prey, we all carry a part of that inside us, and we're here to test which one is stronger.
-"Look!"
The yell of one student catches our attention. He points up, and we follow, eager to see what he sees. The training imprinted into us is scanning for emergencies. In this case, it's an obvious one. A man threw himself off the roof. Is he so fed up with this world that he decided to take his own life so publicly? Is it a form of a protest, or is he just unable to bear the pressure and grind of our society? Maybe something even more personal?
I calculate the trajectory, ready to Blink and intercept him. I can't exactly blame him for his decision, but I'd like to help give him another chance to think it over. Maybe he'll find in him the strength to keep going. Maybe one day, a ray of hope will pierce through the pain that clouds his heart. Or maybe he'll just find a moment to do it again when no one like me is around.
I don't know him, he's picking up speed, and I'll have to go in head down, so we don't immediately splatter on the ground after the return. Preparing for this takes time, so I'll only have one shot. Maybe some other student can get to him first, but I still focus on building the mental map required in case this task falls to me.
But it seems like it's not to be. The man opens a parachute. Seems this wasn't a cry for help, nor the final decision. It was just another PR stunt. A disgusting exploitation, so befitting the rest of this spectacle.
The man introduces himself. He's the proctor of our exam: Daisuke Taiho. He directs us inside. An even bigger example of needless extravagance welcomes us there. We stare at the labyrinthian arena in front of us and the viewing gallery above it, while our host explains the rules of the exam. Like lab-rats looking for cheese, we're to enter this maze looking for keys. How ironic that they don't even hide the scorn they have for us.
The students start strategizing. Some form smaller groups. Some try to creep up closer to the entrance. Others do the opposite, trying to stay in the back. And there is one more group, that I guess I belong to, the ones that eye the glass roof of the maze and walkways above it.
-"Hay, babe, hold on tight."
-"Wha-"
I don't wait for her to finish. I wrap my hands around her and close my eyes. The last thing we hear before disappearing is Taiho's voice:
-"BEGIN!"
-"-t's your plan?"
We're standing on one of the walkways above the maze. When I don't answer her right away, my dame starts to wriggle impatiently in my arms. But she'll have to wait a bit longer for my answer. After all, she's the one that has stunned me.
Her smell up close is overpowering. I don't know what perfume she used today. Probably I wouldn't even be able to pronounce the name properly. But I do know one thing. The statement: 'He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.' didn't seem far from truth to me right now.
The heat of our bodies pressed together helps this captivating aroma take air. I take a deep breath, letting this mixture of sweetness and elegance fill my lungs. There is an underlying hint to it today. A sort of optimism… And a promise, a promise of victory. I suspect the Quirk used to create it bordered on brainwashing, for it was able to sink even into my jaded heart, for those couple moments, making me believe that all of this was worth it.
-"Babo, we're wasting time."
Reluctantly, I release her from the embrace, but I still hold her hand in case she slipped. The Principal is probably furious about this if she's watching us right now, but with the way my Quirk works, she can't do anything about me striving for physical contact.
-"Hay, be my eyes. We should have a good view from here. At least you should."
-"I'm on it. I see some of the more obvious traps. A couple paths to the exit. Holy shit, they are gonna trample each other! I hope the girls will be fine. If those shitters from third-rate schools try to do anything to them, I'll-"
-"We can't go around helping them now. Groups that are too big will struggle to get enough keys and will end up tearing each other apart. Those who go alone are at risk too. With the two of us, we can cover for each other's weaknesses, and it shouldn't be that hard to map a path through the maze that will get us two keys and won't make us run all over the labyrinth."
-"Yeah, I think I see a couple."
-"Good, then I'll bring us back if you have them memorized. You ready?"
-"Yes."
I once again pull her closer, open my eyes, and we return.
We are following in the shadow of the first wave. The fools rushed in head first, not even knowing what they are getting into. Yearning for those couple extra seconds gained by being the first in the maze, only to lose it when they fall to the traps or shoves of the other examinees. I wonder if the organizers ensured in some way that no one will die trampled, but seeing them above us, taking notes as if nothing happened, I doubt it.
But it's a dog-eat-dog world. If I stop to help them, I will fail. On the other hand, if I don't, I betray whatever ideals pushed me into following this path in the first place. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. I guess this just highlights the nature of this world.
My dame doesn't stop to ponder the moral dilemma around us, and doesn't let me do it either. She grabs me by my hand and pulls me behind her. I instinctively follow her down the maze. If she's going to be my Virgil in this descent into Hell, then so be it. I can't imagine anyone I'd rather have with me on this journey.
We watch as the group ahead of us thins out. One after another, they drop. Caught by the shimmery blue portals, falling into pits, getting knocked out by the blows from each other or any other of the various traps.
We try to learn from their mistakes and avoid those obstacles while keeping a safe distance from the vanguard. Sometimes we're close to screwing up, but manage to pull each other to safety in the very last moments. My ability to get us temporarily displaced coupled with her ability to secure the area of our return from a distance lets us avoid the worst, but still, we don't get through it without a bruise or two.
The luck is on our side so far. I can only hope that it's not the Fates playing with us, trying to make us believe in our safety so we'd get overconfident and screw up. Or that at least when we do screw up it's during this exam, when the stakes are just our pride and time, not out there on the streets, where blood and tears stain the ground, the only trace of those who failed.
-"Babo, focus! This is not the time to get distracted!"
Even without looking at me, she can read my mind. To her, I'm like an open book. My heart belongs to her, so it's not a surprise she knows the emotion it beats. But she's right, I need to focus, especially with what just happened.
The last person from the group ahead of us disappeared in a flash of blue light. No one to face check the traps for us anymore. Or rather, it's up to us to do it now. We feel the stares drilling into the back of our necks. The other examinees behind us expecting us to keep going forward. To use us as a sacrifice for the gods ruling this maze, and just waiting for the opportunity to backstab us to get the key if we somehow don't fall to the traps.
I take a deep breath and resign myself to my fate. Someone has to be the one that gets screwed over, and it seems like it's fallen up to us two now. I'm not gonna let my dame go first, so it's my turn to pull the trigger in this game of Russian roulette.
As I'm about to take another step, towards the pathway of traps, I feel her fingers squeeze my hand tighter. I turn to her and see her facing the group stalking us. With a glint in her eye, she shouts to them.
-"Hey, everybody, listen! Anyone wanna get across? Well, you better go first then."
Her voice is brash as she calls them out, but I can feel the nervousness through her grip. But if there is anything in this world I believe in, it's her, so I'll also believe in whatever plan she has. I return the squeeze to show her that I've got her back.
-"What are you doing?"
A boy with a spiky hair and a fur-lined vest seems to be the first of our stalkers to try to make sense of the situation.
