Fighting Quirk Users Without A Quirk

Stepping onto the roof, I was met by a bunch of desks strewn about the place, with Bakugo sitting on one of them. He was on the opposite side of the roof with a few other lackeys.

Upon seeing me, he sneered before gesturing with his chin, making the other three look toward me. Instantly, I took in their appearances.

A short but wide boy with arms that were too big for his body. He must've been about 5'6" or 5'7" but he was just as broad as me and heavily muscled. He either had a mutant quirk that gives him heightened strength and durability or he has a basic strength enhancing quirk and his current body is the result of training. Worst case scenario he has a composite quirk that's a mix of both of those - a mutant body with more strength than normal and basic strength enhancing quirk.

I don't have enough information to know which but I'm leaning toward the mutant quirk, for now. His appearance is way too odd to be normal or just from the result of training. Arms that are overly big and broadness unsuited for his height? It screams mutant quirk.

But I can't be sure until I see him in action.

The next boy was average in every single way. He looked normal. Average height, average build, average face, his hair was black and so were his eyes. He looked like a completely normal Japanese teen.

Not enough information to make a judgement. Rather, I have no information on this guy's quirk. I should be the most vigilant of him.

The last of Bakugo's goons already had his quirk active, like an idiot. Doesn't he know every little bit of information can be used against him if he just gives it out all willy-nilly? Well, I'll be sure he learns that lesson by the end of this. Anyway, he had a pair of dragon-like wings on his back and the skin around his mouth and his lips in general were a bit burnt, so I'd guess he has fire breathing. But he's not immune to fire, which is good to know.

Then there was Bakugo. Well-muscled and lean, he looked like he had extraordinary explosive power and agility. Like an athlete. Put together with his explosion quirk...he'd be the hardest of the bunch purely because he's got the most firepower and destructive potential.

And like I'd said before, he wasn't a glass cannon. He clearly knew how to use his body, if the well-trained look of it was anything to go by.

Biting the inside of my cheek, a habit I'd had since I was young, I put on a calm smile and spoke, "You four about to gang up on me? I thought I was nothing but a Quirkless loser, Bakugo-san?" I asked, trying to rile him up. I had confidence to take them but only individually - I was strong. But I was still Quirkless. All it would take is for two of them to keep me busy while Bakugo looks for a chance to take me out and there'd be little I could do to stop it.

...Well, actually there is. But we'll have to see if I have the chance to do that.

Bakugo heard what I said and laughed, his red eyes showing mirth and disdain, "You're right, we wouldn't need to gang up on a worthless piece of trash like yourself...but we're just deciding who has to take care of you first. Ain't that right guys?" Bakugo spoke out and the others nodded.

The short and wide one spoke up with a mocking smile, "It'd be a bit unfair for me to fight him. He looks like the type who uses his size and muscles to make up for the fact he ain't got a quirk...it'd be a bad match up for a strength quirk like mine," he said before bursting out laughing, "I don't wanna be accused of any bullying, you know?" he continued to speak in between laughter and the others joined.

...Idiot. You just told me your quirk. If he looked like he had any brain cells, I'd be sure it was a trick. But he was being completely honest.

Smiling, I brought myself into a zone one of my mentors taught me.

He was a monk who practiced an old brand of martial arts. Free and without form, it was a style of martial arts actually used in real-world fights and wars, made up of multiple different disciplines and styles with the weak and useless techniques being rejected and expunged while the strong and useful techniques were kept and perfected and fit together with the other techniques to make an entirely new style.

It was named after the man's clan and his clan was called the Kure Clan*. Kure Style - the ultimate style of Japanese and Asian Martial Arts.

(*A/N - Not THE Kure Clan from Kengan. Which means no Removal Technique or anything. If he had that Removal Technique, he could just say it was a Quirk and become a Hero that way which'd be boring as hell.)

But sadly, Quirks came into existence when the old monk was just picked as the heir. He was part of the older generation, so he had no quirk. Yet he stuck to the martial path and went as far as he could. Until he met me and took me under his wing--or at least that's what he said. The truth of the matter is that my father hired him. He just didn't want to seem like a sellout. Gramps was prideful and stupid like that.

