Chapter 17: The Unbreakable Shield and the Unstoppable Spear (Full Fight)
The air in front of Ground Beta was thick with anticipation. The first match was already underway, the sounds of explosions and shouting echoing faintly from the monitoring room. Now, it was their turn. Rock Lee and Denki Kaminari stood before the towering, five-story building designated for their battle, the word 'HEROES' a heavy, wonderful weight on their shoulders.
"Alright, so, plan of attack, new buddy," Kaminari said, stretching his arms with a casual confidence that seemed entirely at odds with the gravity of the situation. He leaned in, a conspiratorial smirk on his face. "Here's my deal: I can discharge a whole lot of electricity. Super useful for taking out crowds, but it fries my brain if I go all out. I'm also pretty good at close-range zaps. What about you, man? You were a monster in Aizawa-sensei's test, but I never saw you actually… you know." He made a vague, sparkling gesture with his fingers.
Lee looked from Kaminari to the cold, impersonal facade of the building. His expression was one of absolute seriousness. "My abilities are focused entirely on Taijutsu—hand-to-hand combat," he stated, his voice firm. "I possess a high degree of speed and strength, but I have no long-range capabilities."
Kaminari's smirk widened. "No range, all pain. I dig it. So, what's the play? Sneak in quiet-like? Or go in loud?"
"Our opponents are Kirishima-kun and Jiro-san," Lee analyzed, his mind recalling their introductions. "Kirishima-kun's Quirk, Hardening, makes him a formidable defensive fighter. Jiro-san's Earphone Jack allows her to detect sounds and project her own heartbeat. A stealthy approach is illogical; she will detect us the moment we enter."
"So we go in loud," Kaminari finished, cracking his knuckles. "My favorite kind of party. Let's do it."
Lee nodded, dropping into a low stance. "We will enter together and ascend as quickly as possible. Speed is our greatest advantage."
"You got it, Captain Eyebrows!" Kaminari chirped, and the two shot forward, disappearing through the wide, open entrance of the building.
Inside the fourth-floor room where the fake nuclear weapon sat, Kyoka Jiro had one of her earphone jacks plugged into the wall, her eyes closed in concentration. Eijiro Kirishima stood beside the bomb, tapping his fist into his palm impatiently.
"Hear anything yet, Jiro?" he asked, his voice filled with a boisterous energy.
Jiro's eyes snapped open. "Yeah. They're in. And they're not being subtle about it." She pointed a jack towards the floor. "Footsteps. Two sets. Moving fast, coming straight up the central staircase. They're rushing us."
A wide, toothy grin spread across Kirishima's face. "Alright! So they're looking for a straight-up brawl! That's the manliest way to settle things!" He slammed his fists together. "I'll go meet them head-on! You stay here and guard the objective!"
He took a step towards the door, but Jiro's voice stopped him. "Wait, idiot." She pulled the jack from the wall, a worried frown on her face. "There are two of them. You can't take on both at once. Lee's speed is insane, and Kaminari is a powerhouse at close range. It's a bad matchup."
"Don't worry about it!" Kirishima said with a confident laugh. "My Hardening can take anything they throw at me! This is what being a hero is all about—facing the danger head-on!"
He charged out of the room before she could argue further. Jiro let out a frustrated sigh. His straightforward, gutsy attitude was admirable, but it was also strategically reckless. With a roll of her eyes, she jogged after him. She couldn't let her overeager partner get overwhelmed.
The meeting happened on the third floor. The hallway was long and wide, lined with fake office doors. As Kirishima rounded a corner, he saw them. Lee and Kaminari stood at the far end, having just ascended the stairs. For a moment, the two teams just stared at each other.
Kirishima grinned, his presence radiating pure confidence. Jiro stood just behind him, looking far more anxious. Kaminari leaned forward, a playful, challenging smile on his lips. Lee remained perfectly still, his face a mask of calm, intense focus.
"So you came to meet us," Kaminari said cheerfully. "Saves us the trouble of looking for you."
"A hero always meets a challenge head-on!" Kirishima declared, slamming his fists together. "If you want a manly fight, I'll give you one!"
There were no more words. Lee exploded forward.
He closed the thirty-meter distance in a silent, green blur. As he approached, Kirishima roared, his Quirk activating. His skin, from his face to his arms, transmuted into a jagged, crimson stone, sharp and solid. He dug his feet into the ground, raising his forearms in a solid cross-block.