-"You deaf or what, asshole? We're not going until you do."
My dame is visibly getting more confrontational.
-"Are you crazy, girl? Others are gonna swipe the keys before we can get to them! We have to hurry up!"
The boy in the vest is getting agitated, and so are the others of our stalkers. A fight is in the air.
-"You wanna go so bad? Go ahead."
I start to tense up. Hay seems to notice it, and let's go of my hand so I can move more freely, but she pretends it's just so she can make a rude gesture towards them.
-"If you don't move, we'll make you then!"
Seems like they gave up trying to reason it out, and they start to creep towards us. Dark shadows cross their faces betraying their intent.
-"Okay. Well then, come on. Then do it! We'd rather get rid of you now and then deal with the traps without you creeps breathing down our necks! So come on, let's do this!"
The boy in the vest seems to be a transformation type. His already spiky hair starts to elongate and harden, while a fur of his vest is now matched by the fur growing out of his body. His name is probably "Hedgehog-Man" or something like that. A typical cape name exploiting basic tropes that weasel their way into the minds of the masses.
Hay doesn't let him complete his transformation. With a gesture as if she was swatting a particularly bothersome fly, she throws him across the corridor towards a section of the wall where we know one of the portal traps is set. A shining blue hole in space shimmers into existence, ready to devour the boy.
But before he falls in, a vine shot by another student wraps itself around his hand and keeps him tethering on the edge, his other arm swinging widely to help him regain balance. A relief paints on his face at the sight of his ally's intervention. Too bad for him, I'm about to wipe that smirk off.
My sword drowns my surroundings in crimson light as I flick the switch on it, releasing the safety. I remember wondering if the manufacturers of my weapon chose this colour to help hide the blood I might spill with it, or the opposite, make me all the more conscious that what I'm holding is not a toy by projecting this visceral image. Maybe I should ask them the next time I see them, but I doubt they'll give me an answer.
The image in my mind is clear. I close my eyes, and know that I am now standing in front of the boy. A quick downward swing is rewarded with the sound of the vine being separated, but I don't hear the already etched in my memory whoop of the portal swallowing someone, so I'll have to help the boy do just that.
I flick the switch again. If I could see, the light of my sword turning from red to blue might have reminded me of the police lights. Just like they tether between deadly force and attempts at incapacitation, so does my sword, now back in the relatively safe blunt mode.
I switch my grip. My right-hand releases the handle and slides up on the back of the blade to give me a better leverage. I pivot and slam my weapon into the Hedgehog-Man. If we were fighting unarmed, his quills would have posed a big risk, but luckily for me, my weapon is long enough to keep me safe as I strike.
I feel the impact travelling up my arms, as my blunt blade lodges itself in-between the boy's spikes. I twist my hips further and push harder, turning this attack into more of a shove than a strike. He puts up a fight, but it doesn't take me long to overpower him, and I'm rewarded with the familiar sound as he falls into the portal.
It was, however, long enough for someone to try to exploit the opening. I feel my armour heat up as I'm pushed towards the trap, I just used to eliminate the boy. Before I can react, I feel myself stop just as suddenly as I was shoved in the first place. I open my eyes and return.
-"Thanks, Hay."
-"For fuck's sake, Babo, get your shit together! You're better than that! We can't be dozing off, there are still five of them."
I turn to our opponents to size them up. Three boys and two girls. Two of them seem more eager to fight, while three seem still unsure. The eager ones are the girls wearing similar fur-lined vests, probably classmates of the Hedgehog-Man, that tried to help him.
The vine that tried to save the boy is protruding from a hand of one of the girls like a whip. The part I cut off seems to be regenerating. From her other hand, a similar tendril is being formed right now.
The one that attacked me seems to be the second girl. A snake-looking construct made from fire is coiling herself around her finger. Like a whip in the hands of the other girl, it seems ready to shoot out at any moment. Were they matched because of the similarities between their Quirks? I wouldn't put it past whatever school they are from to group students based on marketable theme rather than any real synergy.
I do not recognize the school they are from, but judging by their looks, I'd guess that the girls are second years. The other three lack the vests, and I see no common style points in their hero costumes, so I can't say they are from the same school. They all however seem to be older, seniors I'd guess.
Two freshmen versus two sophomores and three seniors. I don't fancy our chances, but they'd probably be even worse when they'd try to backstab us after we tire ourselves out with the traps. I suspect that was a part of my dame's plan. If they did decide to go before us, great, some more distance where we have someone to check the traps for us, if they don't then we take the fight to them on our rules.
The first of the boys reminds me of Bobby with how tall and muscular he is. His short-sleeved costume leaves his forearms uncovered. Pink, crystalline-looking spurs protrude from them and from his palms.
The second boy is shorter and round. And he seems to be getting rounder by the minute. His body is getting bloated, reaching a perfectly spherical shape as his limbs retract into it. The design of his costume, with three black holes around the places where his eyes and mouth are hiding, makes him look like a bowling ball.
The last one is a mutant standing on four legs, his limbs bending backwards from what's usual. His mask is wolf-shaped, with his jaw encased in a massive iron shell with sharp teeth. From his pose, I judge that he's preparing to pounce, the energy building up in his limbs at this very moment.
-"Damn Shiketsu. Always chasing the UA's tail. Is that why you ran the tournament this year? You want to be crushed like them? All you had to do was ask."
He barks out the insult, trying to provoke us. They've seen our quirks in the maze as well as during the tournament. We were too focused on avoiding the traps before, to look behind at them and learn their Quirks. Now that the element of surprise is gone, there is no need for us to rush. We should take our time and get a handle on our opponents before we commit.
Hay seems to agree with me, because she doesn't even bother with letting her sharp tongue lash out an insult back at him. She steps a couple meters behind me and takes a wider stance with her hands slightly bent in front of her. She's serious. That way she can gesticulate more freely, and even if it's not something she needs to do to use her Quirk, it helps her achieve the full power.
I also switch my stance. Turning my body sideways to our enemies to reduce my profile, I raise my sword slightly above my shoulders and perpendicular to them, the point directed at my enemies. "Kasumi no Kamae" - a stance that's not widely used in kendo, but is a staple of samurai cinema.
Everyone is wary of making the first move. Even if we're younger and there are less of us, it seems that Shiketsu proved its reputation in the recent tournament, and none of them want to be the one to verify our skills first-hand. Like with the traps, they just expect that someone else will face the risk, and they will just swoop after. If that's what the future heroes are like, I don't want to imagine what will happen when they fight for rankings. It redoubles my motivation to beat them right now. Prevent them from getting the license so they don't grow up being walking proofs that Momo and Yui were right.
