Commanding the Field

The Nomu slammed into the pavement hard enough to cave in half the street.

For a moment, the entire evacuation line went silent.

The creature twitched inside the broken asphalt, its exposed brain pulsing as it tried to drag itself upright again.

Mt. Lady lowered one arm from her face and stared.

"A flying slash?" she said, breathless. "Who did that?"

Kamui Woods looked in the same direction, branches still raised defensively. "I don't know any Pro Hero around Hosu who fights with flying slashes."

Death Arms grinned despite the tension. "Then I'd like to know his hero name."

The answer came from the edge of the battlefield.

"Quake."

Yuto Kanzaki stepped through the smoke with three swords at his waist.

Behind him came Class 1-A, with several Class 1-B students close behind. Todoroki, Bakugo, Honenuki, Ibara, Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Momo, Ochaco, Iida, Kirishima, Tokoyami, Midoriya, and the others looked tired from running, but none of them stopped.

The civilians recognized him almost at once.

"That's the U.A. Sports Festival champion!"

"Yuto Kanzaki?"

"I thought a Pro Hero had arrived."

"Why are students here?"

Admiration and fear mixed through the crowd. Some people looked relieved. Others looked at the uniforms and remembered how young the students were.

"They're first-years."

"This is not a school tournament."

"Those monsters were crushing Pro Heroes."

Kamui Woods landed near Yuto. "You're U.A. students. This area is too dangerous. Help with evacuation and leave the fighting to us."

Mt. Lady nodded, still shaken. "You saved me, and I'm grateful. But this isn't a place for students to prove themselves."

Death Arms added, "Experience matters in a real battle. One mistake here can kill someone." Yuto looked past them.

The Nomu in the crater was healing.

The wounds from his slash closed slowly, but they closed. The creature's fingers dug into the street. Its mouth opened in a rough, broken roar.

There were two more Nomu nearby.

All three had turned toward him. "Their target is me," Yuto said. "If I run, they will chase me through civilians."

Kamui Woods frowned. "Even so, this isn't your battlefield to command."

"Then listen first."

Yuto's voice cut through the sirens.

"The one I hit took almost ten seconds to recover from the kind of wound the USJ Nomu would have healed almost instantly. These are weaker models. They're dangerous, but not invincible."

The Pro Heroes went still.

Yuto continued, "Separate them. Kamui Woods, Mt. Lady, Death Arms, Backdraft, take the one on the left and keep it away from civilians. Todoroki, Bakugo, Honenuki, and I will handle the center. Momo, Kendo, Ibara, Tokoyami, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, cover the right side and protect the evacuation route. Iida, move the injured. Ochaco, clear debris. Midoriya, watch their movements and call out anything I miss."

Kamui Woods opened his mouth to object.

Then the three Nomu moved.

There was no time left.

Todoroki's ice spread across the street. Bakugo launched himself forward with an explosion. Honenuki softened the asphalt under the center Nomu's feet.

Almost without thinking, everyone followed Yuto's orders.

Even Bakugo snarled as he moved. "Don't think I'm taking orders from you, damn it!"

Yuto did not answer. His eyes stayed on the Nomu.

The center Nomu sank to its knees as the pavement turned soft.

Bakugo blasted its face from the left. Todoroki locked its shoulder in ice from the right. Yuto watched the timing, the recovery, the direction of its muscles, and the way its body reacted to each hit.

One exchange. That was enough.

"Their regeneration takes time," he said. "Their movements slow after absorbing damage. We can win this."

The words changed the battlefield. Fear did not vanish.

But it became something people could move through.

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