Lee leaped, his body spinning like a top, and unleashed a powerful kick aimed at Kirishima's guard. The impact was immense. A loud CRACK echoed through the hallway, not of bone breaking, but of pure kinetic force meeting an immovable object.
Lee was thrown back by the recoil, landing gracefully on his feet. A jolt of shock went through him. This hardness… he thought, his eyes wide.
It is even greater than the Three-Point robots!
Kirishima grunted, a grin spreading across his hardened face. His arms hadn't budged, but he could feel the incredible force of the blow resonating through his entire body. Whoa, what a heavy kick! This guy's no joke!
The fight began in earnest. It was a whirlwind of motion. Lee was a storm of precise, controlled violence, his fists and feet striking from every conceivable angle. He aimed for joints, for gaps in Kirishima's stance, for any potential weakness. But there were none. Kirishima's defense was absolute. Every blow landed with a dull, stony thud on his hardened skin.
Kirishima found himself in a frustrating position. He was on the defensive, constantly shifting and blocking, his hardened fists barely able to keep up with the flurry of attacks. Lee was too fast. For every one punch Kirishima threw, Lee had already landed three kicks. He couldn't find an opening to launch a proper counter-attack.
Watching from the side, Kaminari analyzed the situation. Lee was dominating the flow of the fight, but he wasn't doing any actual damage. It was like watching a jackhammer try to break a mountain. A new grin spread across Kaminari's face. He saw his opening.
With a burst of speed, he sprinted forward, not towards Kirishima, but around him, aiming for his blind spot. A crackling web of yellow sparks danced around his body. You're so focused on the spear, you forgot about the other knight, he thought, imagining a chessboard. Checkmate.
But he had forgotten about the other queen.
"I don't think so," Jiro said coolly. She stomped the heel of her special hero boot into the floor. The jacks connected to her boots plunged into the concrete, and she unleashed her attack. "Heartbeat Fuzz!"
It wasn't a sound Kaminari heard, but one he felt. A deep, distorted pulse of sonic vibration erupted from the floor beneath him, slamming into his body like a physical wall. He was thrown sideways, crashing hard against the hallway wall with a loud slam before slumping to the ground, groaning. The electricity around him fizzled out. He looked up, dazed, to see Jiro looking down at him, an apologetic but firm look in her eyes. "Sorry, but you're not getting past us that easily."
The distraction was all Kirishima needed. As Lee's eyes flickered for a split-second towards his fallen partner, Kirishima saw his chance. He lunged forward and drove his hardened fist deep into Lee's stomach.
The blow landed with the force of a car crash. For the first time since the fight began, Lee was hit. The air was driven from his lungs in a pained gasp, and he was sent flying backwards down the hall. He didn't crash or fall, however. Years of acrobatic training took over. He twisted in mid-air, landing on his hands, then flipped backwards three more times before landing silently on the floor, crouched on one knee, his head down, but his body coiled and ready to spring.
He took a sharp, ragged breath. This situation is untenable, he thought, the pain in his abdomen a sharp reminder of his failure. Kirishima-kun's defense is perfect. My current level of strength is insufficient to break through it. To win this… I must use more power.
He closed his eyes. In his mind, he pictured a floodgate. With a surge of will, he opened it.
"The First Gate: Gate of Opening! Open!"
A torrent of energy flooded his system. He felt the mental restraints on his muscles vanish, allowing him to access their full potential. It wasn't enough.
"The Second Gate: Gate of Healing! Open!"
His hair lifted slightly, as if caught in a sudden, invisible updraft. The air around him seemed to hum with a newfound pressure. He lifted his head, and his eyes burned with a new, terrifying intensity.
Kirishima, seeing the shift, grinned. "Alright! Took you long enough! Decided to finally use your Quirk, huh? Now we can have a real manly fight!"
In the darkened monitoring room, the students leaned forward, their eyes glued to the screen.
"Did you see that?" Mina asked. "His hair moved! Is he finally using his Quirk?"
"The energy readings are spiking," Yaoyorozu noted, her brow furrowed in concentration. "But there's no visible manifestation. What kind of power is it?"
Bakugo just snarled, his fists clenched. "So the damn Broad-Brows was holding back. I'll kill him."
All Might watched, a thoughtful, serious expression replacing his wide smile. This feeling… this power flowing from him… it isn't a Quirk. It is something else entirely. Young Lee… what is this strength you possess?
Back in the hallway, Lee vanished.