A loud crash resonates from somewhere down the maze, followed by some screaming. The wolf-boy seems to treat it like a starting pistol. He shoots forward at me. The two whip-girls unfurl their Quirks by his sides. Ball-boy starts spinning in place, while the crystal-guy is rubbing his palms together.
Hay leaves the wolf-boy to me while she intercepts the whips. Her right hand makes a short circular movement as if she was wrapping it around the vines, and then she tugs. Unsure whether she can capture the flames in time, she instead pushes the fire-snake-girl back, as her left palm shoots forward. The stability she keeps in her stance as she half-turns is a proof of the combat classes and the extra hours put into sparring with Ashleigh and other classmates bearing fruit.
The same can't be said about the whip-girls. One of them pulled, the other pushed, neither of them really know how to handle a telekinetic attack of this calibre. Still, even a minor school prepared them enough that they regain their footing before they move even a meter. It was, however, enough for their attacks to shoot widely off course.
The wolf-boy hurling towards me seems distracted, focusing more on his blind spots where he expects me to appear than on me that's in front of him. “The suspicious mind conjures its own demons.”
-"Tsuki!"
I shout as I half-lunge and thrust my sword forward. I don't use my Quirk, I simply exploit the opening he gave, the blind spot he created in his own mind by focusing on all the other ones. The only feint is that I don't aim for his throat. I'm not sure if I could control it enough with his momentum for it to not be life-threatening.
The tip of my sword, in its built-in sheath, clashes straight into his metallic jaw. Struck right on the chin as he had his full weight behind it, he's instantly knocked out despite the support his armoured costume gave him. I'm pushed back half a meter as I try to redirect his unconscious body from slamming into me.
I have once again exposed my side, and this time I'm going to pay for it. The crystal-boy shoots icicle looking projectiles from his palms. Like a swarm of angry wasps, they slam into me. Most of them do little more than lightly bruise me and fall to the floor, but one of them found a weak spot in my armour.
It's just now that I notice that in the place where the fire-snake-girl hit me before, my jinbaori was burned through, and a couple of plates underneath loosened up. It's between those plates that one of the pink crystals strikes true. It doesn't dig in that deep, so I consider ignoring it, but I see its sender push-in one of the spurs on his forearm and I wince in pain as I feel the projectile in me slowly start to expand both on the outside of me and inside, digging itself deeper into my flesh.
There is no time to think. Before it can cause serious damage, I use my sword as a lever and rip it out. I clench my teeth to not shout in pain. My blood starts to trickle out of me. I'm on a timer now, each extra second will drain my stamina as the scarlet liquid drains from me. The wound isn't deep enough to disable me yet, but it will make it harder down the line. I curse my carelessness.
Hay is furious about that. With the maximal force she can muster, she slams the two whip-girls into the crystal-boy. One crushes into his legs, the other into his torso. It's not enough to disable them, but it does send all three of them prone. An opening we can exploit.
Or rather, we could have, if not for the ball-boy barreling towards us. I don't attempt to outrun it as if I was Indiana Jones. Instead, I throw myself into a corner of the corridor, where his spherical shape does not reach, next to the unconscious body of the wolf-boy.
He rolls past me, and I breathe a sigh of relief, but see that my dame is still recovering from her exertion a moment before. It's my turn to cover for her. I close my eyes, and appear next to her, instantly wrapping her in an embrace, before opening my eyes, and returning. Just in time to get us out of the path of the human wrecking ball.
She lies on top of me. Normally I wouldn't be opposed to it, but now is not a time for that, and I feel like she's squeezing more blood out of me, and it seeps into her cape.
-"You'll get dirty, Hay."
-"Shut up! Let's get rid of those bastards, so I can patch you up."
We get up, as do our opponents. The only one that was unlucky was the bowling-boy that rolled right into one of the traps down the line and disappeared in the flash of blue light, unable to stop himself in time. I guess we now know to be careful over there.
-"Let's swap, Babo."
I nod, and start walking towards the whip-girls. I try to keep my movements compact to not aggravate the wound. They lash out at me, but I'm not their best match up, especially for the vine-girl. Her strikes are very sensitive when it comes to range if she wants to deliver raw power, and neither can she really grapple me as I can just Blink out of her grasp. With my armour and ability to jump in and out of her reach quickly, I don't have that much to worry about from her.
The fire-snake-girl is a bit more problematic, so I mostly focus on her. Even if the reach isn't optimal, and my armour helps protect against it a bit, the burns can still be nasty. She keeps her snake spinning around her in-between longer-range strikes to make it harder for me to just jump in on her and strike her down.
I play defensive in the beginning. Keeping at the edge of their range, and Blinking out when needed, trying to get a handle on their timing and reactions. They may have a year more of school than me, but looking at their movements, I think I've spent way more time actually training and fighting.
I pick my moment when both girls were getting frustrated and stepped in as they sent their Quirks forward, leaving little in the way of defense. Half-turning, I teleport, appearing above the flame-snake-girl, where I finish my spin while my sword strikes her right into the temple. I return before I touch the ground and see her crumple down like a puppet with its strings cut.
I look over to how my dame is doing. She locked the crystal-boy in a telekinetic bubble. Looks like he spent all of his ammo, for his hands were clear of crystals and a mass of those pink icicles was swirling around him. Hay smashed them into one big mass that she was using to whip him mercilessly. Battered black and blue, and bleeding from a myriad of tiny scrapes from his own spurs, the boy was pleading to let him go.
-"Hay, that's enough…"
The anger on her face subsides as she looks at me.
-"If you say so."
She tosses the boy into one of the portals together with the pink mass. We then turn to the vine-girl. A terror paints on her face. I point with my sword at the fire-snake-girl.
-"Just take your friend and go."
She doesn't need to be told twice. She grabs the other girl, and with her leaps into one of the portals.
I walk over to the wolf-boy to get him out of here, but as I bend over to pick him up, my legs give way, and I find myself kneeling on the floor and leaning on my sword.
-"Let me do that, Babo. You just give yourself a moment to breathe, and show me that wound."
She unceremoniously tosses the boy into one of the portals, and then approaches me with a first-aid spray she bought before the exam from one of the Support Course students back at Shiketsu.
With my wound cleaned and patched up, I feel myself ready to go. Even if I'm not in a top shape, all I can hope for is that what I still have left in me will be enough. At least if not for myself, then to help my dame.
-"Thanks for everything, Hay."
-"Inigo would say, 'you're raising flags' right now. Let's focus on getting through the rest of this exam. And I swear, if I ever see you watching more than one noir movie in a week, I'm making you wear the bunny hat to school."
I freeze. She's truly ruthless. I guess no noir movie would be complete without a femme fatale, and she's just trying to play her part to the fullest, striking me in one of my most vulnerable spots.
