Dante and Todoroki were already moving, weaving through the small city layout, through small alleys and over house sized buildings, the place looked exactly like the real thing, crazy how U.A. can do this. Every subtle sound could've been Aizawa's scarf, every shadow could be a trap.
Todoroki kept his space steady beside Dante, then calmly said, "keep turning your hand into sludge and back to normal. If your transformation fails, he's looking at us. That's our early warning."
Dante raised an eyebrow. "Nice. That's actually very smart."
"Don't sound so surprised."
With a small grunt of approval, Dante started flexing his right hand, turning two fingers to sludge and back to flesh, to sludge then flesh, over and over like a twitch. It was small enough to go unnoticed by others but big enough to tip them off if Aizawa was looking at them.
Meanwhile, Dante extended his two thin, twitching sludge antenna from his head, barely visible in his hair. Hyper sensitive to movement and vibrations. He closed his eyes for a second, focusing his senses outward.
They kept moving low through the narrow alleys, careful but efficient, ducking behind walls and avoiding open lines of sight.
Then Dante stopped mid step.
His antenna twitched.
"There," he muttered under his breath, his eyes sharpening as he pointed between two derelict walls, "southwest, around twenty meters or so. His scarf moved."
Todoroki nodded immediately. "Is he alone?"
"What a dumb question, it's a 1v2 of course he's alone."
Todoroki coughed awkwardly, he was too in character.
Dante flexed his hand again. His hand turned into a sludge claw—good. No reaction. Aizawa wasn't erasing his quirk yet.
Todoroki exhaled calmly. "Alright. Let's do this. You can take him from above, I'll push from the ground. We go together, staggered pressure."
Dante smiled. "Okay, let's go."
He leapt up to the roof of a house, wings exploding out of his uniform. Todoroki shifted wide to the right, running to a flanking position.
The air suddenly turned cold.
Todoroki struck first, a wave of ice appeared from nowhere and surged toward Aizawa, it was very fast, clean and precise.
Aizawa's eyes glowed red for a split second and the ice stopped just short of him, crawling to a halt like it had hit an invisible wall. His scarf started to unravel and then it snapped toward todoroki, ready to counter—
*CRASH!*
Dante dropped down like a meteor, leg extended and ready to kick.
Aizawa suddenly twisted, barely raising his arm in time to block the blow, but even with his quirk cancelled, Dante's raw momentum sent Aizawa stumbling back a few meters, boots skidding across the concrete. Aizawa flipped back and landed gracefully, eyes narrowed.
"Not trying to escape?"
Dante winced. "Yeah, yeah—felt that. My quirk is off."
"Gimme two seconds," Todoroki barked, sliding off to the side.
"Okay!"
Then they both charged together.
Dante led, his legs exploded and he started to move erratically, zigzagging forward in unpredictable bursts, fully relying on his speed. He didn't use Pyroclast yet, he didn't need it yet. He was trained, he knew how to fight. Especially how to counter Aizawa.
Aizawa blocked a left hook from Dante, then jumped over a sweeping kick and countered with a hard palm to Dante's ribs, knocking the wind out of him, but just when he was about to reset—
*SNAP!*
A wave of ice hit his side, forcing him to leap back.
Todoroki didn't waste his opportunity. He followed up with a flurry of punches, each strike either covering an opening or baiting Aizawa into position. His left side suddenly flared, a bluff. His right side then suddenly froze the floor around then, trying to lock Aizawa into place for even a second.
Aizawa used his scarf like a whip, catching Todoroki's wrist and slamming him into the ground—but Dante was behind him again.
No longer quirkless.
Dante wrapped Aizawa in his tendrils of sludge then tackled him from behind. "Tired yet?"
Aizawa threw his weight forward, flipping Dante over his shoulder, but the moment he did, Todoroki's ice ensnared his foot, slowing him down just enough for Dante to catch his balance and fly forward again.
Aizawa broke free of Dante's grasp and the battle became a rythm, Strike, Parry, Freeze, Duck, Grapple, Break, Repeat.
Aizawa was a wall, it was like nothing was getting through to him. But he was starting to feel the pressure. Probably his two strongest students as of right now, working in sync.
Dante dashed low to the ground, legs pumping as he twisted and feinted. His quirk was suppressed, he could feel the absence of the hum beneath his skin, but it didn't slow him. He suddenly spun into a roundhouse, pivoting off his lead foot. Aizawa ducked, scarf wrapping around Dante's extended leg and yanked him down hard.
