My Hero Academia: Next Gen

Chapter 17: Run

Eri and Tora walked out into the blazing sun, and Eri suddenly regretted making her hero costume so fabric-heavy. Her feet were suddenly far too hot, which was not ideal before the match had even started. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hiku and Yami discussing something quietly as they left the room, their heads bent together. Hiku and Yami were strong students alone, but together... Eri shook her head. They'd never worked together, so maybe they would be terrible. Maybe their quirks wouldn't meld together at all and they would be like two strangers on the battlefield. It wouldn't be the first time Eri had seen something like that. 

But even if they didn't work well together, would she and Tora be able to beat them with only Tora's quirk?

Tora grabbed her by the wrist and started pulling her in the direction of their circle. "Okay, so here's what I'm thinking," she said in a hushed tone. "I'm going to make the executive decision that you shouldn't use your quirk unless it's to heal someone, okay? Otherwise, we might risk bad things happening. But, I'm sure you already know this right?"

Eri nodded. 

"Good. So, if we're both strong at offense, I think we should take advantage of that and attack together. If we draw them both out, then we'll know that they aren't near the cat. After that, they probably won't be expecting you to attack without a quirk, so they'll likely dismiss you and come after me. That's what we want." She grinned. "Because as soon as the attention is off you, you're going to go and find their cat and bring it back." Her lips twisted into a pout. "I'm still upset we got the turtle instead of the cat, but it only makes me more motivated to steal theirs!"

Listening to Tora speak so confidently, Eri felt her chest swell with excitement. Maybe, just maybe, with Tora on her team they had a chance. 

She smiled and nodded. "I like that plan. Draw them out, distract them, win. Should we go around the backs of the buildings or down the main road?"

Tora wrinkled her nose. "Well, we don't know where their base will be, but I think we should stay away from the backs of the buildings, especially with Yami as one of our opponents."

Eri nodded begrudgingly. Yami's quirk, shadow travel, would be hard to combat if they went around the backs of buildings. He could step into any shadow and come out of any other shadow, as long as it was big enough to fit his body into. 

The two girls came to a stop in front of their blue circle and happy little turtle, which Tora sneered at almost unnoticably. Eri let out a little giggle at her partner's disdain for their stuffed animal. 

"As soon as the horn blares," Tora said, crouching down on all fours, "we run. The farther we can get, the longer we'll have to look for it and fight off whoever we need to fight off."

"Sounds good." The glint of the sun off of their blue ring caught Eri's eye, and an idea sparked into her mind.

A blaring horn went off, beginning the round. Tora took off, and Eri shot off to keep up with her. In that moment where the sand sprayed up behind her as she ran, her cape flapping in the wind, Eri felt... good. 

She felt really good. Her arms were pumping, her legs were moving, her whole body felt like it was full of energy. And she ran. She ran, keeping behind Tora who ran on all fours, her powerful legs shooting her forward with every stride. 

They managed to run for a full two minutes before Eri slid to a stop to catch her breath. Normally, she would be fine running for longer, but with the sun beating down on her neck, and her costume already making her hotter than usual, there was no way she could run normally. Tora slowed down and gestured for them to walk, carefully, along the edges of the buildings away from the shadows.