-"Understood. Let's get going then."
As we're about to face the corridor of traps ahead of us, we hear footsteps coming from the path leading to the start. Seems like some other groups that hit a dead end or were sent to the start early were about to get here.
We prepare for a possibility of another fight so soon after the last one, but as the faces of our prospective new enemies come into view, a loud voice fills the maze. The irritating salesman-like pitch of our exam proctor is even louder than before, as he seems to be shouting into the mic.
-"IS THIS ON?! ONE, TWO, ONE, TWO! IT'S ON? THANKS, YAMADA-SAN! OUR DEAR EXAMINEES! YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED THAT SOME OF YOU, ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT CAN FLY, DECIDED TO EXPLOIT THE TRANSPARENT ROOF OF OUR MAZE AND DECIDE ON THEIR PATH AHEAD OF TIME! SOME OF YOU MIGHT SAY THAT THIS IS NO FAIR. WELL, LIFE IS NOT GOING TO BE FAIR, AND AS FUTURE HEROES YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH IT! BUT! WE DON'T WANT TO MAKE IT TOO EASY FOR THEM, EITHER! SO, IT IS TIME FOR OUR SURPRISE! HAVE FUN!"
As he finishes the last sentence, we hear a loud rumbling of machinery and the maze starts to shift. The walls start to realign themselves as the structure of the labyrinth changes. The only positive part of it is that the new arrivals are cut off from us, and we're alone in the newly-formed room, now facing some unknown corridors ahead of us.
-"Well, there goes your plan to scout ahead, Babo…"
She's pacing around nervously. I think it's just a result of the frustration built from that last fight and seeing me get hurt. I can't blame her. If it's her that had gotten stabbed, I can't guarantee I'd be able to keep a cool head either. Given a choice, only a scumbag would prefer to let their loved ones suffer rather than take it on themselves. I may have sunk low, but not that low.
I grab her hand and force her to stop and look at me.
-"Hay, the situation isn't optimal, but it could have been worse. This mostly screws up with the flyers. They'd have to go all the way to the start of the maze to scout again."
It looks like it clicked for her, and she redirects her focus towards our goals.
-"Right! That was fucking obvious, how did I not see that? Take us up."
I nod and obey. The glass roof can't stop me from getting us up on the walkways to refresh our data.
-"All right. The route I had in mind is gone, but I think we're going in a good direction."
-"The keys still there?"
-"I think so, but the first one I tried to aim for seems like it won't be there for long. A corridor opened up between it and one of the larger groups. I've got an alternative, though. We probably will have to alter the way a bit as we go, cause the walls keep moving, but it will get us closer, I think."
-"You ready to go?"
-"Yeah, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get you some proper medical attention."
-"Relax, Hay, I'm tougher than that."
I bring us back. She uses the occasion of still being in my arms to call my bluff by hugging me with all her strength. The tight squeeze around the area, where I was stabbed, shoots needless of pain up my spine. She caught me off-guard, so despite myself, I wince.
-"See? You may be tough, but not that tough. Take better care of yourself. If you even think about doing some moronic last stand and bleeding out in this stupid exam, know that I'll dump you into one of the portals before you can even blink!"
She's so cute when she's angry, with her little fists lightly pounding on my breastplate like that. I pull her closer and hope that no camera is looking at us at this very moment. Or that maybe the Principal isn't looking at that camera feed. Or that even if she's looking, our costumes will obscure us enough to hide from her eyes what I'm about to do. Or at least that her cognitive dissonance won't let her believe that her students would dare do that in the middle of a national exam.
I melt as I make contact with my dame's lips. If there is anything perfect in this world, it's them. Their shape. Their softness. Their warmth. The slight upturn of the corners. The way they seek out mine. It makes me want to abandon everything else and just stay like that. Ever since that day on my roof, I regularly dream about them. And every time I find them when awake, it's a dream come true.
So, you can imagine, my disappointment when she cuts our kiss short and pulls back.
-"There will be time for that later, Babo. Focus on the exam now. If you want it, then you'll have to get both of us safely through this. If you decide to rush ahead and get hurt, then there will be no more for you this week."
It's Friday, so you might think that it's only two and a half days, but to me that seems like an eternity. I know full well that I'd camp under her house like a homeless under a soup kitchen, just to be there when the clock strikes midnight. Like a dog waiting for its master to come home. She's threatening to kill me with loneliness, while saying it's for my own good. What a cruel mistress this dame of mine is.
-"I cannot allow for that to happen then. Which way next?"
-"Here. Be careful about the wall on the right. If it opens up, we might bump into other examinees."
We crept towards our target. The time pressure encouraged us to carelessly hurry up, but every time we did speed up, one of the traps reminded us what a bad idea that is.
Periodically, I Blinked us up, so that my dame could readjust our route. Seems like I wasn't the only one who could still get up here to scout, but you could count us on one hand, and as the exam dragged on, this number will probably be reduced even further.
The examiners up here didn't seem especially glad about our presence, but they didn't say anything. However, the walls down in the maze did start to show a tendency to shift in the worst possible moments for us.
Hay noticed the pattern quickly, so we gave places with particularly big groups of other examinees a wide berth. It cost us even more time, a resource we so desperately lacked. We watched the counter of keys left trickle down, announcing that some had already completed this challenge, but also that our chances are diminishing.
We weren't able to avoid all altercations with other examinees. Multiple times did a wall suddenly open besides us to reveal small groups wanting to fight us. Thanks to my dame's careful planning, they were few in numbers and rather small fries. They cost us time and energy, but didn't really put as in any real danger.
Luckily, we have not stumbled upon any pros yet. From what Hay described to me, they were easy enough to spot, leaving behind swats of labyrinth devoid of any activity. Their passings were akin to a natural disaster, anyone unfortunate enough to be in their path had to accept the inevitability of going back to the starting area, or take a bet on being able to run away while the pro was busy with their allies.
Finally, we got to the place where the first of our target keys was. But it seemed like someone got here before us…
-"Look, look, look, Kimura-kun! What have we here? Two Shiketsu lambs!"
-"Isn't it poetic, Sawamura-senpai? Their school is always in the second place behind ours, and now they have arrived here right after us."
-"So close to the title of 'the best school in Japan' but never quite there. How does it feel that it's going to be the same for you and this key, ha?"
The infuriatingly arrogant voices belong to two UA students in front of us.
The taller one, is the first year called Kimura. I remember him from this year's sports festival. He did fairly well in the early stages, but in his first fight of the final one, he had the misfortune of being matched with Endeavour's son. His quirk was some variant of a paralyzing touch, he didn't get to show it off much in his only fight. I'm pretty sure his hero name was-
-"You, Medusa-boy! Give up the key, before someone gets hurt!"
