Tournament Arc: Prologue

Karaburan and Nezu sat at the table. Once a month, the two Principals of the two top Hero Academies made the time to get together and relax over some nice cups of tea. They never met at the same establishment twice in a row, in order to avoid potential spies or villains. This time it was neither a top end institution or some dingy wannabe, but a pleasant above-average restaurant that understood some patrons desired privacy and anonymity. They both smiled and thanked the server as she bought a pot of tea into the room.
The two sat in contemplative silence as Karaburan poured the tea. One cup for herself, and another for her diminutive associate. Nezu was her rival, yes, but he had earnt that position. He was the Principal of U.A.; Shiketsu’s only competitor in Japan for the position of top Hero Academy. He may just be an animal, but thanks to his quirk he was one of the very few who could rival her intellect. Besides, both of them understood that there were some topics that they could only really talk about with each other. All the trials and tribulations of running a Hero Academy: navigating the mess that was the Japanese fiduciary system, managing a staff of quirked up heroes each with their own egos, not to mention how challenging it was to deal with each year’s new students.

“Itadakimasu!”

The two of them took their first drinks in unison with the traditional Japanese saying. It was a wonderful matcha, a Usucha that was common for tea ceremony, but was also consumed in less formal settings such as this. They both took in the sweetness with hints of umami, sighing in contentment, before beginning to speak.

“So, how have things been at U.A.? I heard that Endeavor’s youngest started this year.”
“Shoto? Ah yes, his fourth, but only the second to follow their father into Hero work. His quirk is fascinating, you know, a full combination of Enji’s and Rei’s, with both fire and ice under his control. Hopefully he’ll be as hard-working as Toya, Kami knows how many times that one ended up in the infirmary.”

Far away, the three Todoraki’s sneezed. Shoto pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose, Toya simply rubbed his nose on his sleeve, while Enji took careful note of any potential failing of his health. He was the Number One Hero; he couldn’t allow himself to take any time off from his duties, not even for health concerns. How many would suffer if he took time off for a sniffle? He made a mental note to drink some ginger tea and got back to work.

“Oh, I know what you mean! It seems that the youth have no appreciation for their own vulnerabilities! So many of our freshman seem to think that just because Shiketsu has the best medic in Japan as our school doctor, that they can simply push themselves past their breaking point!”
Nezu quickly glanced at Karaburan’s comment. He knew, and knew that she knew, that these meetings were for more than simply conversation; they gave each of them the chance to show off to the other. That strange new fellow that she had hired had definitely shown he was worthy of his moniker of “The Doctor”, but his complete lack of a history raised an eyebrow on Nezu. Regardless, he could tell from the smug smile on his rival’s face that she had both intended the barb and had noticed his reaction. No matter, he had a response ready.

“Yes, quite. Recovery Girl has served with aplomb for a long time, seen many students through their studies, and has said much the same. Particularly at the Sports Festival with how the students went at it. Guess that’s what such a crowd does to youth!”

Nezu drank from his cup, pleased to see Karaburan’s smile falter and fade. He knew what he had with the Sports Festival; it was more of a national sporting event than a simple school competition. It bought in many Pro-Hero observers, and even had Endeavor himself awarding the medals! The final battle between his youngest child and that temperamental kid who made explosions was seen by most of the country, and hundreds of millions around the world. The photos of Endeavor putting the First-Place medal on his son had been plastered absolutely everywhere, the looks on both of their faces had become a symbol for Heroes worldwide as a testament of what they were working for and towards: a world of peace secured by the strength of the brave.

“Yes, I saw.”
“You were watching?”
“Of course, call it professional curiosity. One must keep tabs on future heroes after all! I was impressed by the final fight, as expected of the son of the Number One Hero, but I have to admit, I was a bit let down.”
“Oh? What disappointed you?”
“Well for a start, no 3rd place playoff! The whole point of a one-on-one tournament is to allow a full display of the students power!”
“Young Iida had a family crisis and forfeited the match -”
“That’s hardly the point! Further, why only 16 participants? I know U.A. has two full classes of students trying to become pro-heroes, so why not more show off? A 32-member tournament, at least, would have been possible!”
“That would have more than doubled the number of fights. We had to include the earlier activities of the Sports Festival.”
“But that’s just it!” Karaburan was on a roll now, her empty sleeve that she refused to have tailored fluttering from her movement. “If there is a tournament as part of the festival, then the focus should be on it, not on nonsense such as horse riding or a scavenger hunt!”