One moment he was crouched twenty meters away. The next, he was directly behind Kirishima. The speed was so immense that Kirishima's senses couldn't even process it. He only felt a sudden change in air pressure. He spun around, his hardened fist swinging wildly, but he was swinging at empty air.
A voice came from above him. "It is over."
Kirishima looked up. Lee was hanging in the air above him, his body inverted, his leg raised high like a descending guillotine. Before Kirishima could even raise his arms to block, the kick came down.
Leaf Hurricane!
The axe kick connected squarely with the top of Kirishima's head. The impact was cataclysmic. There wasn't a crack; there was an explosion. A shockwave of force erupted downwards. Kirishima's hardened body, which had withstood every previous blow, was driven down like a nail into wood.
The floor beneath them shattered.
With a deafening roar of tortured concrete and steel, both boys crashed through the third floor, plummeting into the level below.
Kaminari and Jiro could only stare in utter horror, their jaws agape. "Are you SERIOUS?!" they both yelled in unison.
They were still falling. Kirishima, his mind reeling from the impact but his fighting spirit unbroken, acted on pure instinct. He reached out and grabbed Lee's descending leg, his grip like a vise. Using the last of his momentum, he swung Lee around and violently slammed him into the floor of the second story as they landed. The impact cratered the concrete.
Kirishima was about to follow up, to bring his full weight down on Lee with his knees, but Lee's eyes snapped open. With a burst of explosive agility, he rolled out of the way just as Kirishima's knees came down, shattering the spot where his head had been. The new impact was too much for the already damaged floor. With another groan, Kirishima crashed through the second floor, disappearing into a cloud of dust on the first floor below.
Lee, now alone on the shattered second floor, took a deep, steadying breath. The intense pressure around him receded as he closed the Gates. He stood up, walked to the newly formed hole in the floor, and looked down at the cloud of dust where Kirishima had landed.
A small, respectful smile touched his lips. He gave a slight bow. "Thank you very much," he said, his voice carrying clearly into the silence. "It was most enjoyable to face someone with such a manly and unbreakable defense. I shall see you later!"
From the dust below, Kirishima's enraged voice echoed up. "Hey! Wait! That's not fair! Get back here!"
Lee didn't wait. He turned and, in a single bound, leaped back up through the hole in the ceiling, landing gracefully on the third floor. He jogged over to Kaminari, who was now standing again, looking at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. They both turned to face a very pale, very tense Kyoka Jiro.
"Well," Kaminari said with a nervous laugh. "That was… a thing."
Lee nodded, a serious expression returning to his face as he looked at Jiro. "I do not believe I am capable of fighting to my full extent against a girl," he stated with earnest conviction.
Jiro, though intimidated, stood her ground, her jacks twitching at her sides. "And I don't believe I'm capable of letting you just walk past me."
"Then," Lee said, his expression hardening as he dropped back into his fighting stance, "I have no other choice!"
He shot forward, his fist reeled back as if to strike her directly. Jiro flinched, instinctively raising her arms to shield her face, her eyes squeezed shut, bracing for an impact that never came.
After a second of silence, she cautiously opened her eyes.
The hallway was empty. Lee and Kaminari were gone. The only other person there was Kirishima, who had finally managed to climb back up to the third floor, panting and covered in dust.
Jiro's head snapped towards the ceiling. She heard them. Footsteps, on the floor directly above. She looked back at the empty space where they had been. A look of dawning realization and pure frustration crossed her face.
"They tricked me!"
On the fourth floor, Lee and Kaminari stood before the gleaming nuclear weapon. Kaminari walked up to it and slapped a hand on its side. "And I believe that's what they call a checkmate," he said with a dazzling grin.
A loud siren blared through the building.
"HEROOOOO TEAM… WIIIIINS!" All Might's voice boomed from the overhead speakers, signaling the end of the battle.
In the monitoring room, the students were speechless. They had just witnessed a display of power and strategy that had completely short-circuited their understanding. Midoriya was muttering a mile a minute, his pen flying across his notebook. Bakugo was shaking with silent, unadulterated rage.
All Might stood before the main screen, a huge, proud smile on his face. "HAHAHA! AN EXCELLENT DECEPTION! A WONDERFUL DISPLAY OF POWER AND STRATEGY!" he roared with laughter. He looked at the screen showing Lee, a look of profound respect in his eyes. He thought to himself, That boy defeated an opponent with an unbreakable defense not by breaking it, but by removing him from the battlefield entirely. Then he used his own character as a feint to bypass the final guard. That wasn't just power. That, young Lee, is the mind and the heart of a true hero!
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