-"It's JellyFisher! And if anyone is gonna get hurt, it's you!"
He turns beet-red. Looks like Hay mangling his name hurt his pride more than expected. Maybe it was something he struggled with often. We all have our weaknesses. Vulnerabilities that require but a slight push to send us over the edge. The only part that differs is where exactly one needs to push, and whether hiding in the darkness behind the edge is despair or rage.
Hay's eyes follow the key as the boy passes it to the other one. The finger that was pointing at the JellyFisher followed her gaze, and was now directed at the older of the two. A short, pudgy sort with a face that resembled a pig's snout. I don't remember ever seeing him before.
-"And you, hog? What's your deal? Didn't manage to get your license before? Didn't participate in the festival either, did you? Too embarrassed about your face?"
-"Sawamura-senpai transferred recently from the gen-"
-"Shut up, Kimura-kun. They don't need to know that."
-"Oh, so it's not that you failed a LICENCE exam before and now need to retake it. You started to fuck up already at the ENTRANCE exam stage, and didn't even get into the hero course on time in the first place! How pathetic is that?"
-"Shut up! I'd say something about your performance in that silly tournament of yours, but I don't watch poor imitations put together by second-rate schools and their second-rate students. It may have taken me longer, but at least now I'm among the elite, not among the pretenders!"
Pig-boy was clearly bluffing. I'd sooner believe a meth head that swears he's gonna use the money he's trying to bum off me for a bus ticket to a rehab centre than him. That meant that they knew both our quirks and tactics, while we only had some vague info on one of them. Judging by the state they were in; they also didn't have that much trouble getting here. Did they stick together with other UA students and only got separated recently, or did they somehow manage to sneak by all those people trying to Crush the UA? Or maybe our luck is finally at an end, and we've met the prodigies that, with only the two of them, managed to take down all opponents in their path without even a scratch.
The usual tactic of Hailey consisted of trying to shake the opponent mentally first. It wasn't without the risk. They were rare, but there were some people who fought better angry. I don't think those two belonged to that category, though, so I decide to play another bad cop.
-"You keep hiding behind the image of your school, rather than what YOU've accomplished. So, I assume you've achieved nothing. Now hand over the key, before I slice some of that bacon off you."
-"I ain't afraid of threats coming from the mouth of someone who looks like he's about to collapse at any moment and some little girl! We'll just beat you up and send you to the start, where you can stay with the rest of the losers! Just where you belong!"
Hay tries to use the distraction and snatch the key from his hand, but the Pig-boy holds onto it.
-"You thought it'd be that easy? Think again!"
He reaches behind himself, and tugs with a visible strain painting on his face. What he pulls out is… His tail? Seems like he ripped it out. There is no blood on it, so I guess it works like with one of those lizards, but it looks like a curly pig one.
He throws it in our direction. As it bounces towards us, it grows in size, and its shape changes to look even more like a spring. With each bounce, it seems to gain more speed.
I switch my sword to the sharp mode and try to cut it in half with an overhead swing as it's about to crash into me. I make contact and feel the blade sink in.
But it does not cut. The spring absorbs the impact and shoots back, even faster than before. It bounces off the ground, walls and ceiling. The little pink rocket ricochets behind us, its movements clearly not natural.
Before I can react, it strikes Hailey in the back. Spinning like a drill, it tears a hole through her cape and jacket. Before it can dig into her flesh, she manages to slow its rotation, but she's unable to halt its forward momentum. Struck like with a sledgehammer, she lets out a yelp of pain and is blasted forward towards the younger boy.
I Blink forward, trying to intercept her, but the JellyFisher gets to her first. He was clearly waiting for this chance, so it must have been a manoeuvre they've practiced before. His right-hand shoots towards her and makes contact with her left arm.
I get her out of there right after, but it seems it was enough for his Quirk to take effect. A mass of red welts in the shape of his hand is visible where he made contact. Her arm up to her elbow flops around limply, as if no bone was left inside. It resembles a balloon filled with jelly.
She trusted me to protect her while she was focusing on the key, and I failed her.
-"How badly does it hurt?"
She hisses as she tries to raise her arm. When she sees the state it's in, she goes pale.
-"It feels like my upper arm is on fire and I can't feel anything below it."
-"I'll kill the bastard. Hay, forget about the key for now. Can you try to keep that tail off me?"
She nods. Her eyebrows furrow as she tries to focus on anger instead of pain. Even with one of her arms disabled, I believe she can give me the opening we need to turn this fight around.
-"You two losers done? How about you hop into one of the portals now and save us time, and yourself a beating!"
The look on her face shows me that she's eager to have her revenge on them. I share that sentiment.
-"I just hope they have a good doctor here to help you after what I'm about to do to you."
Pig-boy doesn't seem to pay much attention to my promise. He just sends his tail forward again. This time, Hailey focuses on intercepting it from the start. Having only one working hand and with her nervous system being drowned in pain signals, her control isn't as precise nor her power output as vast as usual. Still, she manages to lock the curly missile in a telekinetic cage. It bounces around inside it, continuously accelerating. In her current state, I don't know how long she can keep it up, so I have no time to lose.
I turn to the younger boy. As I walk towards him, I switch my sword into the safe mode. The frustration in me mixes with the anger at his audacity to touch my dame. The vision of Hay's hand in my mind calls for revenge, and I want to rain down the punishment on him, but I keep enough wits about me to know that slicing him up is a bad idea. After all, even with just a blunt tool, I can hurt him enough.
At first, he tries to circle me as I approach, but then seems to accept my challenge. His right-hand shoots towards me like a cross but with fingers spread wide open. I don't dodge, instead I strike right at it. With rage and adrenaline running down my veins, I don't bother to announce aiming at the wrist. This is not a kendo match, and to be precise, the wrist isn't the first impact area.
Like a baseball bat, my weapon crushes his fingers and breaks the wrist. Before he can scream and the floor can be stained by the first droplets of blood from where skin was pierced by bone, I step to his side and strike again, this time aiming at the elbow. It hyperextends with a disgusting crunch.
The offending hand is now useless, but that's not enough for me. It's not the end of my onslaught yet. Attacking Hay is my weakness, and by doing that, he pushed me over my edge. What waited there was fury, and I am too blinded by it to consider letting him escape now. I want to pay him back a thousand fold for every bit of suffering he caused her. The remains of my conscience and sanity struggle inside me, but the best they can do is try to stop my assault from becoming lethal.
As his eyes widen in shock, I change levels, striking at his right knee. A heavy blow from the side causes it to buckle in, and he loses balance. Before he can touch the ground, I add in another strike. This time to his left shoulder. His arm pops out of the socket, dislocated. He falls down and cries loudly as the pain of all the injuries sets in at once.
