Chapter 54
I downed the drink in one gulp without anyone seeing a thing.
“Alert, level 3 intrusion. Please evacuate calmly to the designated assembly area. Alert, level 3-”
Bakugo sprang to his feet, scraping his chair on the floor.
He shouted, his voice covering the sound of the alarm for a moment:
“1-A, come here !”
Some glanced at each other, but all converged on him, no doubt remembering that he was their representative and had to be obeyed to some degree.
He counted everyone and lined us up in pairs to lead us out into the corridors.
The whole maneuver had only taken half a minute; for all his faults, not taking his role to heart wasn't one of them. I was almost the last one through the door when Bakugo stopped me.
I raised an eyebrow.
“You're the least incompetent of the lot," he spat and looked away. “I want you to stay in the back and make sure none of these idiots get lost”
Did I just hear Bakugo pay me a half compliment ?
“You don't ask Uraraka ?" I said.
Because she was the sub-delegate, not me.
He shrugged.
“She's as flipped out as the rest”
I glanced at her and saw that she did indeed look as stressed as the rest of them, if not more, glancing right and left.
“All right” I said. “But you owe me one”
“Tch”
He gritted his teeth, glared at me, and walked off to lead the convoy.
“Come on, you idiots, let's go !”
Everyone started moving, many students stepping aside in front of our small, highly organized group. Other students began to gather in the same way, and I didn't miss Bakugo's small, satisfied smile.
We crossed corridors, descended stairs, and it wasn't until we reached the last corridor leading to the sports fields of the main building that we found ourselves squeezed.
At first we got in easily and waited patiently to get out. Then a group of idiots ran in and started making a scene, pushing everyone to get through.
I grabbed one by the collar of his uniform as he passed within my reach, glared at him, and pushed him back to where he'd come from.
“Wait your turn" I said, glowering at him.
My irritation increased as I was pushed and shoved, and confusion spread through the rough ranks of the mass of students.
Bakugo grabbed two students by the collars of their jackets and shook them, yelling at them.
In the middle, the 1-A group began to split up, and Bakugo yelled at them to get back in line, but it was impossible because everyone was scattered.
I rolled my eyes and sighed.
Katchan will owe me for this.
With an elegant gesture, I jumped and launched myself onto a glass wall that overlooked the outside of the building.
Crouching down, I clung to it with chakra, conjuring a thin layer of ice under my feet to give the illusion that it was holding me up.
I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with air.
“I swear, if you don't calm down right now, I'm going to freeze you all and leave you here to rot”
I had amplified my voice slightly with chakra and it echoed clearly throughout the room.
All heads turned towards me.
To back up my words, I created a mini-blizzard in my right hand and exhaled a light cloud of steam, daring anyone to move too fast.
The temperature dropped several degrees and many shivered.
“Hey," one of them gasped. “What gives you the right to-”
I raised my hand and a stream of ice shot from my fingers, freezing the boy to the waist.
“Anyone else?" I shouted.
A girl stirred in the background and elbowed her way out, trying to get out first.
Another flick of the handle and she was completely frozen.
“Go ahead," I said, glaring at everyone. “I can do this all day”
Bakugo blinked, then a toothy grin graced his lips.
“1-A on the move," he ordered.
The students returned to their original places, passing the others who were still stunned by what I had just done. I made sure none of them got lost in the meantime, watching as they exited the corridor and finally made their way out.
“What are you waiting for ?”
The other students began to move again under my scrutinizing gaze, some of them giving me worried looks whenever they made a sudden move. I froze one or two more out of amusement than any real conviction, supervising the masses until everyone was out the door.
In a perfectly executed somersault, I left my spot and landed softly on the ground.
I was the last one to leave the main building.
My clone should be here any min-
Memories hit me suddenly.
*
Itachi, the clone, was crouched on the roof of the H-shaped building that faced the main entrance to the school. The metal wall had been shattered and the reporters had entered the building, pushed back by a few teachers and security guards.
Activating his Sharingan, his red eyes surveyed the scene with interest, imprinting each of the faces in his memory. There was no one wearing a hood or looking suspicious.
Therefore, it should be…
He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the map of the school that the original had memorized on his first day here. His eyes suddenly opened and with a shunshin, he disappeared again.
Itachi was now on the wall overlooking the window of the teachers' lounge, chakra clinging to it. He'd used one genjutsu to blend in, a second one to conceal his scent and a third one to divert attention from where he was.
He scanned the room, saw that no one was there and extended his genjutsu just long enough to open the window and step inside, giving the cameras the illusion that nothing had changed. He landed silently and swept the room.