Nezu did not respond, he didn’t want this meeting to devolve into a shouting match. Instead he simply took a long drink from his tea. Karaburan hadn’t been so animated as to stand up, and the de-escalation tactic had the desired effect. His counterpart took a drink herself, and for a moment there was silence.

“You are clearly highly passionate on the topic of tournaments.”
“Well what can I say, I hold to the position that the work of Heroes is greater than a fun-day, both in importance and spectacle.”
“I see. Would you be different in your hosting of such an event?”
“Of course!”
“Then I shall look forward to Shiketsu’s tournament.”
Karaburan hadn’t thought that far ahead, the words had left her mouth unbidden, she had just wanted to try and get one over on Nezu when it came to the Sports Festival. It was a major point of contention for her that U.A.’s Sports Festival was such a cultural phenomenon, when Shiketsu had such a record of stronger heroes! She had never really internalized that a hero’s social presence was just as, if not more, important as their practical skill in this modern age. Perhaps that was why she had not fixed her clothing to account for her disability. But she couldn’t back out of the challenge, even if it was a trap! What was more important, her sanity and the state of the school in the effort to organize such an event, or getting one over her rival? The choice was obvious.
“Fu fu fu, so you managed to figure it out? As expected of you, Nezu.”
“Oh, so you were planning one? I had suspected, but I suppose it’s now confirmed.”
“Indeed. I’ve been keeping it under wraps as the preparations were made, but since you figured it out, I may as well make it public.”
That was a lie, of course, but Karaburan was desperate not to seem incompetent or lose any face. She had committed now; she was going to see it through. Already the cogs in her brilliant mind were turning, plotting how to pull this off.
“Any secret twists that you might be willing to share with your rival?”
“Oh, come now, Nezu. Surely you wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise!”

---

That afternoon, Karaburan was pacing in her office. She had managed to bluff her way through the meeting, but actually organizing such an event was a different level altogether! Still, she could pull it off, she was a genius, and she didn’t need her quirk to boost her IQ like the rat did!
She sat down at her desk, turned on her computer, and began to write down all the things she would need for this to go well. She could order them later, first she needed them down somewhere. Finances, event structure, the venue, the date, advertising, staff, even getting catering and other third-party businesses. All of it would need to be done, and soon in order to make it seem as though this had been in the works for a long time.
Where to start? Well, she wouldn’t be able to do much of anything without a date! She bought up the school calendar, looking through the many, many, events that she would have to work around. She stared and scrolled through the various days and spreadsheets, before finalizing the date. Yes, that date would do nicely - right after some exams but a good while before the Provisional Hero License Exam – meaning she would be able to springboard the successful students to public fame! It always irritated her that while Shiketsu made most powerful heroes, U.A. had most of the top 10.

Next the finances. She was basically broke right now, having spent most of the wealth she garnered from her heroic days on elevating Shiketsu to the peak of Hero Academies, so she was going to need advertisers. There were several companies with which she had good ties, but they alone wouldn’t be enough for how big this needed to be. However, they would be sufficient to make a base from which to get the big fish she had in mind. She wouldn’t be able to lie to them, but ‘massaging’ the truth to them, that she could do. She went through her list, using the same selling techniques that she had to secure the renovation deals.

“Hello! Yes, it’s Shiketsu! Listen, I’ll cut to the chase…”
“We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for quite a while now, but now it’s time to reach out to collaborators, you were top of our list…”
“Wonderful to hear you want to join us in this! We…”
“We’ll have the details sent over tomorrow morning. Wonderful talking with you and looking forward to our partnership!”

Karaburan slumped back in her chair. Hours of corporate bullshitting had been exhausting but had borne fruit. She had multiple companies ready and waiting for the chance to get their names and brands in front of the world of quirk sports or whatever this genre was called. What she cared about was pulling this off and rubbing Nezu’s nose in it.

What next? Staff. Simple enough, she had bragged about this in the meeting. The Doctor was more than able to heal any injury that would take place. At this point, seeing how easily he fixed Majestic’s eyes, she wouldn’t put it past that man to be able to heal death. Between Majestic, Ippon, Localuca, and of course Rosethorn, she had all the assistance needed to judge, referee, and adjudicate the competing students.