Yet despite that he was the best martial arts teacher I ever had. He taught me all he knew and what he'd taught me made up the core of my fighting style to this day.

The zone I was currently entering was something all sorts of physically active people have reported entering. Sports athletes, martial artists, soldiers--hell, even civilians have reported entering this state in a life-or-death scenario or just a scenario where they were very focused and determined.

In this state or zone, time seems to slow and you know exactly what to do and how to do it. It isn't superhuman but it is the limit of what a normal human can achieve. I achieved this state a few months ago, so I was still a little rusty at entering and using it. But with the fight I was about to get into, I already had one of the requirements down:

Incredibly elevated heart rate.

I wasn't terrified or scared. But I'd be lying if I said I was worried. I was up against four people with superpowers. But even then, I kept myself calm and in control and slowed my breathing to fulfill the next step:

A calm respiratory system. Despite the heart hammering in my chest, I couldn't let my body fall into chaotic disarray. No, I needed calm and control and the best way to do that was to have a steady breath. The tricky part about this next part is keeping my breath steady and calm without slowing my heart rate.

But again, I'd already done this before and I knew what to do, so I did it.

Next, I closed my eyes and focused my concentration into a sharp edge. Like a knife. Like how gramps taught me.

'Concentration sharp enough to cut through everything and see everything for what it is,' I repeated in my head like a mantra and the next time I opened my eyes, only a second had passed despite it feeling so much longer. This. This was the last step - taking my concentration, perception and observation and focusing them to the absolute limit I possibly could.

Everything in my sight was recorded. The slight bumps in the ground, the direction of the wind as it knocked mine and the other's hair around...even the rhythmic pulsing on their necks and how I knew the rhythm was elevated.

Even the small specks of dust in front of my face were seen and recorded by my eyes.

This state was called...Unity. A unity of the body. The many cogs of the human body, all working together, to hold each other up and help them perform at their maximum capacity.

Unity was made by the Kure Clan masters so they could use their style to the maximum efficiency and make sure their body's abilities caught be used to their maximum limit as well. It didn't make people supernatural, however, it just helped them use all of what they already had. A technique that helped a person use 100% of what they had was invaluable but also very hard to pull off.

'It took me about two years to figure it out and another year to even get it to work with my body...it was real goddamn hard,' I lamented, my mind wandering, 'Though, if gramps heard me complain about it taking me three years, he'd definitely hit me. Especially seeing as he's still sour about how I did it a whole six years quicker than him...' I mentally laughed before having to forcibly snap myself back into focus. This was the weakness that could appear in those who use Unity.

The increased perception gave the feeling of slowed time leading to people using it thinking they had all the time in the world to think about what they wanted to. Time was slowed by the increased perception, sure, but not so much to allow yourself to get distracted in a fight.

It was a common pit fall for Kure Clan members who'd just learnt Unity, 'Or at least that's what gramps said,' I mused and I fully brought myself and lowered my stance.

Now was my chance to attack.

I couldn't wait for them to fight me one after the other. But I also couldn't take all of them on at the same time. Then what option did I have left? Well, it's obviously to take them by surprise and take them out as quickly as possible.

Using specific footwork taught to me by gramps, I shot forward to the short and wide guy with the strength quirk.

The group quickly reacted to my movement but even their reactions were slow to my eyes right now. Only Bakugo seemed to be able to follow me somewhat but he didn't move - his overconfidence would be his downfall.

By the time I got in front of my first target, I set up a feint kick and the guy fell for it instantly, bringing his arms up to cover the side of his face that he thought my kick was going for. He sneered and his arms instantly bulked up, the muscles on his arms bulging obscenely. Seems to be an arm strength quirk, right? Right then. Don't attack his arms. Or places where his arms can block--Well, without a feint to distract him at least.

As he kept his block up, I dropped my feint and charged at him with even more speed. When I was within distance, I sent a palm to his throat instantly making him recoil and drop his block as he grabbed at his throat. His eyes went wide, like he'd never expected this could happen.

