My Hero Automata

Summary: ...the third set? My summary game is weak for these T-T. Bakugo blows lots of shit up?

Chapter 42: Finals Matches (Set 3)

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There was a considerably longer delay this time, as both sets of students chose to make full use of their allowed preparation time. A few people were a bit surprised that Bakugo allowed that, but those who had gotten a better feel for the explosive blonde were not among them. For all his aggressive nature, Bakugo was also smart, and he'd already seen how the deck was being stacked against specific pairs. He was undoubtedly taking the time to create a basic operational plan for each of the remaining possible opponents. Something which, now that they had a few minutes to think, other pairs were already beginning to whisper about in the observation area as well.

It was actually the Koda and Tokoyami pair that emerged first, with just one minute left of the provided prep time. Their emergence was heralded by an entire flock of mixed-species birds surging out over their battle zone. Izumi and several others nodded in approval as they saw that, muttering about overwatch. It was a tactical lesson all of the students had learned the value of from watching the Nagyoa Attack footage. There, the overwatch provided by Izumi, combined with the emergency channel of the HSN, had been the difference between a mostly-containable attack and a complete slaughter. Arguably, Koda's greatest asset for any operation was as a scout, which made it completely logical that he'd learned that lesson particularly well. The entire Group knew from experience that he'd even made a few specific signals for the local birds, so they didn't need to return to him to provide basic scouting intelligence.

Unfortunately for the pair, Koda's airborne scouts reported…nothing. Given Koda's limited personal mobility, they were forced to simply patrol on the ground, trying to spot any potential ambush. They carefully checked every doorway and peeked into every alley, trying to limit the chances of being caught flatfooted…only for to happen anyway. One moment, everything looked normal, the next a 'Civilian Bot' shuffling passed them sprung to life as Eraserhead flung off the oversized coat that had let him pass as one of the bots. Glaring red eyes shut down Tokoyami's Abyssal Armor in an instant, and Tokoyami lacked the CQC skills to respond as Eraserhead closed the distance and hit him with an aggressive combo that flat out rendered him unconscious.

Koda had immediately responded to the assault by ordering his birds to attack, but Eraserhead wasn't an idiot. He'd darted into one of the stores right after knocking his first target unconscious, thrown a trio of knives into lethal points of the three worker bots inside, then…vanished. Koda was left with an unconscious partner, a mess of agitated birds, and no idea where his opponent was. Mustering his courage, he did his best to organize a sweep of the town using every animal he could attract, but everyone knew it had been over the moment Tokoyami was knocked out. Eraserhead simply kept hitting and fading against civilian bots until Koda was forced to corral the survivors in an attempt to protect the twenty three that remained. This, unfortunately for Koda, pinned him in place protecting them. Eraserhead had dropped down from above like he was channeling Batman, completely ignoring the trio of birds that tried to attack him…and tasered Koda. It was a bit funny to watch Eraserhead proceed to flee from the angry flock of birds, squirrels, and rats. But with Koda disabled, the match had been called as a loss for the student pair.

Of course, most of the observers would only get to see the highlight that was Eraserhead fleeing from a flock of small mammals during a later review, as attention had shifted to the other ongoing fight after Tokoyami was knocked out and the action became a series of hit-and-runs attacks. What was going on in the other battle zone was considerably more eye catching, after all. Mostly because Bakugo had decided to say 'fuck logic' and flipped the script from the moment he and Ojiro had left the preparation zone.

To everyone's surprise, he and Ojiro had immediately began forcing Civilian bots off the street and into a pair of buildings. Then, just adding to the confusion, they had begun to pull bots from the rest of the buildings into those two as well…then detonated the buildings. That, more than anything, had been what attracted people's attention away from the Koda/Eraserhead battle. Two entire buildings going down in surprisingly well-controlled demolitions attracted attention. Even as everyone gawked, the Professor assigned to fight them was forced into the open as Bakugo began rigging a second set of buildings for demolition. Snipe announced his presence with two bullets curving out of nowhere to hit Bakugo in the chest…only for the blonde to tank the rounds with a laugh. When no disqualification announcement came from the speakers, it was Izumi who spoke up to explain.

"He's not bullet proof…but he might as well be, at least to the level of power those revolvers can output. Bakugo's entire costume is made of an advanced Kevlar composite weave, optimized against penetration at the cost of virtually no kinetic absorption. On a normal person, it would mean horrific bruising at the site of every bullet strike…but his Quirk's mutation adaptations include massive resistances against blunt force trauma. It has to, given that he's routinely the center of point-blank explosions. Compared to his own Quirk, the kinetic energy delivered by those revolvers is laughable."

There was dawning realization on several faces, including a few that appeared to suddenly be reevaluating previous fights with the blonde bomber. It was Mineta of all people that immediately brought up a question.

"Why the hell did they put Snipe up against him, then?"

Momo, who had been frowning at the display, was the one to answer.

"They miscalculated. Or, rather, they didn't consider the need to make a rule against collateral damage. Snipe, with his ability to hide where his bullets are coming from by curving them, was supposed to start picking off Civilian bots while forcing two students who are straightforward combatants to hunt him down. Without any enhanced senses or specialized equipment, it should have been a nightmare to find him. But…"

Iida, who had returned during the second set of matches, grimaced as he watched Bakugo demo a third set of buildings.

"But Bakugo guessed who he would be up against and convinced Ojiro to help him move all the civilians on the street out of the way first, then he began forcefully removing any cover Snipe might have had by obliterating the buildings. He can't touch buildings that still have bots in them, but the majority of the bots in each exercise have been on the streets. Many of the buildings are empty."

Mina noticed something else and spoke up next.

"Yeah, and Ojiro isn't idle! Look, he's using the alleyways to empty more of the buildings. Unless Snipe happens to have line of sight on him, he won't be able to get them. And if he does, that will drastically narrow the areas Kats has to look for him, since not a lot of angles have a visual on the alleyways!"

Midnight was grimacing as she watched and listened, having been quietly using her ear-mounted HSN comm to communicate with the Dean. As Mina finished speaking, she sighed and raised her voice over the excited commentary.

"While Bakugo's unconventional tactics are workings and will see him pass this time. If anyone else tries it, you will be disqualified immediately. Class, intentional collateral damage is not normally a viable option. Only the fact that we didn't think to make it a rule beforehand is allowing him and Ojiro their win. Got it?"

There were murmurs of assent from the students at her declaration. Only Sato looked truly disappointed, muttering about how it would have been cool to bring down a couple of buildings with his power armor…

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A/N: Alright! As of the day I'm first cross posting this to Scribblehub, this is the most recent Public chapter. There are an additional 7 chapters (about 16k words) currently still in early access on My Patreon Page. Those chapters finish out the Final Exams arc, then work their way through a mini-vaction for Momo and Izumi, and the entire (condensed) I-island Arc. This work updates twice a month, for refence. Usually once on the 1st with a smaller 5-7k word update, and a second time mid-month with a 10k+ update.