I leave the howling mess on the floor, and Blink to the Pig-Boy still struggling over control of his tail with Hailey. With a hard thrust to his solar plexus, I force him to bend over. Using a quick strike to the now exposed back of the head, I slam the arrogant UA student snout first onto the tiled floor. The nasal bone pops loudly, and blood starts to pool around his face.
I return and cut the cacophony of screaming by soccer kicking JellyFisher. With the two boys unconscious, I walk over to check up on my dame.
-"How are you holding up?"
-"Tired, and I still can't feel my arm."
I reach forward to caress her cheek, but notice that a splatter of blood covers my fingers. The realization of what I've done sets in, and I pull my hand back in shame.
I walk over to the Pig-boy, and pry the key from his fingers, and then I carry him to one of the portals. Next, I do the same with the JellyFisher, careful to not agitate his injuries further.
As I do that, I behold the damage I've caused. I feel disgusted with myself. My goal is to become a hero; I should have controlled myself better. I don't think I've caused any permanent injury, but I certainly did not have to do what I did. So much needless pain that I've caused.
And for what? Some vague idea of justice for what he did to Hailey? Or was it just so I could relieve my anger? I feel so small right now. My dream is now further away from me than it ever was. How can I one day be a positive example, if this is what I do in the first stages of my journey. I pointed at others and what methods they might employ in their struggle for rankings, but what about me? Wouldn't I be even worse if that's the level I stoop down to already?
And there is nothing else I can do for him right now. I could just give up and follow him to the start, but wouldn't that just mean that his suffering was even more pointless? I only hope that they will be able to help him quickly, and that soon, it will be no more than a bad memory for him.
Hailey notices me standing there looking into the portal that I threw him in. I can't hide my heart from her this time either. My grief strikes her like a waterfall, but she holds strong, putting a brave face for my sake. She walks to me, and wraps her working arm around me.
-"It's alright, Babo. They will help him out. Fighting like that was fair game in this exam. We can send him some nice 'get well soon' gift later. It's alright. You just need to be better from now on. Isn't the hero's journey about self-improvement?"
I take my helmet off and hug her. She softly runs her fingers through my hair. We stand like that for a moment. I want to believe her. I try to calm down. As I pull back, I slip the key into one of her pockets.
-"You keep that. You deserve it more."
-"You are, and always will be, my hero. I'll keep this key, but only because I know you can get another one easily! Especially, since the next one shouldn't be far away. Let's go."
Her bright smile is infectious, and as she grabs me by my hand and drags me away, I feel the corners of my lips twist upwards.
We have one key now, but for both of us to pass, we need another one, so we continue on our way. We're getting used to the traps thrown at us, but it's barely enough to make up for the state we are in. The burst I used last fight left me exhausted. When the adrenaline was gone, I noticed that my wound reopened, and we had to take another break to try to patch it.
-"Just a little longer, Babo. The second key isn't far off. There weren't many people around that area, so it should go easier. We grab it, and then we get the hell out of here."
My dame is trying to cheer me up after what happened earlier. Have I become so weak that I need her to worry about me like that? I curse my own ineptitude. Wasn't I supposed to be the one she can rely on? And instead, I'm just dragging her down. I need to do better.
This place is a grinder. I don't know if I have in me what's needed to complete it, but there is no other way. I need the licence to get real experience, which will help me grow. Those who are strong will pass and grow stronger, those who are weak will fail and fall even further behind. What an unforgiving system, fitting this cursed world we live in.
-"There, that should hold for now."
She finished dressing my wound. It's a shoddy work, but it will have to do in these circumstances. I can't quite reach there myself, and Hay still only has one working arm.
-"Thanks. How are you holding up?"
-"The pain died down a bit. It's kind of itchy now. I'll live. Now let's get going. I'm in a mood for a romcom and a long bath, and the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can get on that."
I nod, but I see through her attempt to change the subject to distract me. I see the way she's clenching her teeth. The way she wheezes while dodging traps. She's putting on a brave face to stop me from worrying. It only makes me feel worse about how I failed to protect her then, and how I cannot even grant her the right to not hide her pain now.
So, I put on a brave face, too. I try to smile for her to put her mind at ease. We're both lying to one another. Lying about our own wellbeing and about believing in the wellbeing of the other one. I despise that. I despise the one who made the test that led to this. I despise the system as a whole. All I have left is hope that once this is over, we can be vulnerable to each other once again. To truly wash this pain off us by sharing it openly.
But now is not the time yet. Now we bite down and keep trudging. The ticking key counter makes us realize how excruciatingly slow we are. Over three-fourths of them are already gone. Step after step, we approach the place where we believe our target to be. With all our strength, we're holding onto the belief that the worst is already behind us. That the key is gonna be there, and then we can just walk out with it unbothered. It's a foolish dream
Just one more corridor. The key chamber should be right behind it.
-"Look, Babo, we've made it! And the key is here!"
She points out towards a little pedestal in the middle of the chamber. It looks both extremely promising and extremely suspicious.
-"There might be tra-"
-"No shit. We've gotten so far; I'm not going to let all our efforts go to waste now due to some dumb traps."
With her Quirk, she starts checking the key's surroundings. Each plate pressed causes one of the traps to activate. All the kinds of traps we've seen so far, fire before our eyes, and then some we haven't even seen yet. With patience and care, she neutralizes them one after another from a safe distance.
Beads of sweat gather on her forehead and her breathing gets more erratic. I can't do much for her besides just holding her, so she can focus on her work without having to worry about falling over.
After what seemed like an eternity, she's satisfied with the state of the room, and pulls the key itself towards us. When it's lifted, the whole room spins. The walls start closing in, pushing us towards the centre and the traps that were thankfully disabled by now.
I grab the key when we're close enough to it for me to reach it and teleport us to the walkways, so we can find our exit path and hopefully find a safe moment to return.
-"Two out of two, Babo! Now we only need to get to the exit! And we're so damn close to it! We just need to backtrack a bit, and then there are a couple corridors that lead to one of the ways out. Just wait a moment before bringing us back. The room is still moving, but if we time it right, we can return right outside of it, just gotta wait a bit more so the walls are in the right position. Wait for my signal!"
I nod. Her energy is almost infectious. The way she worded it, there is no way things can go wrong now.
But then why do I still have such a bad feeling about this. Even with my eyes closed, I can feel nearby examiners glaring at us. The way they shuffle their feet. The sound of sheets of paper being flipped and notes scribbled. Some tapping on the keyboard. I can't quite place what it is about them, but something doesn't seem right.
-"Now, Babo!"
I open my eyes and we return. Just like she said, we're outside the pedestal room.
-"This way! This nightmare is nearly over, hurry up!"