Speaking of students, which would be competing? The class with the top grades was 1-D, so they would form the bulk of it. She smiled to herself. U.A. had their Hero Course students as the class 1-A, so no wonder so many of them got into the top 10, their egos were stroked from day 1! Her system was far better, with A being the General Course, B being the Support Course, C being the Management Course, and D being the Hero Course. And what was with the inclusion of multiple classes, rather than labeling as a course as a whole? She hadn’t even wanted to have a Class E, but needs must, and she had had to adapt. At least she could keep the first three courses in their own respective categories. She was getting off-topic. Right now, she had to focus on which students from 1-E would compete with 1-D. She went through their registry, ‘randomly’ selecting students that would ‘just happen’ to make for some spectacle. At the same time, she, again ‘randomly’, paired them up with students in 1-D that would be narratively fulfilling. Life with death, a titan vs heaven, something of a telekinetic battle, a battle of the Americans, one stereotype with another, mind sight against future sight, two capture units, and finally two martial artists.

It was late now; Karaburan had been working flat out since she got back to her office. But there was still more work to do. Venue? That was obvious, the Shiketsu stadium of course! She hadn’t ensured that her school had the greatest sporting facilities in the world just to not use them! Plus, it meant that there would be no renting costs. That left the structure of the tournament, as well as business catering. Catering was easy, there were dozens of companies that would jump at the chance to sell to such a large captive audience. The Students on the Business and Management Course would also be up for the economic possibilities as well. Come to think of it, she should contact some alumni to cover the business side, that way they can be shown off as well. Something for the morning at this point. Which just meant the actual structure needed to be sorted. Well, her whole spiel at Nezu was centered around the focus of a tournament being the tournament itself, so she wouldn’t need to worry about extraneous events. A 32-person tournament. Seeding was simple enough; she had already ‘randomly’ selected a third of the openings, so it wasn’t much more work to place the rest of 1-D against each other.

Karaburan looked up from her work and out of the window. When had the sun completely set? Had she really spent so long working? She suddenly realized that her whole body was stiff; aches from staying so stationary hit her. With a groan, she leant back and stretched, her one arm extended above her. She was nearly done with the seeding; she didn’t want it hanging over her, not with how much more there still was to do. She needed to inform the staff of the sudden overtime, as well as of course the students themselves, but that could be done in the morning (before school, and more importantly, before sending off the info to the sponsors). She looked over her seeding; it wasn’t perfect, but if there was to be the air of randomness, that would work in her favor. There was definitely plenty of potential for drama, and that was really what she needed. Bums in seats after all, bums in seats.

She highlighted the seeding, hit a few keys, and had her tournament layout. Excellent. Now, all she needed was the bodies. She wrote a quick email to the staff, tagged for urgent reading, and finally let herself go home and go to bed.

---

Hello everyone! I’ve been working on this behind the scenes, and now it’s time to let you all know! It is time for the First (hopefully of many) Shiketsu Battle Tournament! Attached is a file with full information. You will be required to assist with the proceedings, and there will be overtime pay. Let’s make this a success!

Principal Anzu Nishima

---

Rosethorn walked into the classroom with a smirk on her face. She knew her class and could guess their reactions to the sudden information. Bobby and Hifumi darted into the homeroom moments before her – honestly, how were those two always late? They’re thick as thieves and Hifumi can teleport. – while the clique was chatting about whatever new fashion trend was going on to the annoyance of Kaylee – It’s good that they’re such good friends, and I’m sure that it’s good for building up Kaylee’s tolerance for others – and Christopher and Noah were as always punctual – was Christopher looking healthier? Training must be helping him. With a practiced flourish and clap, she got the attention of her class.

“Good morning class! I have a big surprise for you today! How many of you saw the recent U.A. sports festival?” – Rosethorn
“Of course!” – Jugo
“Sure I did, after the Super Bowl it’s the grand slam of sports!” – Bobby
“My family had VIP seats, and of course brought my friends!” – Hailey, with the other clique members
“What’s the U.A sports festival?” – Kaylee

“WHAT?!?!?!?!”

