The Hero's Stand

13: Canoe Chaos

Deku stopped time Immediately, bringing Ururaka into his world, and the two of them got to work. They had 10 seconds to work with ant waste it would they not.

Ururaka quickly hopped on to the boat next to them and kicked Bakugo in the face as hard as she could; she also targeted Todoroki, who was on the same boat. Deku had judged him to be the biggest threat to them due to his ability to freeze the water and stop their boat in it's tracks. Bakugo got kicked only partially because she'd been told to, it was mostly because of what Deku had said at the campfire. She also decided to throw their paddle towards the second boat's inhabitants, despite it being a stretch for time.

Back on their boat Deku was using Star Platinum to constantly barrage the water behind their boat. The sheer force of him punching would send the water around the centre of impact flying away from it. It would be Ururaka's job to touch their boat and themselves with her hands, making them weightless. That meant they would be sent forwards at speeds to rival Iida's top.

"Get back here Ururaka! You've only got three seconds!"

Crap! She'd spent far too long on the opponent's boat. If their boat took off without her then the whole plan was done for.

She made a mad dash-and-jump to get back to the boat and only made it because Deku stopped his punching and used Star Platinum to grab her.

She made sure to activate her quirk on all three things she needed to. Herself and Deku when he caught her and the boat when he put her down. Both of them braced for impact.

Time unfroze.

A massive boom was heard and a massive wave of force came from behind their boat, propelling them forwards. In the chaos she thought the heard a thud that would have been her kicks hitting Bakugo and Todoroki. As expected the two of them were incapacitated for a second, allowing their boat to pass unchallenged.

"AND IT'S MIDORIYA AND URURAKA OFF WITH A ROCKET START! NO IDEA HOW THEY DID IT BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT WORKED!"

I released my quirk on the boat to make sure we wouldn't flip and felt an arm throw me down. It was Deku keeping me in the boat by pinning me to it and using Star Platinum as a roof so we wouldn't fall out.

We splashed down and Deku immediately stood up, he knew that the other boats wouldn't be stopped for long and that Star Platinum would have to do some paddling. He had started using the thing when Ururaka got to her knees and shouted.

"Start paddling!"

"That's what I'm doing!" He protested

"No! Not that! I mean actually paddling! With Star Platinum!"

He nodded, silently kicking himself for not thinking of the idea, and sent Star Platinum to the back of the boat to push them.

It had the same effect as a motorboat, Star Platinum's legs moved with such speed that it was able to outdo 90% of the market for motors. Not that Izuku knew this of course. He was too preoccupied by the approaching enemy boat. Had he thought here to stop time it would have been easy to deal with them but he was suddenly grabbed by a tongue that could only belong to one person.

Tsuyu's boat was fast approaching, Iida's legs were providing significant thrust to the back of them and the combination of long-range attackers dark shadow and tsuyu's tongue was a scary one. Deku had trouble thinking of a way out while Ururaka panicked slightly on the boat, still being pushed by Star Platinum.

I can't use Star Platinum while it's pushing the boat but if I take it off of the back then we'll slow down and lose the race, after all there's only about 900m to go. My only option left is to use that 'Hamon' stuff to try and hit her with something.

I went for the same approach that I did when I tried to move the puddle. I put my hands on the tongue and flowed some energy into it. The crackles began to surround the tongue as well and Tsuyu quickly retracted it in pain, pulling me towards her.

"Sorry about this!" I shouted as I flew towards her, fist pulled back.

She realised her mistake and tried to block her face, only to be punched in the stomach by a fist that was still crackling with Hamon. She was sent flying off of her boat and into the water. I turned to Tokoyami, who had his dark shadow flying towards Ururaka. I would be too slow to stop it reaching her but I could still attack Tokoyami himself.

He was ready for me. He leaned into a battle stance and prepared for my attack. I started with a quick swipe of my leg that he dodged by jumping, only to fall into my trap of a waiting uppercut. Just before I was about to hit him his dark shadow came flying and intercepted the blow with a talon.

That's not good.

Tokoyami recovered from his vulnerable state and stepped back to let dark shadow take care of me. I charged it and tried for a tackle that would knock them overboard. My big mistake was underestimating dark shadow's reaction times and speed. It shifted to the side and slammed me into the bottom of the canoe.

I lay there, letting him think I'd been beaten under dark shadow while I thought of a plan.

I can't overpower this thing in strength even if I managed to get my breathing back under control. I could manage a Hamon burst with one deep breath but anything more is impossible.

Then I noticed the thin floor of the canoe.

I took probably the deepest breath of my life and charged all the Hamon I could muster into my fingertip, ramming it through the floor and causing a Hamon burst in he water below. It capsized the canoe, throwing me into the air where my eyes met with Ururaka's and I noticed just how close the canoe I had just sent barreling towards ours uncontrollably was to, well, our canoe.

"STAR PLATINUM! THE WORLD!" I cried out in panic.

Time stopped and I went crashing towards the water, which I thankfully was able to walk on during stopped time. I hit it with a thud that winded me and I started using Star Platinum to punch away the enemy boat while still in a slight daze. I climbed back into our boat and slumped to the floor, holding my head.

Time resumed.

Ururaka watched as the bits of canoe that had been flying towards her with her friend in tow suddenly changed direction and flew away. Deku must have done it! He stopped time and won!

She looked around to see him groaning and holding his head in the canoe. He touched it with his hand and it came away sticky and red.

"Huh" he shrugged and tried to stand, only to fall and start shaking.

"This looks really bad. Are you okay Deku... Deku?"

He groaned a weak 'yeah' in response.

"Stay with me okay? We need Star Platinum to push the boat."

She felt the boat slowly gain momentum as Deku commanded Star Platinum with his everything, closing his eyes in order to see through Star Platinum's.

They were homefree by the looks of it, only about 300m left to go before the end point.

But things are never quite that simple. Ururaka heard a roar from behind.

"DEKU YOU BASTAAAAARRD!"