Atsuhiro Family Issues

End of the Lesson: Against a Friend's Wit

Denji ran quickly, doing his best to beat the clock.

He listened for the sound of footsteps other than his own, running down the opposite way he came. The male stopped for a moment, hearing footsteps and smiling a bit and headed in that direction. A sweet scent hit his nose as he ran down the corridor, and his nose scrunched up a bit as he got a little drowsy. "Shitsumei? Yukio?" he called out, yawning a little.

He heard a gasp and the sweet scent started to dissipate, the steps headed towards him. "Hold your breath!"

Immediately, Denji did as he was told to do by his partner as she came into his sights. He covered his mouth with his hand and looked at her curiously, watching as she pulled a mask from her jacket and handed it to him. "Put it on," she told him. "I saw a mysterious shadow down this hall, and I didn't really know if it was a guarded door or not. There's no other doors though."

Denji nodded as he put the mask on. "I suspect that the shadow was a door hidden by Shitsumei's quirk. His mother is Shadow Zero, so it wouldn't surprise me if his quirk had something to do with shadows..I know it's not in the other direction, because Suzuki and I were just fighting there and he was determined to keep me there."

The girl nodded in response to him, "Then let's go back."

He nodded in response and both took off in the other direction once more. As they ran, Denji tried to think of when he lost his own mask, and the only time he could think of was sometime during his fight with Suzuki. A frown etched it's way onto his features, but it was hidden by the mask Yukio had given to him, and Denji just tried to focus on running down the hall.

Yukio lead the was, both of their footsteps echoing off the halls of the dark corridors. It wasn't long before they were stopped in front of the dark spot on the wall, and Denji paused, tilting his head.

"He tried to divert you by making you think there wasn't a wall. You're quirk doesn't involve light, so he was at an advantage.."

The teen didn't even realize he was speaking out loud until he heard Yukio hum in response. He jumped a little and looked back at her. Trying to play it off, he turned back to the dark spot, "Even so, now that you've gone by him, he would know the basis of your quirk..and he knows mine..so this room has to be dark..meaning he has a big advantage here."

Denji sighed and checked the time they had left.

Three minutes.

A sigh left him as he turned to his partner, the dim lighting glinting off of his eyes. "I need you to stay out here and activate your quirk. I haven't gotten completely to my limit, so I can compress enough energy to get in, with your gas to subdue him and make it easier to fight, if it comes to that. If the room is as dark as I think it is, then your quirk will be more useful than mine because I can't provide enough light without completely burning my hands or losing control of my compressed energy."

Yukio nodded along to his plan as he spoke, attentive and nervous. Once Denji was sure she got it, he compressed a ball of energy and turned, throwing it at the door.

The light of the electrical energy was enough to make the shadows back off and Denji used his window of time to rush the door. Yukio took this time to activate her quirk once more, and stood behind him as the door opened.

Both were met with pitch black darkness.

Denji wasted no time creating another compressed ball of energy and stepping into the room. The ball was medium in his hand, providing a minimum amount of light, but not enough to keep shadows at bay. Without warning, a tendril of darkness grabbed his left ankle and shoved him against the wall.

"What the-"

Before Denji had a chance to defend himself, another tendril had wrapped around his waist, pinning him where he was against the cold cement of the wall.

One minute left and he was trapped.

Denji's mind ran rampant with possible ways out as he squirmed against the wall. Then he thought a moment. He had one hand free. It was a risk, a huge risk and his Papa would kill him for it, but it was a chance.

He took a deep breath, pulling his free hand in front of him and focusing all energy on it. "Yukio, rush in the moment after the light!" he shouted as he felt the energy gathering and compressing in his hand. He continued to focus on the one hand, gathering electricity from everything into his one hand.

It took no time for the ball to be the size of a baseball, and still, he focused. The burn of the electricity seared and he just knew that his father was going to scold him when he got home, but he didn't care.

He released the moment he felt like it was going to get out of control, and by then, it was the size of football. The room was light with a bright light and all shadows expelled. He could hear Shitsumei's cry of surprise as he was released from the wall to a kneeling position on the floor.

Yukio's running footsteps entered the room and caught Denji's attention, the boy looking up as the girl caught sight of the flag. She ran as quickly as she could as the light of his electricity started to fade.

The buzzer went off just as Yukio grabbed the flag.

Silence and darkness fell over the three in the room, save for panting from Denji, who cradled his arms to his chest in pain. Then, the loud speakers turned on.

"The hero team wins!"