The whole class turned to face the silly gaijin giantess, facial expressions ranging from bewilderment, to disbelief, to flat out anger on some of her fellow battle lovers.
“How could you not know of the best quirk sporting event in the world?!” – Hifumi
“It’s up there as one of the top shows of the year!” – Inigo
“How did you become such a fighting junkie and not know what it is?” – Faith
“Get off my back! I didn’t have a TV where I lived, how was I to know it was such a big deal?” – Kaylee
“That’s enough everyone! To get everyone up to speed, the U.A, Sports Festival is an annual event hosted by the U.A. Hero Academy. Their academy, just like Shiketsu, has the finest quirk users as its student body, and the festival is an opportunity for the world to see what the newest generation of quirk users and future heroes can do. The final event is a tournament with the first-year students getting the chance to compete in one-on-one battles for 1st place.” – Rosethorn
“Noah would recommend Kaylee watches at least this year’s final. The battle between Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugo was, as one relative of Noah put it, a real slobberknocker.” – Noah
“I’ll Say! That final move where Todoroki –” Bobby
Before he could utter any spoilers, his best friend Hifumi reached across the desk and slapped his hands across his loose lips.
“Bro! No spoilers! I wanna see how she reacts!” – Hifumi
“Yeah buddy! Can you imagine how she’s going to flip when –” Inigo
Before Inigo could let anything slip, Gigan stepped in, turning into a thick scarf-like construct and wrapping around the mouth of its ‘master’.
“Mpph! Mppppph!” – Inigo
“OK, that’s enough, settle down everyone. That includes you, Gigan!” – Rosethorn

The green dragon slinked off of Inigo’s mouth, but not before wagging a disapproving claw in his face, much to Inigo’s chagrin.
“The reason I bought it up was for a very special reason. You see, our Principal Anzu Nishima has been working on a project for quite a long time and has told me to inform you. You see, Shiketsu will be hosting our OWN Tournament, involving all of you!” – Rosethorn

No sooner had the words left the teacher’s mouth, than the class had erupted into chaos. Orochi’s tails began to hiss and sway erratically. Steam and smoke shot out of Shinkan’s funnel, only not setting off the fire alarm owing to Jugo’s wind blowing it out of the window. Yui had spontaneously shot her threads, landing on Kaylee’s desk, who had jumped to her feet at the sound of the tournament.

“OK, OK, everyone calm down! Needless to say, this will be somewhat different from the U.A. example. Where they had 16 combatants, we shall have 32: everyone in this class and 8 randomly selected students from Class 1-E. There are no auxiliary events involved; the full focus is on the tournament and the battles!” – Rosethorn
Murmurs broke out between students: 32 people meant 31 battles, more than twice the number in U.A. No wonder the whole event was dedicated to the tournament!
“If you will look to the front, you will see the seeding that has been determined.” As she finished her sentence, Rosethorn bought the image of the bracket up. Everyone started searching for their Hero Name, charting out who they were going to face.
Bobby and Hifumi let out a whoop seeing that they were on opposite sides of the tree.
“Hell yeah! I’d better see you there in the final, man!” – Bobby
“Whoever doesn’t make it there has to do a penalty!” – Hifumi
“Deal!” With that, they slammed their hands together in an epic handshake.

Inigo leant back, looking at the corner of the room, which was becoming blurrier by the millisecond. Didn’t matter, he knew she was there. He grinned his (patent pending) grin and raised his eyebrows repeatedly. Meanwhile Hoge was blushing redder than a beetroot, not that anyone could see with how Wasuremono was firing. She was going to be facing Inigo! In the first Round! In front of the whole world! She couldn’t stop thinking about it, the mental lock causing Wasuremono to get stronger and stronger, until she was practically invisible.

But no matter what everyone else was thinking, Ashleigh had it the worst. Facing KAYLEE? She was screwed, might as well not even show up. She was either going to be beaten to a pulp, or just tossed out of bounds! She groaned and buried her head in her arms, only to feel a reassuring pat on her back. Looking up, she saw the face of Imai, kind and sympathetic.
“No matter what, let’s do our best, OK? After all, that’s what a Hero does.”
At his words, she cheered up. That’s right, no matter what, a Hero does their best!

At the other side of the classroom, Kaylee was clenching her hands, breathing heavily. She had been waiting for something like this. She had fought several of her classmates over the months they’d been together, but there hadn’t been a real chance to see who was the strongest. Until now. She was going to get to fight and show that she was the best. She would rather a round robin, fighting everyone and showing that none of them could beat her, but this was just as good! She didn’t care about the audience, she just wanted to battle.
“Kaylee.”
She heard her name from in front of her. Snapping out of it, she looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Jugo, who had a similar facial expression on his face. No more words needed to be spoken.

Jugo gave a thumbs up. Kaylee returned it.

Rosethorn clapped her hands together again to get everyone’s attention.
“OK everyone, that’s enough on the tournament! Rest assured, you’ll all be able to get all the information on it later, but for now, we have to return to our studies, OK? Now, if you’ll all open to page 130…”

While the lesson progressed, none of the students could stop thinking about the tournament. They were going to compete with each other in front of the whole world! Who was going to win? Who would beat whom? Only time will tell!