Hamon Cutter

"So you're their leader, Tomura Shigaraki? You really do look like a villain..."

Watching Tomura Shigaraki suddenly fly into a rage, Jilan Jiyu let go of Tsuyu Asui and discreetly gestured for Midoriya to take the other two and leave first. He continued talking to Shigaraki to buy time.

"Have you seen me before, or did someone tip you off?" Shigaraki stopped scratching his neck, instantly realizing that the information he had received earlier was false. "So those thugs were all taken down? They really were unreliable..."

He bent over with one hand against his face and suddenly laughed, as though he found something funny. "Are those guys who had their place to belong taken away by All Might really that spineless? And they were shouting about killing him..."

All Might had taken away their place to belong. What was he talking about?

Jilan Jiyu realized something and looked at Shigaraki. "I see. The people your League of Villains recruited must be the ones who used to conduct underground deals in Seaside Park... All Might wiped out the criminal forces there, so you found those third-rate nobodies without an organization and tempted them with the chance to kill him. You offered them favorable terms so they'd serve as cannon fodder on the front lines, right?"

"They're just a bunch of rats living in a stinking gutter. It's an honor for them to sacrifice themselves for something that can change the world."

"Change the world?" Jilan Jiyu laughed at the words. "I get it... You're just an edgy kid, aren't you? You spend all day dreaming about doing something amazing that'll make the whole world take notice, but the world can't be bothered to care what you actually do. It's not like you're Toki! And there's something I've been meaning to ask: what's with all those hands hanging off you? Are you showing off your perverted hobby? While I completely understand the hobby, your taste is just hideous..."

"Edgy... taste... What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying you don't understand the beauty of hands at all! The most beautiful hands are the fair, delicate, well-cared-for ones taken from young women. That soft touch makes it feel as if she's still beside you, as if she's always there with you..."

Of course, Jilan Jiyu's perverted speech wasn't inspired by his own feelings. He was imitating Yoshikage Kira's tone and mindset, imagining the beauty of hands.

Midoriya and the other two had taken the opportunity to swim several meters toward the center of the lake. He stopped and gave Jilan Jiyu a surprised look, convincing himself that Class Rep Jilan was only drawing the enemy's attention. Minoru Mineta was focused entirely on escaping with his life and hadn't noticed what Jilan said at all, urging Midoriya to swim faster. Asui, meanwhile, didn't stop at all, as if she hadn't heard anything.

"Interesting. You're an interesting one!" Shigaraki laughed for a while, then suddenly stopped. He spoke coldly to the bird-beaked giant standing beside him, who wouldn't act without his orders. "Nomu, kill him."

Obeying his command, the Nomu let out a shrill cry and charged straight at Jilan Jiyu at tremendous speed. He was so fast that even the surface of the water seemed unable to react, and he sprinted across it as if using the lightness techniques from a wuxia novel!

Midoriya was moving carefully through the water, pulling Asui and Mineta along, but they actually weren't very far from Jilan Jiyu, having traveled only a dozen or so meters.

"Don't just stand there, hurry up and go!!"

Seeing the Nomu charging toward him, Jilan Jiyu couldn't spare the others any more attention. He instantly spread out the last of the soapy water he had smeared on his hands and sent disc-shaped Hamon bubbles flying forward!

"Eat my Hamon Cutter!"

Hamon Cutter—a technique that originated with Caesar Zeppeli. It used the power of Hamon to give bubbles tremendous centrifugal force, creating Hamon bubbles with powerful cutting ability. It had shone brilliantly in duels against the Pillar Men.

Jilan Jiyu had expected that, when an unidentified flying object came toward a vital spot, the first thing the Nomu would do was defend himself. Yet he had continued charging straight at him...

Jilan Jiyu's gaze hardened. In that case, he could take this attack!

...Though Jilan Jiyu hoped the Nomu would be injured, he didn't have much hope. After all, the Nomu's purple skin looked much tougher than a Pillar Man's.

The sharp, swift Hamon Cutter sliced precisely toward his neck. But the Nomu took the razor-sharp Hamon Cutter without dodging or evading, and it left only a shallow line of blood on his neck! Moreover, under Jilan Jiyu's astonished gaze, the blood quickly clotted and the wound vanished in an instant!

He had miscalculated. He hadn't expected the Nomu to possess such powerful recovery on top of that speed. Those were definitely double A-rank stats.

"Turquoise Blue Hamon Overdrive!"