Dante hit the ground, rolled and sprang back up.
Then a wash of frost exploded behind them.
Todoroki had moved. The moment Aizawa's gaze was off him, his attention shifted and todoroki seized the opportunity. Ice surged up in jagged spires, boxing Aizawa in. The Pro Hero reacted instantly, slicing the scarf around his neck in a perfect arc, redirecting it's momentum to whip around one of the frozen pillars. He launched himself sideways, escaping the closing ice trap just as it sealed shut.
He landed in a crouch, exhaling heavily.
Then his head turned. Eyes locked on Todoroki.
Quirk—off.
Todoroki's ice stopped.
But Dante didn't waste the opportunity.
With his quirk back, sludge shot from his shoulders, anchoring to a rooftop beam then back to the floor. He yanked himself forward, redirecting his aim. His momentum was still increasing. Fire started to spew from one of his hand, making him spin like a corkscrew midair, feet also glowing with fire before they were snuffed out again, his quirk blinked out mid attack, but it didn't matter, his momentum was strong.
*BOOM!*
Aizawa still blocked it, but the force blew him back. Dante followed it up with a flurry of low strikes, an elbow to Aizawa's chest, a knee to his stomach, hook to his liver, spinning kick to his ribs—each attack was aimed and performed perfectly. Aizawa ducked low, spun out of Dante's attack then countered with a joint lock that nearly dislocated Dante's arm. Dante dropped down, broke free with a twist and landed another clean punch to Aizawa's ribs.
Just as Dante's arm flared up on fire thanks to Aizawa being disoriented—
Aizawa looked up. Quirk—off.
Dante stepped back, only for Todoroki to tag in.
His right arm shot up, fingers spread. Ice flew forward.
A trail of frost shot beneath Aizawa's boots, he slipped.
That fraction of imbalance was enough.
Todoroki threw himself at Aizawa with a spinning back fist, then slid into a loe stance and swept Aizawa's legs out from under him. Aizawa somehow dodged it, caught Todoroki's wrist with his scarf again and flung him once more, only for Dante to appear right in the nick of time.
He flew in hard, catching todoroki midair and swinging him around, using him as a momentum boost.
Todoroki's body smashed through a nearby wall, cushioned by his own ice just in time and he slid out with a growl, throwing another wave of ice out at Aizawa.
Aizawa jumped out of the way, trying to keep his distance, but midair, his eyes widened.
Dante was behind him, but he wasn't attacking, his arm was outstretched.
Aizawa looked at todoroki, who had a smirk on his face.
From Todoroki's position, around 40 dark red bullets flew toward Aizawa.
Dante had gave Todoroki a handful of small bullets of his hardened sludge, so when he was in position, he could retract the sludge and use it to attack Aizawa midair.
Aizawa's scarf unwraveled fully and he blocked the onslaught of bullets, Dante didn't let this confusion go to waste, he grabbed Aizawa in hopes of pinning him down, but instead, Aizawa cancelled Dante's quirk and kicked him down to ground.
Aizawa finally dropped to the ground after the whole air exchange with a deep breath, "these kids…"
But before he could gather himself, Todoroki was already there.
He grabbed Aizawa's scarf, spun behind him and tried to freeze his arms, way quicker than he'd moved before, Aizawa broke free with a shoulder roll and threw a blink punch, but Dante intercepted, taking the hit for Todoroki.
Dante's quirk was now active since Todoroki's was off.
Dante surged forward.
His arms shifted to claws,
He boxed Aizawa in, threw a slash to his chest, blocked by the scarf. His body was fluid, Aizawa unable to counterattack and keep Todoroki from freezing him. Finally, Aizawa managed to wrap his scarf around Dante's ankle.
Dante was yanked back, but he wasn't alone.
Todoroki, still in range, grabbed Dante's hand.
A tag team throw.
Aizawa's eyes snapped back to Todoroki, accidentally giving his quirk back.
Todoroki's flames erupted point blank.
Aizawa leapt, midair again, into a puddle of sludge.
Aizawa looked down, his boots were starting to sink as the sludge started to harden around him. Straining Dante.
Aizawa looked at Dante, eyes glowing red.
But Dante grinned.
It was too late.
Todoroki's frost surged from below, locking Aizawa in place.
Then Dante smashed straight into him, shoulder first, driving the hero into the wall behind him with a force of a cannon.
Dust erupted.
Silence.
And Aizawa… was pinned down with the handcuffs on.
The fight was over.