-"Let's be careful, Hay. We don't know what obstacles they have set up before the finish line."
-"We've gotten over everything they threw at us so far; we can deal with whatever else they have in stock! The exits we're going towards also didn't have that many people around them. Some others have outright battlefields in front of them. Now come on."
She grabs me by my hand, and we set out to walk at a brisk pace.
And then the wall next to us opens and my field of vision is filled by a comically oversized boxing glove going our way. I'm in no mood to laugh, though.
I try to jump backwards and pull Hay with me, away from the red comet. My head is swarmed by the image of her getting hurt before. But it's not enough. The blow is too fast. She wasn't even in the optimal range, and it still blasts her into me, and then we crush into the wall that just shut behind us.
The force of it was such, that on collision, the hat decorating my helmet exploded into a rain of splinters. My vision is clouded for a moment, and I'm out of breath, so it must be even worse for her, who took the initial impact, but she still seems conscious.
I look past her at the source of the ambush, and instantly recognize the figure approaching us. Even if his arm is padded even thicker than usual, with his animal inspired costume, there are few people in Kyoto who wouldn't instantly know who he is. Me especially, since it's one of the local pros I most look up to: Magnum Shrimp.
-"You've done well to get so far, kids, but now it's time for the real test. The guys up there must really want to push you to your limits with the way they called me to go directly here. That means you surely got some real potential!"
I can see the way he came. Wall after wall opened, creating a long, straight road for him to get here quickly. They had to put it into action, after we returned, to counter Hay's route that helped us avoid the pros so far. It worked for a long time, but they decided to finally strike us down for our hubris. If we've gone up on the walkways only once or twice, we might have gotten away with it, but like Icarus, we've spent too much time high above, and now strikes the hour of our fall.
-"But the potential isn't everything! It's just the beginning, and you recognize a true man not by the way he starts, but by the way he ends what he started. To accomplish your goals, to power through and finish this grand match of life, that's what all this is about. To persevere against all odds and come out victorious. Strength is everything, and perseverance is strength, so perseverance is everything. Show me that you've got what it takes!"
My legs are still wobbly, but I push my dame behind me and try to take my stance. Soon we'll be in his reach, and with Hay still stunned, I can't let him get close.
I shut my eyes and perform a teleporting charge. I appear behind him, my blunt sword already going low towards his right calf. But I feel no impact, what I do feel is a wave of air hitting my face as I'm teleporting out. After I return, I see what was the cause of that. In a pose like for a superman punch to get his leg out of the way of my strike, his hand swings through where my head just was. If I was even a tenth of a second slower, I'd be out for the count now. That was a bit too close for comfort.
-"Nice attempt, but they told me a bit about you. You can't expect the move relying on surprise to work all the time, especially since when you go pro, a lot of villains will learn about your style. I think you've got more in you, though. And so does she seem to have."
I give a quick look behind me, even though I know I shouldn't. He might be just saying that to create an opening, but I can't stop myself from checking up on her. My dame is standing there, her legs trembling, but her outstretched hand is directed at the pro.
-"I don't think I can shut him down completely, but I'll try to slow him down. You've got to do the rest, Babo."
Magnum is visibly moving slower, as if he were underwater, having to power through every step.
-"That's a great move, girl! But now he will have to prove it is enough to make a difference!"
He's right. I walk towards him in a simple chūdan stance. I don't think I can take him down with any single move, so I have to rely on fundamentals. When we get in reach, we begin our exchange.
Even with Hay trying to slow him down, I can barely keep up. I try to mix up the tempo and switch between attacking normally and with teleporting, but I can't pierce his defenses. When it comes to strikes directed at his vitals, he either dodges or with his counteroffensive forces me to abandon them. For attacks at less critical areas, he just blocks them as if they were nothing. With the state I'm in, I lack the power to make him care about them. To be honest, I'm not sure if I could faze him with them, even if we met right at the start of the exam. I can't use the sharp mode either, because I don't trust my control right now enough to not risk an accident.
Meanwhile, his blows, even in his half-paralyzed state, feel like sledgehammers. My dame is doing everything in her power to slow him down. I sometimes manage to doge them thanks to it, but mostly I still have to rely on blocking to cover what I lack in speed. Each punch makes my arms feel like they're about to shatter. The explosiveness in his strikes is ripping through the telekinetic restraints. It's like he's attacking both of us at the same time. And it takes all we have put together just to keep him at bay. Even with Hay's Quirk and my bladework, what we're doing is stalling at best, and it's not working out in our favour.
-"It's nice to see you two working together like that. Reminds me of when I started the partnership with Flamingal."
-"For that memory's sake, how about you let us go now?"
-"No can do, girl, unless you're willing to give up the keys and go back to the start now."
-"We've worked too hard for those!"
-"I guessed so. So, I'll have to just beat you up and take them by force. Muahahaha! Did I sound like a villain, just now? I've heard we're supposed to play their role."
I try to ignore his boasting and focus on finding a way out of this situation. But even the best idea I have is not a way to win. But it is at least a way to lose more slowly.
-"Hay, you said the exit isn't far."
-"Yes. You remember the place with the pseudo-flamethrower? The way out is through there, on the right relative to the way we were going back then."
We try to exchange the info while fighting. It's distracting, so there were a couple glancing blows that slipped through my defenses. He is especially proficient at catching me on my return. The speed of his punch means I barely have the time to react to it, and I feel like I'm having to guess his attacks more than he has mine. My armour took the brunt of those blows, but some of it bent-in, painfully stabbing into my bicep, and I am now unable to extend my left arm fully. However, that information was of paramount importance.
-"Are you sure you don't want to give up? You don't look so good."
-"Let us think about it."
-"Oh, really?"
He looks a bit dumbfounded. I use this chance to grab Hailey and teleport us to the spot she mentioned.
-"Get out of here. Go to the exit."
-"What about you?!"
-"If we both go, they'll just open up the road for him like they did before, and he'll catch up with us in no time. One of us has to stay behind to buy the other time. 'But I don't want you to. Not a girl like you.' 'I want you to run ahead of the times. Go wild aan bloom.'"
-"You bastard! You drop quotes in a situation like this?!"
-"Don't worry, I have a plan."
-"Fine, but… 'Even if you fall, do not drop your sword! Keep swinging it! Use any means you can... and come back alive.'"
I smile. We've watched that movie two months ago, and I thought she didn't pay attention at all, but here she is throwing lines back at me. I'm pretty sure hers were even more verbatim than mine… But there is no time. I squeeze reassuringly her hand that is tightly grasping my coat, and return without her.
-"I give up!"
Magnum Shrimp's fist stops a centimeter away from my liver. I stand there with my hands in the air. My sword is in them, but I hold it by the blunt edge rather than the handle, so it appears non-threatening. Surprised at the words I spoke right after the return; he looks up at me.