Even if his body was stronger than a normal person's, it seemed to be centered around his muscles and maybe his bones. The throat didn't have any muscles or bones to protect it.

'So, in essence, it's a weak point of his. He should've defended it better and he definitely shouldn't have fallen for such an obvious feint,' I mused mentally as I brought my other hand forward and jabbed my fingers into his wide eyes. I didn't do it hard enough to do any lasting damage but he'd have trouble seeing for the rest of the day, that's for sure.

As he brought his hands up to cover his eyes on instinct, he must've been in a world of confusion. He was struggling to breath, he couldn't see--and all this was done to him by a person without a quirk. He was probably indignant about the whole situation but also fearful.

And I didn't give him any time to recover as I dropped to the ground, avoiding the spurt of fire that was aimed at me, and sending out my leg in a sweep.

The wide guy's legs were seemingly weaker than his upper body, so they gave way quite easily and using the left over momentum, I span my body back around and sent a kick to connect with the side of his head as he was falling. The kick hit his head with a dull thud and his head snapped to the side - he was alive but definitely unconscious. He'd also wake up with a banging headache and one hell of a pain in his neck.

The fire breath had stopped for now and I took the now unconscious strength quirk user and picked him up, one handed, and threw him at the fire breather with enough force to send the two of them flying back into the railing behind them, bending it slightly.

I quickly turned to Bakugo to check where he was but he was just sitting down on the desk still. He didn't seem very impressed.

'...Is this confidence or arrogance? I'm completely unsure at this point,' I thought to myself before looking around for the other guy. The average-looking one.

I found him, or rather, he found me as he appeared in front of me and sent a punch at me.

I easily dodged it - it was a crude punch without any technique. I counterattacked with a swift elbow but he disappeared and I felt his punch connect with my back but it frankly lacked any real power and I was unaffected by it. I'd spent a lot of my training increasing the durability of my body and it's overall endurance - if I had to fight quirk users, I needed a body durable enough to take their attacks, after all.

So, this guy's normal punches didn't affect me whatsoever.

I spun around and sent another elbow at where his head was but it hit nothing but air again. Having an idea on how this guy's quirk worked or how his fighting style worked, I sent a high kick behind me to where his face would be if he were there.

And as my expectations went, my foot hit his face and he was sent flying. He was knocked out instantly.

His quirk allowed him to teleport right behind people. Either that, or he was too used to teleporting right behind people and because it worked, on amateurs, he continued to do it until it became a habit. A bad habit.

Shrugging, I turned to Bakugo, "Bakugo-san...you didn't really think they'd be able to take me out, did you?" I asked with a smile.

"Heh," he scoffed before kicking himself off the desk he was on, "Those trash are just lackeys. Extras. I wanted to know if you were worth fighting...and for a piece of Quirkless trash, you know how to fight," he admitted with what looked like a smile though it seemed more like a snarl coming from this guy, "But it's useless."

As soon as he said this, explosions burst from his hands and threw him forward toward me.

'...What an ingenious way to use explosions. Most would only use them to blow shit up...but to use them as a means of transportation? Seems there's more to Bakugo-san than just being a thuggish bully,' I admitted before I threw myself back.

But it was useless to try and run because his speed thoroughly surpassed mine. So, as he was getting close, I dropped backwards into a bridge before throwing my legs upward, trying to catch Bakugo's chin with a kick. Yet Bakugo, true to my expectations, moved his right hand to the side and another explosion sounded off as he dodged the kick and sent his own kick at my side.

Smirking, I flexed my arms and threw myself up and over the kick before spinning onto my feet mid-air. Once I had my feet back on the ground, I spun in a clockwise direction and sent my foot out in a spinning hook kick.

Bakugo still had his foot up in the air after he'd missed me because of my dodge, so he was forced to take the kick as it was both too quick for him to react and even if he could react, his arms weren't in the right positions to get him out of trouble with explosions.

