Sato, Kaminari, and Minoru had been walking down the path for barely a minute when the sounds of combat began filtering through the trees. It sounded like someone was creating and exploding a bunch of ice over and over.

  “That’s got to be Todoroki,” said Kaminari.

  “Agreed,” replied Minoru. “It worries me that the sounds keep repeating, though. Normally he’s pretty overwhelming.”

  “Yeah, uh…maybe we should pick up the pace?” Kaminari started to jog, and Minoru and Sato followed suit.

  They rounded a bend in the path to discover Todoroki, an unconscious Ojiro on his back, and Bakugo facing off against a villain who was repeatedly demolishing the ice walls Todoroki was creating. Minoru couldn’t quite see the villain through all the ice, but they appeared to be attacking with some sort of projectile.

  Minoru, Kaminari, and Sato dashed forward right as Bakugo started to lose it.

  “I can’t get close to him! I guess I have no choice but to blast him to hell with full power!” shouted the explosive teen.

  “No!” yelled Todoroki back.

  “If the trees catch fire—“ began Bakugo, then checked himself as the three supplementary lesson students dove for cover behind Todoroki’s ice wall. “Where the hell did you three come from?!”

  “Midpoint,” said Minoru. “Todoroki, who are you fighting?”

  “He’s a villain. Some sort of obsession with flesh, and can shoot these blade-like teeth out of his mouth.”

  “Damn it,” said Minoru. “Moonfish.”

  Bakugo turned to face Minoru. “You know him? You some sort of nerd like Deku?”

  Minoru shrugged. “I’ve done a bit of research on known villains since the U.S.J. attack.” He glanced over at Kaminari. “Hey Kaminari, I remember Aizawa assigned you that homework looking into how well various materials conduct electricity. You ever research teeth?”

  Kaminar frowned. “Yeah. They’re not very conductive at all.”

  Well, it had been worth a try. More blades flew out, and Todoroki intercepted them with yet more ice. Minoru took the chance to lean out and look over Moonfish.

  The villain was difficult to make out in the dark. He appeared to be wearing completely dark clothing with everything, including his head, completely covered. And was that…a straight jacket? He was using nothing but his teeth to hold himself up in mid-air while still firing off a huge number of attacks toward Todoroki and Bakugo.

  “How the hell does he even know where to aim?” said Minoru.

  “Not the time,” snarled Bakugo. “I still say I should just blow the bastard up.”

  “An explosion would block our field of vision!” countered Todoroki. “What happens if it doesn’t finish him off? He’s got us beat in both range and firepower!”

  Minoru ignored the two boys’ interplay, pulled a grapeshot off his head, and lobbed it over the ice wall towards the edge of the path. It flew through the air unobstructed, but as it landed with a soft plop on the leaf litter beside the path Moonfish sent a tooth shooting down to skewer it.

  “Gotta be sound, or maybe vibrations,” muttered Minoru. He beckoned to Kaminari and Sato, who both leaned close as he lowered his voice to a bare whisper. “Sato, you got anything left in the tank?” Sato nodded. “Okay, well…I think Kaminari can take Moonfish out if you throw him at the villain and he lights him up from up close.”

  Kaminari eyed Moonfish as more teeth shot out. “I mean, teeth might not be super conductive, but yeah they’d ground him pretty well. But you’re sure he wouldn’t skewer me in mid-air?”

  “I don’t think he can see well, if at all, in that costume. As long as you’re silent and use your Quirk fast enough…I think you’d have the best shot of any of us. It’s dangerous, though. This guy clearly isn’t messing around and I could be wrong about him targeting based on sound.”

  Kaminari watched Todoroki block another wave of teeth blades, ice crystals creeping across his face as Bakugo screamed at him, before turning to Sato. “Do it.”

  Sato didn’t wait. He tossed back another sugar packet and scooped up Kaminari. As Sato wound up and sighted on Moonfish, Minoru scampered over to Todoroki.

  “Hey Todoroki,” he said, interrupted Bakugo’s rant. “Make sure Kaminari doesn’t land on those teeth, would you?”

  “What? What do you mean land—?”

  Moonfish released another wave of teeth, Todoroki frantically sent ice shooting out to block them, and Sato threw Kaminari through the air straight at the villain.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  One of their more spectacular failures during their supplementary lessons had been the time when Cementoss joined in. Given the amount of concrete in the environment, it had been a completely unfair fight from start to finish, even with Cementoss voluntarily restricting himself to manipulating two pillars worth of concrete at any given moment.

  But one of the reasons they lost so badly was that although the team set Kaminari up to take Cementoss down from behind, he’d taken too long charging up his Quirk and then shouted as he started to discharge it, giving Cementoss just enough time to protect himself.

  The fight had quickly gone downhill after that, and in the debrief afterward Aizawa sensei had given Kaminari a serious dressing down. “I know some teachers have taught you that you should yell when you unleash your biggest moves, and there’s a reason for that: yelling lowers your inhibitions and increases your overall power output. But when you are striking from ambush, you must be able to do it silently. There’s a time and a place for everything, Kaminari. Remember that.”

  Kaminari had struggled through the next couple lessons a lot, his straight-forward personality at odds with what he was trying to do.

