Spotted
"Todoroki, here's what happened. Jilan got a walkie-talkie from the villains and gained access to their communication frequency. He's contacting the villains in the other zones one by one. Their leader was so domineering that when he gave them the walkie-talkies, he told them, 'If you don't take out those students, don't bother reporting back.' So the villains haven't suspected a thing.
"Koda and Tokoyami are in the storm zone. The villains fighting them haven't caught them and have already suffered heavy losses, so they asked us for backup. Kacchan and Kirishima are in the collapse zone. They got a walkie-talkie too and contacted us, though we almost got into an argument over the call..."
Midoriya gave a wry smile as he reached that point, and Minoru Mineta cut in. "That guy threatened to kill every last one of us! Is that what a hero should do?!"
If it's Bakugo, I can understand that... Besides, even I almost thought about exchanging hostages, Shoto Todoroki thought to himself.
Jilan Jiyu added, "I'm not really sure who's doing the talking in the fire zone where I was, but according to the people in the other zones, they reported that both Ojiro and I had been captured..."
Although Jilan Jiyu had let Diduo Chengjie go, he didn't think of that possibility at all. He only thought that after he left, the villains there might have been too embarrassed to admit what happened and had lied to the other zones.
Shoto Todoroki thought for a moment, then asked, "I'm number five, and you're number three. Leaving aside Jilan's fire zone, there should still be a number six."
"That's the problem," Jilan Jiyu said, sounding troubled. "Ojiro went to the mountain zone a while ago, but no one answers when we call there. There's been no word from either the villains or our classmates. It's really worrying."
Ojiro had said something so cool, yet what could have happened that left no one answering the walkie-talkie...?
Despite those thoughts, Jilan Jiyu said calmly, "Todoroki, we need you to leave there and come to the central plaza as soon as you can. Mr. Aizawa is in danger."
Mr. Aizawa is in danger? Shoto Todoroki recalled the information he had gotten from the villains. "I heard from the villains that All Might is their target. Apparently, their trump card is a huge guy with a bird's beak, and his strength and speed are a match for All Might's."
There was silence on the other end of the walkie-talkie for a while. Just as Shoto Todoroki began to wonder if it had broken, he heard Tsuyu Asui's saddened voice. "Todoroki, the one you're talking about is called Nomu. He's the one who took down Mr. Aizawa."
After the call ended, Jilan Jiyu, Midoriya, and the others were in low spirits. Although they had heard that their other classmates were safe, the news about Nomu had instantly sent their happiness plummeting.
Minoru Mineta forced a smile. "But that's All Might we're talking about. If just any villain could match him, he would've been beaten by villains a long time ago, right?"
Midoriya felt a little reassured and offered his own assessment. "I don't think we need to worry about Ojiro. Maybe the villains accidentally broke their walkie-talkie... And if U.A. High School hears that the school's been invaded, they'll definitely send lots of Pro Heroes!"
"So as long as we hold out, we might be rescued..." Jilan Jiyu fell silent for a moment before saying, "But Mr. Aizawa might not be able to hold out that long."
When he saw Jilan Jiyu suddenly stand up, Midoriya grabbed him in a panic. "Jilan, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to buy some time," Jilan Jiyu said softly. "I'm the class president. Shouldn't I be doing something at a time like this?"
Tsuyu Asui also grabbed the hem of Jilan's clothes. "Jilan-chan, you've already done enough. We need to wait for All Might to come here and deal with that Nomu..."
It looked like none of them had noticed yet. They were already out of time.
Jilan Jiyu sighed inwardly. With his back to the huge rock that concealed them, he pressed a hand against each of Midoriya's and Minoru Mineta's heads and pushed them underwater despite their struggles. Then, under Tsuyu Asui's somewhat surprised gaze, he wrapped his arms around her as they faced each other, pressed her head against his chest, and let himself fall forward into the pool in front of him.
Boom-
The next instant, the rock behind him suddenly shattered with the sound of a heavy punch, and the broken stones came hurtling toward them!
Tsuyu Asui watched helplessly as the stones plunged into the water and, like raindrops, continued hurtling toward Jilan Jiyu's back without losing momentum!
Seeing the pained expression on Jilan Jiyu's face, she, whose Quirk was Frog, used her ability to breathe underwater and extended her long tongue, wrapping it around his body. Then, just as Jilan had done, she grabbed Midoriya and Mineta, one in each hand, and swam a little farther away. Seeing that the two urgently needed air, she rose toward the surface.
Jilan Jiyu had suddenly shoved Midoriya underwater, and all Midoriya had heard was a constant crackling around him. He had no idea what had happened. As soon as he surfaced, he began coughing and spitting out water.
"Jilan-chan, are you all right?!" Although Asui's voice was still calm, Midoriya could hear the anxiety hidden in it. He hurriedly turned and saw Jilan Jiyu, whom she had released from her tongue and was now holding.
He looked very weak. His eyes were closed, and he didn't respond to Asui's calls.
What on earth happened?!
Izuku Midoriya looked toward the spot where they had just been hiding. The huge, bird-beaked man called "Nomu" stood on the shore, still holding his punching pose. His muscles bulged, seemingly showing off his explosive strength.
Midoriya understood. The one called Nomu had discovered them and shattered the rock with a punch. Jilan had noticed it beforehand and taken all the damage for them!
"Ah, how boring. You actually sensed it?" Tomura Shigaraki walked toward the water, sighing theatrically. "You're just a bunch of loaches, yet not a single one of you died."
"Not only are we not dead, we're completely fine," Jilan Jiyu said, slowly opening his eyes. Resting his head on Tsuyu Asui's shoulder, he took a deep breath. "You hand fetishist, you discovered us a while ago, didn't you? I don't know why you let us stay here, but your premeditated attack failed."
"Jilan-chan..." Asui breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Jilan Jiyu had regained consciousness. Then his behavior, which was a little like sexual harassment, made her somewhat shy, and a rare blush appeared on her face.
Shigaraki stared at him in disbelief and scratched his neck in irritation, muttering to himself, "That was Nomu's full-power attack! Even I'd be seriously injured if an indirect attack like that hit me, but this guy..."
Shigaraki suddenly entered a strange state, and Nomu made no move either. Jilan Jiyu quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, Jilan Jiyu was really shaken. If he hadn't, on a whim before coming here, slipped a bottle of special soapy water into his pocket-something he had made when the interest had struck him by chance—he would probably be dead by now.
Hamon Bubble was a special technique used by Caesar Zeppeli, a friend of JoJo the Second. By channeling Hamon into specially made soapy water, it could be used in all sorts of marvelous ways.
After realizing that the villains might have discovered his location, he had quietly used Hamon to sink the bubbles produced by the special soapy water behind his back. The instant he sensed the attack coming, Jilan Jiyu used Hamon to control the bubbles and block the stones behind him!
Even sharp stones might not be able to puncture Hamon Bubbles after sinking into the water. Although a few had broken through the defense and hit Jilan Jiyu, how badly could they have injured him?
One thing had been left unsaid: when Jilan Jiyu first surfaced, he had needed to breathe air to recover from overusing Hamon, so his gulping down air had been an unconscious act.
Yes, it had been an unconscious act. At least, that was what Jilan Jiyu thought.