'He's a good fighter...but he has very little training. His body is strong...but it could be stronger. He seems to rely a lot on his natural abilities. His technique is crude but I will admit that it meshes very well with his quirk,' I mused as my foot collided with the side of Bakugo's head. Though to my surprise, he ignored the kick and while it hit, he positioned one of his hands toward me and it started cracking and popping, 'Oh shit!' I had no time to dodge and the explosion blew up in front of me, throwing us apart from one another.

I continued until I hit the other side of the roof, slamming into the rails. Hitting the metal hurt, but I'd trained myself to be as resistant as possible to pain, so I bit it back and got back up to steady myself.

Looking over to Bakugo, I could see him shaking off the hit to the head, looking at me with obvious surprise when there was no outward damage other than parts of my uniform giving off smoke.

Patting those areas, just in case, I kept my gaze on Bakugo before sprinting toward him.

He had the same idea because he burst forth, pushed by his explosions. I kept my eyes locked onto him because I'd seen him make a move that looked very pronounced.

True to what I thought, he telegraphed a right cross and I ducked under it and burst forth with my arms stretched out toward him. I went under his arm and kept low while an explosion assaulted where'd I'd just been but I focused on Bakugo and brought my right arm over his left shoulder and onto his back and my left arm under his right armpit to meet up with my other arm at his back. Locking my fingers together, I used my higher weight and strength and picked Bakugo up before slamming him into the floor, my weight and his momentum slamming him into the floor.

He gasped in pain but recovered quick enough. Though it was useless - I was already prepared for him to be able to recover quickly after he recovered from my kick to his face as quickly as he did. So, using my knowledge of grappling and ground fighting, I maneuvered my body so I had Bakugo in an arm bar.

"Give it up, Bakugo-san," I said as I pulled at his arm. I wasn't about to break his arm but he didn't know that, "You ain't getting out of this unless you tap out and give up," I said.

But Bakugo still struggled.

He couldn't use his explosion quirk. Why? Because if he did he'd snap his arm without me even having to do anything. A stalemate, honestly.

"I ain't been beat yet, you Quirkless bastard!" Bakugo screamed as he thrashed, trying to break the arm bar but without access to his quirk, I was stronger than him. He had more destructive firepower but I had more technique and skill. When it came to close combat, I took the win, and with this arm bar that stopped him from using his quirk, I'd won.

Pulling at his arm, he winced and took in a sharp breath, "Bakugo-san. You can't get out of this without breaking your arm. Use your quirk and the force you produce will either have no effect or it'll snap you in two. I'm holding you down too tightly for you to get out of this."

He went quiet when I said this...because he knew I was right.

It took a few more seconds but he eventually tapped the ground and I let go of him. I was still prepared for him to try and attack me but he scowled at me before standing up, walking over to the desks and picking up his school bag before jumping off the roof. I heard the explosions sound off so I knew he was fine and just wanted to leave either quickly, dramatically or both.

'From what I've seen from him, I'd say he's ashamed and embarrassed I got the better of him...Oh well. Someone was gonna beat him one day so he needs to get used to it,' I mused as I sat up and picked my cap up and put it back on my head, securing my bangs so they didn't fall down and annoy the hell out of me, 'I've been beat by most of my martial arts mentors. Especially gramps. Losing isn't anything new to me. Either way, failure is the mother of success. You have to fall down before you can finally understand the importance of rising up...or at least that's what I think.'

Standing up, I looked to Bakugo's lackeys before sighing and walking over to them. I picked them up and carried them off the roof and toward the school nurse. They had tried to beat me up or whatever, but in the end, they were the ones who got hurt. No need to act like they tried to kill me or whatever.

It was a small fight and not too big of a deal. I won't hold a grudge over such small things.

Once I'd dropped them off and explained that they'd been in a fight, I ran back up to the roof and collected my bag before exiting school.

I had to get home to train, 'The fight with Bakugo and the fact he caught me off guard, even if it was only once, means I need more training. I think I should up the intensity of my weight training as well,' as I mused on my way home, I thought of the ways I could train myself when I got back home, 'Maybe I could ask dad for some help? He's always been pretty good at helping me train what I need.'