  Minoru watched with his heart in his throat as Kaminari sailed through the air, completely silent. Todoroki hadn’t been wrong about the dangers of attempting a definitive strike against a villain like this if you weren’t sure whether it would take them out. Moonfish obviously had incredible senses and reflexes, and his Quirk was one of the most lethal ranged Quirks they’d come up against yet. Unlike in the gym, this was no game of tag.

  But Kaminari didn’t make a noise as he reached the apex of his arc through the air and then began to descend towards Moonfish, and as he came within a few feet of the villain, electricity erupted out of him without a single sound of warning, turning the night abruptly into noon.

  Minoru squinted against the glare. Moonfish was convulsing in mid-air, teeth shattering around him as arcs of current traced their way along his body and gathered near his mouth as they grounded themselves along his teeth. That did not look like something the villain would be able to just shrug off. Hell, now Minoru was kind of worried it might actually kill the villain.

  But that sort of worry would have to wait, because Kaminari was dropping straight for the jagged forest of teeth, his Quirk completely unable to adjust or change his trajectory.

  “Todoroki…!” shouted Minoru desperately, but Todoroki was squinting and looking away.

  Bakugo launched himself into the air with a huge explosion that sent Minoru tumbling back against Sato’s legs, the angry teen flying dangerously close to the teeth stretching from Moonfish to Todoroki’s ice as he repeatedly ignited his Quirk and rocketed up to snatch Kaminari out of the air just as the electricity winked out around him.

  The two plowed into trees beyond the villain, as Moonfish collapsed bonelessly to the dirt, teeth shattering around him.

  For a moment silence descended over the forest, then Todoroki turned an aghast expression towards Minoru. “You’re insane, Mineta. That plan could have gotten Kaminari killed.”

  Minoru ignored him. “Sato, take Ojiro. Todoroki, I think you might be needed over there. It looks like Bakugo might have started a small forest fire when he landed. I’m going to go stick that villain to a tree or something, make sure he can’t attack us from behind if he wakes up.”

  Todoroki looked like he wanted to say something more, but Minoru hadn’t been lying about the fire. Without further recriminations, Todoroki handed Ojiro off to Sato and set off toward Bakugo’s landing point at a jog.

  Minoru made his way over to Moonfish, carefully avoiding the pieces of teeth littering the ground. They indeed looked razor sharp.

  The villain was definitely either unconscious or dead. Minoru hesitated a moment, then pressed a couple of fingers to the villain’s throat. Thank goodness, he had a pulse. Now how was he going to secure the guy? The tree idea was all well and good, but with Sato carrying the unconscious Ojiro, how to move Moonfish was actually something of a quandary.

  Oh well. He’d just have to do the best he could. Minoru grabbed the villain’s feet and started laboriously dragging him to the edge of the path.

  As Minoru was securing the villain face inward to the base of a tree with grapeshot, he heard an exhausted, high-pitched voice shout behind him. “Kacchan!”

  Minoru slapped one more grapeshot down, shoved Moonfish’s shoulder into it, and turned. Stumbling down the path was Midoriya, and he looked a complete wreck. He was clearly barely able to keep himself on his feet, and he looked like he’d been run over by a train. “Is Kacchan with you guys?”

  “I’m right here, you dweeb,” sneered Bakugo, striding out of the forest with an exhausted Todoroki and a dull-faced Kaminari at his heels.

  “Thank goodness,” said Midoriya. He sank to his knees, seemingly involuntarily. “The villains are after you, Kacchan. You’re one of their main targets.”

  “The hell does that mean?!”

  “Why would they be pursuing Bakugo?” asked Todoroki.

  Kaminari gave a double thumbs up. “Yay!”

  The other students stared at him for a moment before refocusing on Midoriya.

  “More importantly, what happened to you, Midoriya?” Todoroki strode over and reached down to haul the exhausted student to his feet. “You’re wrecked. How are you even still moving?”

  “I had to warn Kacchan,” mumbled Midoriya. “Mandalay was knocked out by a villain with a huge metal staff. I had to…had to make it in time.”

  Minoru had been striding toward the group clustered around Midoriya, when he paused. “Uh, guys?” he said. “That villain with the metal staff? I think they followed you here.”

  As the students scrambled back, the villain Magne strode down the path, her staff resting over one brawny shoulder. “You led me quite a chase, little boy, but following you was certainly well worth it. I see one, two, all three of the people the boss wanted, just ready and waiting for me!”

  Of course the villain with the big metal stick had to show up after Kaminari burnt himself out.

  “Be careful!” Minoru called out. “She can pull you toward her metal staff, like a magnet!”

  “Oh, you know me?” asked Magne. “Well, I know you, too, little sticky ball boy. And unfortunately for you, you’re on the list.”

  As Minoru yanked a pair of grapeshot off his head, Magne whipped her metal staff off her shoulder, spun it halfway around, and Minoru suddenly found himself flying through the air toward the villain.

  A wall of ice shot up, obscuring Magne but catching Minoru, and the magnetic pull cut off as quickly as it had begun. Minoru tumbled to the ground.

  “Mineta!” cried a female voice, and he glanced up from his prone position in shock.

  From the woods emerged Yaoyorozu alongside one of the class B boys—Awase, if memory served, the boy who could stick things together.

  As Magne’s staff came crashing through Todoroki’s ice wall, Minoru simply had to hope their reinforcements would be enough.