ON TO THE NEXT ONE

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Everything around him had a tint of either yellow or white, reflecting the sun shining bright as he stood in front of the apartment complex. It was a warm sunny day. The heat always seemed amplified in the concrete jungle, it was no different in Ground Beta. It left his palms sweaty. A gentle breeze helped alleviate the heat, he wasn't sure if it was natural or mechanically induced but it helped a bit. Maru looked to his teammate on his right who seemed to have been watching him since they left the observation room. His gaze remained level with his teammate who didn't flinch or even bother to look away. He just kept watching him with a humorless gaze. It brought a smile to his lips. A slight upward tilt to his otherwise expressionless face that went completely unnoticed by the one watching him.

"So," he said frankly, " Any ideas?"

The previous fight had ended much faster than the first one. Why? Well, no one was immune to Nemuri's sleeping gas. No one in either team had considered getting a mask on their costume. In fact, most people in the class didn't have one and if they did, it was purely as an accessory. Cases involving gas leakages were one in a million and when they did happen, the coverage was never extensive. Even then, no one had expected such a quick conclusion to the otherwise unpredictable battle. Nemuri and Raion, the hero team, had been pitted against Himami and Majid, the villain team. Nemuri and Raion had moved in tangent seamlessly, like predators stalking their prey. They circled the hero team, cutting off every possible escape route as they prepared for the hunt. Watching it had given him chills. They had literally instinctively been crowding and cornering the villain team without actually meeting them.

The villain team's response had been just as interesting. As one path was closed, they opened another. Almost like they could see the future. It was a scary thought but such a quirk wouldn't be completely unheard of. After all, All Might's sidekick had a similar quirk. Even then, it was terrifying to imagine having an opponent who could predict your every move. When the floors below were flooded with sleeping glass by the heroes to limit the villains movement, the green-eyed blonde haired beauty got her teammate Majid(the hooded traffic light) to cut open majority of the windows on the lower floors buy manipulating his knives. That way, the gas would fade away faster. He had done so silently leaving the heroes none the wiser to their actions. Now, if they needed to go down, the sleeping gas released by Nemuri would probably have diluted. It was incredible to watch as the villain team managed to corner the beastly hero team using their own tactics against them. The physical matchup had also been uncanny. The villain team had moved tactically having Nemuri face Majid as Himami battled Raion. The victor for both fights was so obvious he had wondered if they planned to sacrifice one for one. After all, Majid didn't need to get close to Nemuri to attack while Himami was severely lacking physically to even hinder Raion. Ans so the cat and mouse chase begun with Nemuri unable to do much while Himami evade her teammate. As a result, Majid managed to redirect Nemuri's sleeping gas by rotating his daggeres to fan them towards Raion. She had been directed to a corner by the 'escaping' Himami who catapulted over her avoiding being subdued by her opponent and leaving her to face Nemuri's sleeping gas. The girl clearly knew she'd lose a head-to-head battle and avoided any possibility of a physical confrontation with Raion. Their plan had worked perfectly. Or it would have if Raion hadn't sneezed.

Watching that made Maru wonder if All Might could do the same. The sneeze from the Nemean Lion could only be seen as a gale. It forced back Nemuri's sleeping gas lifting the other three off their feet and slamming hard on the concrete wall. And then, Raion passed out. The gas had still gotten into her system. Then everybody else passed out. Well, except Nemuri. They didn't even twitch from the impact of slamming into the wall, loosing consciousness the moment the gale swept past them. That left Nemuri to tie them up before the hero team were declared winners. It had led to quite the discussion on who was the MVP while simultaneously startling him at how potent the sleeping gas was.

Well, now it was his turn. Hero team, Maru and Ken vs Villain team, Youta and Toshiaki.

His teammate, Ken frowned at his question. Looking for something in his gaze, or maybe demeanor. Maru had no idea what but waited for the boy's response. They had a couple of minutes to figure out how they wanted to approach this fight so there wasn't much of a rush. Ken sighed before responding with his lips tilted down.

"I thought you already figured out how you want to win this," he said while eying the now bug-eyed Maru critically.

"How would I do that?" Maru asked, genuinely shocked at the assumption. Ken gave no response, only frowning harder, if that was possible. He wasn't the best speaker and he honestly would prefer if the guy had an idea, being number one and everything. Or was it number two. Although it would upset him that he had assumed he would agree to what he said without any discussion. He was countering his own word. Ken sighed again, he had no idea how to act. Maru seemed completely at ease waiting for him to figure out what he wanted to say and that helped. It was calming. Well, he had been quite nervous for this. He tousled his unkempt black hair as he thought through what they could do.