Steaming cups of coffee sat on the table and piles of documents were scattered everywhere. At the far end was a stack of closed boxes, almost certainly containing files. To the left was a large blackboard with the words:
'Yuei First Year Championship'. Below that, in three separate columns, were suggestions for various events.
Red eyes then turned to the armored door leading to the corridor. There was an internal scan that required one to pass something that proved their accreditation - most likely a card - in order to exit. Itachi had the suspicion that the same system was used to enter.
His eyes then turned to the ceiling, taking in the whole of it in one glance.
No air duct to enter.
Then he began to feel the walls, hoping to find a hollow corner, but to no avail.
There were no irregularities on the floor either.
The only two ways into this room were through the door and the window.
The hypothesis that someone had a Quirk that allowed him to get in without worrying was interesting, but it didn't fit with what he knew from the manga: It was Shigaraki who had come, and even if Kurogiri had been able to finish the job, it seemed unlikely.
Especially since when I start thinking like that, I can come up with half a dozen different hypotheses about who might have entered and how.
The most logical assumption would be that the intruder came in through the door, since the window showed no indication of having been broken.
Someone had given the intruder access to the room.
What they had come for wasn't the issue: the anime had said that they had retrieved a schedule to find out All Might's working hours.
The real question was who had let Shigaraki into the room and how.
Surely with an accreditation card, but whose ?
Maybe one of the teachers is the traitor ?
Itachi automatically crossed Aizawa off his list: if the man had been an enemy, nothing and no one could have stood in the way of All for One.
Footsteps echoed down the corridor, the sound of a discussion coming closer:
“What do you mean you lost your badge ?”
There was a beep and the metal door opened.
With a silent leap, Itachi found himself crouched on the ceiling, upside down, his red eyes probing the two new arrivals.
“I don't know," Aizawa sighed and ran a hand through his hair. I had it this morning...”
Present Mic smiled contemptuously.
“You should slow down with your nightly heroics. At this rate, you'll lose more than just your ID papers”
Hmm ? So Aizawa Sensei has lost his card? A strange coincidence…
Present Mic passed right below him and poured himself a cup of coffee from the automatic coffee machine.
Itachi watched him out of the corner of his eye, his attention mostly focused on
Aizawa. He was certainly the more dangerous of the two and the one to watch out for.
The dark haired man sighed and ran his hand over his tired face.
“Maybe you're right...”
The blonde raised the cup to his lips before adding sympathetically:
“I can understand you, with such unruly students like yours...”
Aizawa collapsed onto a chair right under Itachi. He gladly accepted the offered cup of coffee.
“Tell me about it," he murmured. “I have to be constantly on the lookout to prevent Bakugo or Todoroki from murdering a student while my back is turned”
Present Mic stifled a laugh.
“Weren't they the ones who bullied the seniors ?”
Aizawa nodded.
“They didn't bully them, they just harassed them in broad daylight. I even thought one of them was going to shit his pants”
“Makes sense" Mic admitted.
“And then there was Monoma," he continued “On the surface he's the most civilized of the three, but there's something about him that rubs me the wrong way”
“There's always something that rubs you the wrong way," Mic retorted as the dark-haired man glared at him.
The discussion continued and Itachi listened patiently, not missing a single crumb of what was said, hoping to gain some interesting information. But it was all low-grade gossip and he didn't even know half of the protagonists.
Aizawa finally stood up and looked at his watch.
“The students must have finished their evacuation, let's go”
Present Mic whistled past him.
Aizawa drank his coffee in one gulp and raised his head.
To the clone's horror, a lock of his long hair came loose.
The tip brushed against Aizawa's forehead and he froze.
Itachi felt his heart miss a beat.
In a flash, Itachi had shunshin across the room and was crouching on the ceiling just in front of the window. Aizawa had activated his Quirk, his hair hovering and his red eyes focusing on the spot where the clone had been a split second earlier.
“Aizawa ?”
The man turned his head to where Itachi was so quickly that his neck made a loud crack. The clone forced himself to stand still, his Sharingan never leaving the professor's sight. Aizawa can't see me," he reassured himself. His Quirk has no effect on me or the original, as it is 'immutable'.
The dark-haired man walked slowly, his eyes never leaving Itachi's and for a moment, the clone felt a wave of worry. And then Aizawa looked away, suspiciously scanning the window behind him. His red eyes took in the entire room before he deactivated his Quirk with a sigh.
He rubbed his irritated eyes and his shoulders slumped as if he were carrying a ton of bricks.
“I thought I saw something," he said to Mic. “Let's go”
Aizawa slipped through the open door.
“You must be really tired, Zawa," Mic huffed as he went after her. "I think a vacation...”
The door slammed shut and the sound of their conversation faded away.
*
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