"Huff…"

  Kirishima took a deep breath, staring at the number "8" on the wall, and muttered, slightly out of breath, "You think they're oop floor? There are only three floors left."

  "Yeah, judging from how things are set up, it has to be the top," Tetsutetsu replied fidently, straightening up.

  Kirishima sighed, realizing how obvious it was. He approached the stairwell, looking upwards. "Alright, so what's the pn?"

  "Pn?"

  Tetsutetsu scoffed. "With our Quirks, what other pn do we need?"

  Kirishima scratched his red, spiky hair, chug at his own pointless question. "Right, I guess there's only one way to go about this."

  "Exactly, let's go! No matter what Yaoyorozu and Mia have in store for us, we only ha head-on."

  With that, Tetsutetsu activated his Quirk, c his body in a yer of hardened iron, and slowly started walking up the stairs. Kirishima followed close behind, though he kept his Quirk inactive for now. His hardening ability, while strong, made it difficult for him to move freely, and it couldn't st for long.

  Meanwhile, on the upper floor, Momo leaned against the wall, listening closely to the approag footsteps eg from the stairwell below.

  She didn't make any unnecessary movements or try to lure them further. That would've been too obvious and might've tipped them off. Despite Tetsutetsu and Kirishima being straightforward in their approach, even they would sense if somethioo much like a trap.

  So instead, Momo waited quietly, settirap carefully.

  "They're ing…"

  She could hear the heavy footsteps now, slow and cautious. Clearly, Tetsutetsu and Kirishima were on high alert.

  "Doesn't matter how cautious they are," Momo thought with a sly smile. "They'll have to pass through this corridor anyway."

  But her smirk faded quickly as she go the side. Minoru Mia, her partner, was once again staring up at her from an unfortunate angle, his eyes glued ts and the hem of her skirt.

  "Uh… heh heh…" Mia scratched the purple grapes on his head nervously when he realized he'd been caught. Despite his embarrassment, his eyes couldn't help but drift to her chest again.

  "Wow, being teamed up with Yaoyorozu is a dream e true!" Mia howled in his mind, practically drooling.

  Momo sighed. Dealing with Mia's antics was exhausting. Still, she refocused her attention oask at hand, just as Kirishima's voice echoed through the corridor.

  "Why is it so dark in here?" Kirishima hesitated, his eyes adjusting to the dim hallway.

  Tetsutetsu noticed something was off too. He gnced back at the previous corridor they had passed through and then at the darkened hallway ahead. There was a clear differen the lighting.

  "They're definitely in the hall up ahead!" Tetsutetsu decred.

  "Yeah, no kidding," Kirishima muttered. "The real problem is, this hallway is a hundred pert a trap, and we have to gh it."

  Tetsutetsu pursed his lips. "And with our Quirks, there's no way around it, huh? We'll just have to ght in."

  "Man, why did we end up on the same team…" Kirishima groaned in frustration but accepted the situatioivated his hardening Quirk, his body turning into solid stone-like armor, though he left a few joints flexible to maintain some mobility.

  "Alright, let's do this!"

  Both Tetsutetsu and Kirishima kept their eyes locked on the door at the far end of the corridor, wary of Mia popping out and throwing his sticky "grapes" at them. They paid less attention to their feet, fident the path ahead was clear.

  *Crack.*

  "Huh?"

  "What was that sound?"

  They g each other before looking down simultaneously. Kirishima's face fell. Something sticky and bck g to his foot.

  "He dyed the 'purple grapes' bck?!" Kirishima realized, notig the cleverly camoufged traps. The floor and walls had been coated in a way that made the traps almost impossible to spot.

  "Take off your shoes—"

  Tetsutetsu had a rare stroke of genius and was about to share his pn when Momo's voice echoed from the hall ahead.

  "Tetsutetsu, look here!!"

  "Huh?" Tetsutetsu instinctively turoward her voice, only to see Momo and Miogether, holding a massive mag, pointed right at him.

  "AHHH!!"

  Before Tetsutetsu could react, the mag's powerful force pulled him forward, smming him into it with a heavy g.

  *BOOM!*

  The impact rang out through the corridor, the sound of metal hittial resonating like thunder.

  "It's now!!"

  With the pn falling into pce, Momo didn't waste a sed. She pulled out a roll of tape from her waist, aiming to tie Tetsutetsu up. Acc to the petition rules, binding an oppo with this tape meant they were officially eliminated.

  But Tetsutetsu wasn't going down without a fight. He deactivated his Quirk, his body returning to normal as he tried to break free. After all his training with Daimon-sensei, he had learned o give up without a terattack.

  Meanwhile, Kirishima, having removed his shoes, sprinted down the hall at full speed. The match was reag its critical moment!

  But just as Tetsutetsu regained his footing, Mia's seemingly sluggish demeanor vanished. His eyes sharpened, and in an instant, his hands moved with shog speed.

  In just a heartbeat, two bck "grapes" flew from Mia's hands, stig Tetsutetsu's arms to his waist, immobilizing him.

  "What the heck!" Kaminari shouted from the monit room, watg the se unfold. "Is that what they mean by 'legendary single-guy hand speed'?! Seeing is believing!"

  Tetsutetsu, his arms stuck together, could only wat frustration as Yaoyorozu calmly ed the tape around him, sealing his fate. In desperation, he yelled for help.

  "Kirishima! What are you doing? Get over here and help me!!"

  His voice echoed loudly through the corridor, but even as he was fully restrained, no help came. Instead, he heard Kirishima's resigned voice from behind him.

  "Fet it, man. We lost."

  Tetsutetsu, still fused, didn't uand what had happened. But if he had been able to turn around, he would've immediately realized the problem.

  Kirishima had stepped on another bck "grape."

  There was no way Mia would rely on just one "grape" trap. Under Momo's guidance, several carefully camoufged "grapes" had been strategically pced along their path, trapping both boys.

  Ba the monit room, cheers erupted, especially for Momo's brilliant tactical performance. Even All Might, who had been quietly , was impressed.

  "Well done, Yaoyorozu Momo. Excellent use of strategy and teamwork."

  Kaminari also couldn't help but feel amazed. He had previously thought those eborate battle strategies in anime were exaggerated. But after witnessing Momo's pn in a, he was forced to resider.

  "The so-called 'IQ crushing'… turns out it's real after all," he muttered to himself, smiling with newfound respect.

  *****

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