Element

38: Kaminaried

Third Person POV

It was subtle. So subtle nobody in the gym caught it. But Togata's confidence flickered ever so slightly as he stared at the girl in front of him.

He thought he had known what to expect. Four elements. Tricky to deal with, but manageable.

But then...what was that glowing energy?

He slipped beneath the ground.

As soon as Y/N realized this, she launched herself upward with a gust of air, hovering high above the ground. She figured this way she would have more time to react when he resurfaced.

Sure enough, she was right.

When Togata's head popped out of the ground, she saw a look of confusion on his face.

She shot a blast of flames in his direction, forcing him to pull his head back down.

I'm never going to be able to reach him from up here, though.

Y/N landed back down on the ground, preparing for the moment when Togata reappeared.

A small rush of wind from behind told her exactly where he was. Unfortunately, his pants had also slipped off.

Reaching out behind her, she froze him in time just before his fist connected with its target.

She used her Aether to slip his pants back on as quickly as possible — earning a hearty laugh from her classmates. Then, she delivered a strong triple kick to his stomach before unfreezing him, sending him barreling backwards into a cement wall.

Unfortunately, he managed to activate his Quirk before he made contact, causing him to slip right through. When he jumped back to his feet, he was miraculously unhurt — and also even more confused.

"Hey now! What was that?" he asked, laughing slightly. "How many Quirks do you have exactly?"

"Just one." She smiled, throwing another blast of fire that went right through his head.

He responded by going underground once again. And his pants were left behind.

"Alright, this is getting a bit annoying now," she grumbled.

If he can phase through matter...then he must stop phasing at some point in order to come back up from the ground. Otherwise he would just keep falling.

She jumped up onto a cement column, waiting for him to show himself. As soon as he did, she grabbed on with Aether, attempting to pull him out of the ground. Unfortunately, he managed to phase through her magic as well, vanishing once again.

Is that how he comes back up? Is it because different solid matter can't be in the same place at the same time, so the ground has no other choice but to spit him back out?

In that case...

She concentrated on the ground beneath her. The cement was cool to the touch, and she could feel the small cracks and stray rubble under the pads of her fingers.

She reached deeper, trying to feel below the surface.

If I can do this with the Earth, I should be able to do it with man-made surfaces too now that I have my Aether.

Sure enough, she started to get a sense of the deeper layers of cement. Her awareness was faint — nowhere near as strong as when she was out in nature. However, she could tell how solid and dense the ground was. It felt like a weight beneath her hands. A wall of immovable stone.

And then she could sense something foreign that appeared out of nowhere. It disrupted the normal position of the cement matter — and the cement rejected it.