Jilan Jiyu wrapped Hamon around his feet, allowing him to walk on water. Some might wonder why he hadn't done so earlier, but the truth was that the amount of Hamon in his body was nowhere near enough. It could only support him walking on water for a short time, so he had chosen to swim over to conserve energy.

Jilan Jiyu had only enough time to leap out of the water and take one backward step in midair before the pursuing Nomu punched him in the stomach!

"Thud-"

Apart from the Hamon wrapped around his body, Jilan Jiyu had no protection at all. He was sent flying instantly, the blood spilling from his mouth tracing an arc with his body before falling onto the calm surface of the water.

Jilan Jiyu crashed into the slide in the center of the flood zone. His back struck a circular pipe, bending his body backward into a bow. Pain shot to his central nervous system, and he felt as if his body were about to fall apart. He couldn't breathe normally at all. The golden arcs of electricity formed by his Hamon flickered, dimmed, and vanished.

Jilan Jiyu fell helplessly into the water and sank to the bottom with a splash, leaving no trace apart from the ripples on the surface.

"Class rep!"

"Jilan!"

"Jilan-chan!" Tsuyu Asui jumped into the water like a frog.

Midoriya had watched helplessly as Jilan Jiyu was struck by the Nomu, unable to do anything about it. With an angry roar, he used his Quirk without regard for anything else, leaping up and striking at the Nomu not far away.

"Smash!"

Perhaps because he had completed his task, the Nomu stood motionless where he had sent Jilan Jiyu flying, half his body submerged in the water. He seemed to have already completed his task.

The sight made Midoriya even angrier. The veins in his right arm bulged as he swung at the Nomu's head with an explosively sudden force that mirrored his mood!

"Thud!"

The intense air pressure whipped up a storm in the middle of the pool, raising waves several meters high!

Midoriya was suddenly delighted to discover that his arm hadn't suffered any fractures at all. It was completely unharmed. He had definitely felt himself unleash his power, though. Had someone erased his Quirk again, like Mr. Aizawa?

Midoriya looked at the enemy before him and saw that his birdlike beak was twisted and his eyes were bulging. He couldn't help feeling a surge of joy.

He had succeeded. He had finally mastered his Quirk and wouldn't be injured anymore!

But when Midoriya looked up again, his heart instantly sank. He kept backing away, trying to get away from this monster!

The Nomu merely used his hand to twist his crooked head back into place with a creak, then punched himself in the face, forcing his eyes back into their sockets!

His eyes rapidly recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye. The Nomu swung both arms forcefully, instantly cleaving apart the pool water around him. He roared at the sky, and the sound waves, far surpassing Kyoka Jiro's and even those of the sonic hero Mic, reverberated throughout USJ for a long time.

The Hamon bubble Jilan Jiyu had created circled through the air and appeared behind Tomura Shigaraki, slashing at his neck from his blind spot!

"What a boring trick." Without looking back, Shigaraki reached behind him with his right hand and popped the bubble holding the shape of a Hamon Cutter as easily as an ordinary soap bubble.

He watched Midoriya with interest. "Smash... Are you a follower of All Might?" But he soon heard Kurogiri's voice, and his interest vanished instantly.

"Tomura Shigaraki." A deep voice sounded beside him.

"Did you take care of Thirteen?" Tomura Shigaraki looked around and said in disappointment, "All Might still hasn't come?"

Kurogiri suddenly appeared out of thin air beside him and reported, "I've incapacitated him, but some students weren't transported away, and I let one of them escape."

"Huh? Hah-ha ha..."

Shigaraki laughed, trembling all over, then suddenly said, "Kurogiri, if you weren't a warp gate, I'd have crushed you to dust long ago."

"Let's go back. If seventeen or eighteen Pro Heroes from U.A. High School show up, we won't be able to beat them." Shigaraki was deeply dissatisfied with the situation. He turned and walked toward the fountain. "The game's already over. It's game over this time."

Hearing that they were going back, Midoriya breathed a sigh of relief. Tsuyu Asui, who had used the time to pull Jilan Jiyu out of the water, held him in her arms again and said hesitantly, "They're going back. I didn't hear that wrong, did I?"

Tears streamed down Grape's face. "I heard it too. We're finally going to be saved!"

Grape had originally wanted to take the opportunity to hug Asui and feel her breasts, but when he saw Jilan Jiyu, still unconscious in her arms, he gave up on the idea.

The class rep ended up like this because he saved us! The thought kept running through his mind.