NOVEL NEXT 53 – Job 4:8
Job 4:8
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
“What the heck? The losers are practically uninjured and the winners are on the ground…” Denki said in amazement.
“They lost the battle, but won the war, huh?” Fumikage said.
“This is training, though.” Tsuyu said hesitantly.
James patted her on the should. "Well, compared to dealing with actual villains this is still light," he said.
"I guess so," Tsuyu responded.
It didn't take long for All Might to return with Bakugo, Ochaco and Tenya. Izuku was still missing since it would take a while for him to recover even with princess charming's kiss.
The big screen changed.
[Person-To-Person Combat Training]
[Battle 1 review]
“The MVP for this battle was Young Ida!” All Might
Ida looked shocked by this revelation. It was just too much for his little teacher's pet heart.
“It’s not either of the winners, Ochaco or Midoriya?” Tsuyu asks in confusion.
"Just looks like a bunch of losers to me..." Himiko drawled lazily. She didn't have any empathy for them, not even the severely beaten up Izuku.
James playfully flicked her forehead. "Behave," he tells her.
Rather than actually feeling bad she just tries to give him her "innocent eyes". James knows better than to trust those though and simply shakes his head at her.
"Tsk" Himiko looked away disappointed.
“Hmm, well… why is that? Does anyone know?” All Might asked ignoring the two and simply going off what Tsuyu said.
"I'll give it a shot," James says beating the eager Momo to the punch.
Momo pouted crossing her arms which emphasised her bust even more than it already was due to her super suit.
"Ahem... Well Bakugo comes in last. He let his emotions take control refusing to work together with his teammate and risking the objective given to pursue his little dick measuring contest with Izuku. He was excessively reckless from start to finish and though he was supposed to be the villain his focus should have been on the goal given to the villains which he utterly failed at," James said with emphasis on the word little.
Bakugo who was barely calming down from raging at Izuku was immediately re-ignited ready to attack James. He was stopped by All Might, who placed a hand on his shoulder, before he could. The helped him break out of his emotional fog before he did something stupid again. There were only so many times the school could excuse him attacking his classmates outside of designated spars after all.
"Izuku comes next. He managed to succeed, but in the process was unprepared and took excessive risks. It ended up working out for him, but there was no guarantee it would have and such behaviour could cause trouble for himself and his teammates in the future. Though he knew there were only two opponents due to the controlled scenario of this exercise in a real life villain situation this wouldn't be the case. As such leaving himself in such a vulnerable position is unacceptable as it would leave both himself and his team in a vulnerable position. He still did better than Katsuki since he at least had some kind of plan, even if very flawed, and was communicating and working together with his teammate," James said.
All Might flinched as James criticised his secret protege. He couldn't say anything about it though as everything James had said so far was true even if a little crude and direct at times.
"Ochaco is the runner-up. She did a good job of communicating and working together with Izuku. She didn't take the task seriously enough leading to herself getting discovered by Tenya. This ruined any chance at a surprise attack. She did however use her powers well which was integral to their success which is commendable. We would need to take into consideration that her attack only succeeded because this was a test with a fake bomb though. Launching a bunch of shrapnel around a room with a live bomb in it would be the kind of risky behaviour a hero should be criticised for. We would need to take that into account when scoring her performance. If there was one thing to criticise beyond those obvious things it would be that she went along with Izuku's plan without discussing it with him more which might have allowed them to prevent some of its worst flaws," James said.
James looked Ochaco directly in the eyes to convey his care and sincerity. "No need to feel nervous about voicing your opinions. You're a smart cookie. Plus who wouldn't like listening to you," he assured her. He was unable to resist teasing her by the end.
Some might call him out that he was being way too soft on her by covering his criticism in compliments. They might say that he was only doing that because she was a cute girl. Meanwhile he had no problem brutally criticising and even antagonising Katsuki and Izuku. Those people would be entirely right. Even though he hadn't made up his mind on whether he was going to make any real moves on Ochaco or at least leave Izuku the one true ship he had in the original story. That didn't mean he felt any need to make her dislike him though.
"Ahem..." James cleared his throat breaking eye contact with Ochaco who was starting to blush from the somewhat prolonged eye contact. It felt too intimate for her.
"That leaves Tenya. He did attempt to work with his teammate despite their callous regard for him. When it was obvious this wasn't going to work he did the best he could with the options available to him. He prepared to battle field to the best of his ability given his knowledge of the hero team and their quirks. Unfortunately his measured mindset that helped him prepare also hurt him in the end. When the situation became chaotic and things were changing fast he was unable to respond in time allowing Ochaco to reach the bomb," James ended up mostly praising Tenya.
Tenya coughed into his fist to get the attention. "Though your analyses is impressive, I do have to call you out on your lack of manners Busujima-san." he called James out. He was unable to resist after James was carelessly calling everyone by their given name throughout his analysis.
"Ah, my apologies Tenya. Please bear with it. As you noticed by my name and appearance my mother is an American and sometimes I forget about using the correct form when addressing people," James lied. It wasn't that he wasn't aware, he just couldn't be bothered.
Despite James' apologetic words the fact that James still called him Tenya made the his brow twitch subconsciously.
"Well... I-I guess I can understand as long as you're trying," Tenya said having had the wind taken out of his sails.
"Thank you. Now to complete my analysis," James said.
"This all exposes that though Team A won. It was winning on a technicality. If this were a real villain attack their plan and attacks would have been excessively risk endangering themselves and any potential innocent bystanders. Though they knew the building and surrounding environment was clear, that there were only two villains and that the bomb was fake none of those would necessarily be the case in a real situation," James said.
If there had been bystanders or worse hostages they weren't aware of those could have become casualties. Izuku's attack did a lot of damage to the building which could have caused it to fully collapse endangering everyone in the building and even the adjacent buildings which might not be fully evacuated. The same goes for both his and Ochaco's attacks that could have set off the bomb if it were real leading to similar consequences," he finished.
