Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

The Tangled Web

Maxwell's POV:

Bright and early, before the rest of my class woke up, I sat with Akihito and started planning. We both decided the night before to create formations and an actual battle plan. We needed to have defenses, then offensives right behind, followed by support.

Carlos and I would be the defenses. I could act as any three, but due to the lack of defensive quirks in our limited party, I had to step up. With Carlos' large werewolf beast form, and my own personal abilities, we would be a brick wall.

Sasha, Akihito, and Rowan would be the offenses. Sasha could use her solar power, Akihito had his blazing fire, and Rowan could create the craziest air explosions to blow our opponents away.

Last but certainly not least, Ryker, Milo, and Astaroth would be the perfect supporters. Ryker could not only heal, he could offer us flight and defenses from behind. Milo had a very flexible quirk that could support from behind, and Astaroth's quirk, with protection from us, could honestly win us the battle.

"I'm happy with this," Akihito said, the formation sketched out on his device. "We actually have some sort of structure now."

I nodded. This certainly was one of the best ideas we've come up with together. The only obstacle now was to explain it to the class.

Then, a notification popped up on Akihito's screen, and he immediately clicked it. I peered over his shoulder, and there seemed to be a pulsing red dot that was something clearly urgent.

His eyes narrowed. "There seems to be activity close by. Radioactivity."

"Interesting," I muttered. Then, I thought to Naga, "Remote viewing."

Akihito was most certainly right; radiation was being admitted south-east to where we were facing, and no form of radiation could be normal under these circumstances.

"I located the radioactivity as well," I informed him. "Shall we check it out ourselves? Would it be better to wake our class?"

We both simultaneously glanced at our class, then to each other.

"No," Akihito said. "Let's see if it's troubling first."

Condensing his device, Akihito and I started towards where this activity was originating from. I knew the way and how far it was, but I still wanted to feel it getting closer, so I ordered Naga to keep remote viewing on. We weren't far.

All of the sudden, I felt my heartbeat ring in my ears. It was subtle at first, so I ignored it, but as we veered closer, this was no ordinary feeling; it was clearly someone's doing.

Akihito seemed to be troubled too, anxiously looking around to maybe find the origin of this sound. Naga told me, instead.

"Vega," she hissed, "the girl who fought Kenichi before the war started, remember? This is her doing, her and Luxe."

Luxe? I didn't question this, but I knew that Luxe's sudden disappearance couldn't have been the Shirokages. Frankly, I wasn't surprised that he was affiliated with something so evil. He never chose sides.

"You're affiliated with them too," Naga pointed out.

I know, I thought back to her.

"There," Akihito muttered. Naga was able to drown out the effects of the heartbeat from both Akihito and I, so we could actually think. I moved my head a little closer to his to see a hero trapped in a cage of lasers.

Other laser barriers were scattered around as well. It was impressive to see all this being done so fast, but also quite annoying to have to deal with.

"Dealing with them shouldn't be hard, neither of them are too strong," I told Akihito. He nodded, but I could see he wasn't convinced.