The Tournament Continues!

It was 10am, and the first half of the preliminary matches had concluded. The tournament had taken a short break, letting spectators go purchase concessions or go to the bathroom, without missing any action. The broadcasts were showing commercials from the various sponsors of the event, getting their money’s worth from the number of eyes watching.

-

“You want to go to the toilet? That’s what, your third beer already?”
“Shut up, Ryusei, you know damn well I’ve been nursing this one since we arrived. Stupid rules about ‘no proper drinks before noon’.”
Akagi grumbled as she took another sip from her sleeved beer. The hip flask poked into her, but she had managed to hide that from her erstwhile, annoying, compatriot.
“I know I twisted your arm to get you to come – ”
“Literally.”
“ –BUT, I wanted to see you happy. I know times have been hard recently, and if there’s anyone who deserves to have some fun, it’s you.”
“Hmm.” Akagi didn’t show it, but Ryusei’s words touched her. She had been having an absolute hellish time this year. The bills for moneybags, the cannibal, the FUCKING journos! Sure, she was a clown, but why was the joke always at her expense?
Ryusei felt awkward at the resultant pause. He wanted, he needed, this to go well. Akagi was in desperate need for some happiness, as well as having her heroic heart reignited.

Come on kids, help me make this clown laugh!

“Sooo, which fight was your fav so far?” Best he could think of, get her thinking about what was going on rather than all the things going on in her head.
“I liked those mini-dragons.”
“Think you could make balloon versions of them? Sounds like the announcer would buy one!”
“Funny.”

-

Outside, the crowds had only grown larger. Many had watched the first 8 matches online, or heard them narrated on the radio, and had made their way to join in the events. Around the world, more foreigners were watching the livestreams, brought in by the high-octane action and ease of understanding. In Shiketsu’s B&M classrooms were students dedicated to the background, less glamorous, aspects of the tournament. There were computers everywhere; collecting data, analytics, and metrics of every aspect. Graphing the sales of the various stores, online and physical. Tracking watch time, seeing which fights had proved to be the most popular thus far. Comparing the audiences of various nations. These were just a few of the duties that the unsung heroes of the Business and Management Course!
The ‘council’, as they liked to refer to themselves, sat in a conference room, data streaming from their fellow students, projected across the far wall. These were the top of the 3rd year students, each proven in their abilities, and were in charge of coordinating their Course’s actions. They were pleasantly surprised thus far, incoming revenue was exceeding expectations, and considering standard human behavior in terms of expenditure and spectacle, the revenue was projected to substantially increase. This would be fantastic for their resumes!

Hifumi was not one to waste the extra time that he had owing to his match happening to be after the ad break. There was nothing to be gained from pushing himself now, he had warmed up and stretched already, so now he meditated to enter zanshin; his state of combat alertness. He closed his eyes, not to teleport but to remiss, and thought back to his first Kendo tournament.

-

Six years ago…

“Are you sure I’m ready dad?”
“Hifumi” Hidehisa Takeda knelt down, put his hand on his son’s shoulder, and looked him in the eye. “You will never be sure if you are ready for anything in life, for nothing in life is sure. There is only one way to know anything for sure; to try one’s best at accomplishing it. Do you understand?”
“I – I think so.”
The nine-year-old Hifumi was competing in the Under-12s division of quirkless Kendo. He was one of the youngest competing; most were 11 and 12 with a couple of tournaments under their belts already. His first opponent was one such boy.
“Don’t worry Hifumi, don’t let the what-ifs, maybes, and if-only’s distract you.”
Hifumi nodded, the fire igniting in his eyes. He put his head guard on and stepped forward.

-

He went on to win that tournament. His boldness and willingness to risk himself in pursuit of victory earned his first gold medal. But more than that, his focus on the moment ahead and not to be distracted – his zanshin – led to his victory.
Hifumi opened his eyes. He ran his hand along the blade he was given the previous day. Similar to Chihiro, he was highly impressed by its quality. It was not a Kendo Ken, not really, but it felt so familiar that it made little difference. It had no string to show where the blade would be, but as it carried a stunning current across the whole piece, that was not of importance. The one-minute call came in, and with a serene calm, made his way to the arena.

Walking to the arena, Hifumi had no reaction to the noise, to the crowd, to anything. His mind was wholly and utterly focused on the match. Looking at him, one would never suspect that he was a delinquent, such was his attention and discipline. He didn’t even pay attention to his family sitting in the family-designated seats, though his father would have been disappointed with him if his concentration could be shattered so easily.
Go on Hifumi, show the whole world the power of Kendo!
Hifumi’s mother and sisters were not so composed at the Takeda patriarch, fully caught in the crowd’s rapture.
“Otouto!”
“Hi-Chan!”
“Bunny!”
“…ganbette.”

Across from the aspirational Top Hero, his opponent walked up the steps into the arena. She was slightly-below-average in height, but lithe, with coiled muscle. She too took her position on the starting line.

N. “Ninth Round! Takeda Hifumi VERSUS Fuhayai Koukoka!”

“NINTH ROUND! HAJIME!”

Hifumi closed his eyes.
An instant later, he was right in front of Koukoka! He swung down, but before he could make contact with his opponent, he felt red-hot pain slice across his chest! It was such a surprise, he couldn’t help but look down, and in doing so, opening his eyes.
Returning to his original location a millisecond later, he saw his chest was bearing four parallel cuts, each leaking blood, scarlet in the sunlight. Large globs of blood splashed down on the arena.
Hifumi of course couldn’t see what had happened, but in the mere dozens of milliseconds – less than a blink of an eye – between his arrival after teleportation, and his weapon making contact, Koukoka’s feline reflexes kicked in. Just as a housecat would, she lashed out with her hand (or paw!) and slashed in front of her.