-"Wait, really? Just like that? I mean, I guess knowing your limits is a kind of strength too. So where is the girl?"
-"Hopefully on her way to the exit by now."
-"So, you are going for the heroic sacrifice play? A classic one. But I might still catch up to her. Anyway, so you don't stall too much. Give me the key."
-"I don't have it. I gave it to her."
He looks at me with a mix of suspicion and curiosity in his eyes. I'm not sure if he fell for my bluff or just wants to see where this is going, but after a moment, he just smiles and nods.
-"Alright then. Come with me."
I close my eyes and let him escort me to one of the portals.
-"So, our dear examinees, you had the unlucky chance to experience one of our traps first-hand, and now you're back at the start. If you need medical attention, go there. If you want to retire, go there. Just know that not many keys are left, and going for a checkup is going to cost you time and if a medic deems you unfit to continue you will be disqualified."
Daisuke Taiho is barely moving his arm when he points to the medical area and the waiting area for those who gave up. Both of them are overflowing by now. The annoyingly fake cheer from his voice is gone, replaced by the exhaustion brought on by having to repeat the same line time and time again to each new batch of failures.
-"Any further questions? No? Good. Then you may go. If you want to continue your exam, enter the same way you did before."
I nod and direct my steps towards the entrance of the maze with the couple of others who haven't given up yet. I bump into some of them on the way there, but no one reacts. We're all too exhausted to try to fight at the very start of our next attempt. And I have other plans anyway.
Once I step through the entrance, I decide that enough time has passed, and I can set my plan into motion. I feel bad for having to stoop to deception like this, but my dame did tell me to use any means I can.
I don't do it often, because usually there is no point, but right before I surrendered, I teleported into the exact same space and position I was at. With my helmet's visor down, the others can't really see whether my eyes are open or not, so doing this is practically imperceptible.
I open my eyes and return to the place where Magnum Shrimp captured me. The surrounding walls shifted in a pattern I would have a hard time guessing, but the returning part of my Quirk doesn't require the construction of a mental image. Also, I can now have my eyes open to look where I have to go. And I see an artificially created straight corridor just like the one I've seen before, leading straight to the exit.
Magnum is rushing down that hallway, trying to catch Hay that's visible near the end of it. I sprint that way too, trying to ignore half my body protesting, shooting pain signals in a futile attempt to convince me to stop aggravating my injuries. My dame is approaching the final chamber, but the pro is gaining up on her. I could try to Blink to him now and slow him down, but it would be a suicide mission. I decide to go all-in and put my trust in Hay's ability to outrun him, for a chance of that grand prize of both of us passing the exam.
The walls around the last passage start to close, trying to block her way, but she holds them back with her Quirk, slowing them down just enough to give her a chance to slip between them. Magnum shouts into comms to have them opened, because they now block his path. They do that quickly, but it still slowed him down for a moment. When he enters the final chamber, Hay's already halfway through it. Seeing the charging pro, the couple of other students in there try to step aside, but Hay uses them as obstacles to throw in his path.
She reaches the exit at the last moment, slamming the key card onto the reader, and tripping over the gate as Magnum's fist just grazes her hair, causing it to flutter dramatically. My dame's safe. She passed the exam. I feel such immense pride for her right now. She did it. Even if I fail now, at least she completed it.
But I shouldn’t think like that. I made a promise to her, and now it's time to keep it. The way ahead of me is clear, all the way to the ultimate obstacle.
Magnum Shrimp is standing there, slightly disappointed by failing to catch her. He turns around and sees me walking into the final chamber, the arena for our ultimate battle, the last test I'm going to face today. I step over the unconscious bodies of the students unfortunate to have been in his path, and pass by those trying to run away and find another exit. I could try the same tactic, but I'm too tired of having to back down.
-"Well, well, well. I guess you did make it here after all. And quite fast, I have to add. Not fast enough to get that second key back from her, but I have a slight suspicion that wasn't really a part of your plan."
He winks at me. I smile as I pull out the key with my left hand and show it to him.
-"Good. But what's your next step? How do you plan to get past me? You can't just teleport behind me and run to the exit, because I'm right in front of the gate, and you need to activate the scanner over here first anyway. Going to try to fight me again? Without her help and with the state you're in?"
-"I'll do what I have to. I have a promise to keep."
-"Oh-ho. The ability to keep your word is everything for a hero! Show me then that you're already at this level! Prove your perseverance!"
He takes his stance and chambers his fist, preparing to strike. I walk towards him. I'm not sure if it will work, but it's the best idea I have, so I'll try it. There are only those couple final meters separating us. With my sword in my right hand, and the key card in my left, I approach him with slow, deliberate steps.
Five meters… Maybe there is some other, better way.
Four meters… Or maybe there is none, and I should just give up and save myself the pain.
Three meters… No. She's waiting for me on the other side of that gate. Even if he is to break every bone in my body, he won't stop me from going to her.
Two meters… No time for doubts, it's time for action.
My next two steps are shorter, much faster, and are there to perform a move that many would call idiotic: I spin and turn my back to my opponent, barely outside of his range. I raise my left arm in front of me, parallel to my shoulders. My right arm sets my sword vertically, the top part supported by my left arm. I'm bent over a bit. I close my eyes and teleport.
I appear to Mangum's left, right where the key card scanner is. I'm facing him and pressing the card to the spot where it's supposed to go. He, of course, expected it, and strikes nearly the moment I appear. The beep confirming the card being read is drowned out by the sound his fist makes when it collides with my sword. A powerful uppercut meets the part of my weapon in front of my chest. I can feel the shockwave spreading through it.
The bones in my arms start to break from the force of the sword being pushed into them. Before they snap in half, my weapon itself gives way, bending around the pro's fist, acting like another layer of armour when his punch blasts through it and into my gut. I'm blown backwards. I can feel my consciousness drifting away, but a smile starts to creep out on my face as I execute the last step of my plan and open my eyes.
My system shuts down, and I don't experience what happens after. I don't see the way my body on return is catapulted by the leftover momentum right into the exit. How it flies over Magnum's shoulder before he can recover his posture. I feel no pain as it crashes into the still opening door. And I'm not there to experience joy when it lands on the other side, still clutching tightly to the key card and the mangled sword.
When I come to, my head is resting on Hay's lap. She's leaning over me. I can feel her tears dripping on my face, so my helmet must have been taken off. Her hair is falling around us, cutting us off from the surroundings, giving us a moment of privacy, separating us from the sound of medics running our way.
Her face is so close. She notices me regaining consciousness, and smiles, trying to hold back her tears.
-"We did it, Babo. We did it."