"Well, I think it'll end up as a brawl," eloquently, he summarized his thoughts. He really wasn't good at this talking stuff.

"Hmm… well, honestly, I think the same," Maru said as he crossed his arms contemplating the situation. Focusing on his teammate, he could see him gape in shock before he turned away, coughing slightly to hide his embarrassment. Ken hadn't expected that.

"Why do you say that?" he said. A bit startled that his teammate agreed so readily with him. He hadn't really given any sort of answer as to how they could win their battle.

"Well, we're all offensive types," Maru said briefly. He wasn't much of a speaker either but he had enough experience in the military to know the importance of communicating clearly with both the commander and your teammates.

"Youta's quirk is berserker and Toshiaki's is antifriction. Both of their quirks are most effective with contact so they are probably close-range fighters. From the test, you can assume Youta packs a lot of power and Toshiaki is difficult to tie down. Both our quirks are also effective at a close range. Your exo-skeleton makes you a tough match up in a close-range battle too. I could go mid-range but I get the feeling it won't be effective against them."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try," Ken responded before asking his own question. "So how do you think we could beat them? Like, should we go for the missile or..." he said with a shrug, unsure how to phrase the question. Maru understood. In short, what would be their target.

"Well, to be honest, I don't think we'd have the time to think too much."

This would most likely turn into a full on brawl. It'd be more effective to think of ways to counter their opponent in a battle than actually aim for the missile. That left the capture tape. He really couldn't see them wrapping the tape around either of them. If he was in the villain team's shoes, he'd probably first aim to get rid of their opponents movement before restraining them. So, first antifriction then fight. That'd leave their opponent unable to easily counter any attack. However, he was self-aware and knew that he was likely seen as the greatest threat in the hero team. The same way he saw Youta as the strongest threat in the opponents team. Both Ken and Toshiaki were powerful in their own right, but when it came to a fight, he didn't think they could overpower himself or Youta. So counter force with force. Have Youta face him while Toshiaki fought Ken. Both fights would be difficult to conclude. However, every fight had been different and his classmates had shown just how creative and adaptive they could be. It wasn't guranteed that they'd attack as he thought. In addition, just because he had the higher fire power didn't mean he was guranteed a win against any of them. As he brewed on the topic, he thought of possible actions to take. Not quite an offensive but it could work.

"So, Ken, have you ever fought while falling?"

Ken's raised eyebrows were answer enough. He pulled him close and started sharing his idea as they discussed their way forward.

In the observation room, there was a buzz as everyone present eagerly looked forward to the upcoming fight. The top two in the class, how would they fight? It was something they were eager to see with Abe-sensei calling a start to the battle shortly after.

The class watched as Maru froze the entirety of the building in an instant. The temperature had dropped so suddenly it left everyone in the observation room shivering. They knew they were right beside Ground Beta but for the temperature to drop even in the observation room. Shock covered every students face as they saw an entire building covered in ice including the villains and the weapon. 1A shivered from both the sudden drop in temperature as well as the overwhelming power on display. Would the fight end so easily?

Abe watched attentively, his focus on both teams as the battle got started. He had noticed how Maru never really gave anyone the name for his quirk. It wasn't hard to spot when he taught every heroics class where quirks were discussed a bit too much by the students. He never gave a straight answer and everyone just assumed it was ice. It was a reasonable assumption. The Himura family wasn't exactly famous but they weren't unknowns either. They had had a decent amount of power in Japan, something that couldn't be said for most families, but there had been a steady decline in their position for some time now. That didn't mean the family was forgotten. Majority of the children born into the family had some sort of ice-quirk. One anyone would consider powerful compared to the random quirks around, like changing your eye color. There were a few differences here and there but it was always 'ice something' or 'something ice' so when he read Maru's file, he expected something similar.

His thoughts were interrupted by a shockwave as the ice surrounding the building shattered lik glass. The class was startled as they saw Youta with his fist pointing downward easily braking every bit of ice encasing the building. It was an incredible show of power and an unexpected show of incredible finesse. Even with that much force, he hadn't broken anything other than the ice.

Maru smiled wryly as he watched the ice shatter and fall next to his gaping teammate. He knew it wouldn't be easy. Youta had shown an incredible amount of control over his strength with that punch but he had also exposed their position. Considering that they were close range combatants that was probably to their advantage, though. Bringing them right to the fight. But it wasn't something they could entirely avoid

"Third floor, here we come," he said normally as they charged into the building.