The Fire In Our Hearts

Chapter 19

After watching a couple of my classmates fight pro heroes, I knew we were screwed.

Our entire class and all the teachers we were going against had traveled to an uninhabited part of the city that U.A. owned for the hero course's training and tests.

I could barely see over the heads of everyone watching from a monitor inside a building nor was I paying much attention, but the small bits of action I could see were definitely something I was not looking forward to.

Without my knowing, the current match between Team Hagakure and Shoji versus Snipe had ended.

"Hatsuko and Yumataki, you're next." Aizawa said, turning to face the group with a clipboard in hand.

I looked over at Yumataki, who was walking towards the door, a sigh escaping my lips as I followed her.

We walked down the flight of stairs and out the door to the training ground in silence. Thirteen met us outside the door and briefed us on what would happen. We must either handcuff Hawks, our assigned teacher, or escape the battlefield within 30 minutes. By accomplishing one of the win conditions, we will both pass the test exercise.

I could feel beads of sweat form on my forehead out of stress.


She led us to a remote alley in the middle of the training grounds where we waited for the starting bell.

I cracked my knuckles and rolled my neck, letting out a cloud of smoke from my nose while Yumataki stood stone faced with one hand on the building's wall.

BEEP

As the bell rang out, I started to sprint out of the alleyway, but Yumataki scaled the walls by jumping between the two, stopping me in my tracks. She reached the top, and looked down at me expectantly.

"What're you waiting for? It'll be easier to ambush Hawks if we're on the rooftops since he's airborne." She said, her voice ricocheting off the walls.

I huff a sharp breath out of my nose, sending a smoky haze into the wall in front of me before squatting to the ground and pushing myself into the air, my wings acting as a parachute, while gently landing my feet on the edge of the concrete roof.

"Alright. Let's go." I say with a nod.

Yumataki then turns and starts running, me far enough behind her that I won't trip.

We ran through the long, extensive field of concrete rooftops for a minute or two before a flicker of red from just underneath the rim of the roof a few feet away stopped Yumataki in her tracks.

I stop right before bumping into her and follow her line of sight to the small patch of red spilling over the edge of the roof.

She turned around and nodded at me.

I nodded back.

She crept slowly, inching closer to the patch of red with each arched step of her pointe shoes.

When she was just mere inches away from it, she squatted down and yanked at the red in one swift motion.

She stood up, a clump of red feathers clenched in her pale hands.

"Dammit," She threw the feathers down and the wind carried them away. "He's not here."

"Wrong."

We both whip around, our eyes wide, to see Hawks standing behind us, feathers perched in between his gloved fingers like daggers waiting to strike.

I reacted quickly by transforming, but Hawks was as quick as I was and threw the feathers from his hands, one of them piercing the webbing of my left wings and sending me stumbling backwards only to fall off the roof and to the ground a dozen feet below us.

"Shit-" I heard Hawks mumble from atop the roof with Ako before taking off to the next street over.

"Are you okay!?" Ako asked, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back over the ledge.

"Yeah, I can walk it off..." I replied, curling my wing inwards so the feather was about a foot from my face.

Without hesitation, I yanked it from my wing and breathed in sharply, letting out a shaky breath a few moments later. I tossed the feather over the ledge and flapped my wing a few times to make sure it was still functional.

"Let's go get him then." I said.

I crouched down and propelled myself off the roof's ledge while extending my hand towards Yumataki, which she grabbed, and I flew over to the parallel street with her dangling below me.

It wasn't very hard to spot Hawks and his large red wings from an airborne position.

Once she spotted him, Yumataki looked up at me, yelling above both the noise of my wings flapping and the wind rushing past us.

"Drop me down when I say "Now!"!" She shouted.

"What?! Why?" I questioned, looking back down at her.

"Just trust me!" She shrieked, looking back towards the hero.

A moment or two later, she yells, "NOW!" and I drop her, continuing my path to the  sloped rooftop behind Hawks.

Just as my boots made contact with the cement of the roof, I heard a shriek from Yumataki, causing me to immediately whirl around and head towards her.

Hawks blocked my view of her, so I plowed into him with my elbows, sending him to the ground.

I looked up at Yumataki who's blindfold and arm were pinned to the brick wall behind her.

While I was distracted looking at her, Hawks pushed himself up from beneath me, sending me tumbling backwards.

I paused long enough before getting up to see that he was still facing Yumataki.

She let out a loud sigh as I got to my feet.

"This has gone on long enough." She stated before a wave of silence passed us and Hawks crumbled to the paved ground in complete silence.

"What did you do?!" I asked, half exasperated, half impressed.

"My quirk." She replied without a following statement.

"...Whatever. Let's get out of here." I replied, giving her my hand, which she took, and flying off.