Worthless Necessity [HitoZuku]

Chapter 12 - Into the fire consumed

Monoma stared as Midoriya just looked at him blankly, before pulling him aside. Who cares about the others if they couldn't even get past the first round?

"Are you mute? Or do you just not like speaking." Monoma started, "Because we can't win if we can't communicate."

Midoriya paused, hands frozen in place as he thought, before he fingerspelled.

"M-o-n-o-m-a?"

It took Monoma some time to decipher Midoriya's gestures, but he did figure it out.

"Yeah. Midoriya Izuku? Quirkless, right?"

Midoriya just nodded.

"C-o-p-y."

Midoriya then stuck three of his fingers up, before he used his other hand to tap at his wrist, then stuck four fingers up.

Monoma's jaw dropped. To any outsider, the gestures may not have any meaning, but those specific values were significant to Monoma. He could copy three quirks, for up to four minutes for each.

"How... did you... know that?"

Midoriya just stuck his fingers up in the gestures for one and two, before pointing at his eyes.

"Ah... you... observed me? Just me or everyone else?"

Midoriya drew a circle with his finger, and it was pretty obvious that he meant everyone instead of just Monoma himself.

"Well... that's good to know..." Monoma really wasn't sure what to do at this point. Discuss strategies against Kamikiri and Yaoyorozu? Try and befriend the boy and show that he, and by extension, his class, was better than 1-A?

He knew that they were going to have a tough time. Yaoyorozu was definitely strong, being a recommendation student, and the fact that Todoroki picked her as a partner showed her versatility.

Kamakiri was also no slouch, and he had excellent combat prowess. He was fast, had an excellent reaction time, and his quirk allowed him to produce razor sharp blades, which meant that he was pretty much untouchable to a quirkless boy and another functionally quirkless boy.

"Kamakiri fast, quirk blades. Yaoyotozu quirk create anything, tendecy for poles, knives. Copy Tetsutetsu quirk for defence? Yanagi quirk to steal weapon? Kaibara drilling quirk?"

Midoriya was clearly having trouble fingerspelling so many words in one go, but he kept it up to try and communicate. Monoma appreciated it. And Monoma was really getting afraid of Midoriya. How the hell was he that familiar with his classmates quirks when he wasn't even in the hero course? How did he know Tetsutetsu, Yanagi and Kaibara's quirks? Did he also keep his eye on them throughout the cavalry battle?

If so, how the hell did he do so?! They barely used their quirks, they only really used them in the obstacle course, and they were nowhere near the general education student after Hatsume had stolen Kendo's headband in the second round. They did their best to not stand out at all, and yet, Midoriya was still able to figure them out?

And this was the guy that Bakugou was referring to, when the Sports Festival had just been announced. The wolf in sheep's clothing, Bakugou had called him. The dark horse of the general education course. Who would have thought that a quirkless student had made it this far?

"So... do you have a plan to beat them?" Monoma asked.

Midoriya looked away for a second, as if contemplating the question, before he nodded. He brought his hands up to his face and positioned them by his mouth.

Monoma squinted, trying to make sense of the hand gestures.

"Uh... Mouth? Your mouth?"

Midoriya shook his head, repeating the hand gesture, until Monoma finally made the connection that his gesture looked like the mandible-looking structures on Kamakiri's face, and that Midoriya was trying to find another way to communicate.