I underestimated my opponent’s speed! Hifumi thought to himself.

N. “HOLY MOLY! I don’t know if you saw that at home, or if you blinked and missed it! Young Hifumi attempted to get a quick hit on Koukoka, but those cat reflexes are sharper than her claws! Now he’s injured, what’s his plan?!”

Hifumi took a breath, and with it, he was back in zanshin. Panicking and flailing never got anywhere, he would need to concentrate to win…but waiting for his foe to approach him was simply not his style! He closed his eyes again, this time visualizing just behind her. He brought his weapon down, releasing a kiai as one must in Kendo, but felt it connect with nothing but air! He stepped forward, continuing to attack in the hopes of making contact, but it was fruitless. She had moved, again faster than he could swing, and was no longer in reach. There was no point in keeping his eyes closed anymore, and as he opened them and looked around, he saw that she was far away from where he was.
Koukoka was smirking at this point. She knew her opponent was a teleporter, as well as having Kendo skills, from the promotional material. She had also searched his name plus Kendo online and found out that his dad was a high-level Kendo instructor. With that, she knew how he was going to fight, and prepared accordingly. Lots of reaction training, easy for her quirk-wise, with cuts from her claws to cause pain and break concentration. Much like a cat hunting a mouse, her instincts were guiding her on the hunt. When he jumped the first time, she dodged on reflex, the second time much the same. So long as she could keep it up, she would win!

N. “It seems young Hifumi has been broken! His teleportation cannot seem to get past Koukoka’s incredible speed! If he can’t use his quirk to win, he’s going to have to rely on his skill with the blade!”

Come on Hifumi, I trained you for such cases where your foe was physically superior! His father remained implacable, while the women of the Takeda family were in varying levels of distress.

Hifumi looked at his weapon, looked at his opponent, then laughed. Swapping from a traditional Kendo stance, to one more befitting of befitting of a delinquent, weapon in one hand over his shoulders while his other gestured to his opponent. It was unmistakable in its meaning.
“Come on then! My weapon against those claws! Let’s see who’s sharper in melee!”
Koukoka chuckled behind her clawed hand. “OK then. Let’s dance!”
With that, she charged.

In a flurry of blows, she slashed and swiped at Hifumi. She was skilled, no doubt on that, attacking in a way that merged human martial arts with cat physiology. Hifumi was being pushed backward, each time he tried to attack he was countered, and seeming to not even get a chance to close his eyes to teleport! That was fine for Koukoka, cutting him to ribbons or driving him off the edge of the arena, either way she won!

Hifumi was driven back, until he was in a corner!

N. “It seems like we’re nearing the end of this match! Unless Hifumi can pull off a turnaround, it looks like he’s going off!”

Koukoka smiled, her sharp feline canines on full display. “Looks like my claws beat your bat!”
She lunged at him, but before she could make contact, Hifumi stepped backward – off the edge of the arena! – and vanished. Koukoka stumbled, catching herself before she fell off herself!
“Huh?”
N. “Huh? Did young Hifumi run away rather than lose? Where is he? Well, if he doesn’t reappear in the next 10”
Koukoka looked around. He was nowhere in sight.
Unbeknownst to (almost) everyone, Hifumi had not been driven over the edge. In fact, he had planned this from the beginning. While everyone in the stadium looked around for the vanished student, his father looked skyward and smiled.

Two kilometers above-

Hifumi felt the air rush past him. This was the moment he had been waiting for! He tumbled through the air, gravity accelerating him faster and faster. He twisted in the air, aligning himself with his pictured target. He would only have one shot at this, he needed to make sure that his strike flew true.

I really hope that she hasn’t moved! Were the last thoughts Hifumi had, before opening his eyes.

Back in the stadium-

“FIVE! SIX!” Majestic was counting down. In cases like this, the vanished party had 10 seconds to return, the same time as to stand back up when knocked down but not unconscious.
Koukoka stood on the corner, waiting. She was smart, smart enough to notice that both times he had teleported, her opponent had returned to the same spot. Stood to reason that it would happen this time as well. In case he was trying to pull off some publicity stunt, waiting until the last second to return to the match, she would catch him and knock him down!
“SEVEN!”
N. “There’s only a few more seconds left! Will we see our first victory by retreat? Personally, I don’t buy it, but we’ll find out in just –”
“EIGHT!”
“–two more seconds!”

Koukoka felt the air shift, her senses picking up what was happening. He was returning. She prepared for her counterattack. But something felt different this time, it was as though…
Hifumi fully reappeared, not standing still or stepping forward as she expected, but shooting through the air like a bullet! His weapon was raised, on course to hit her head, and though she could see it, she couldn’t move her body fast enough!
Hifumi couldn’t move his body fast enough to swing his weapon, but he didn’t need to. He had it ready to attack, lined up with where he hoped her head would be, and let gravity do the acceleration. It hit true, square on the neko’s head. Even with the blow taking a lot of the kinetic energy, there was still so much that Hifumi crashed into Koukoka at incredible speed! He was battered, but his opponent was completely out!

“uhh, TAKEDA WINS!” roared Majestic, caught a bit off guard by the sudden change of the match.

N. “WHAT-WHAT-WHAT?! WHAT A SUDDEN TURN AROUND! I don’t have a clue what or how it happened, but Hifumi reappeared, and at such speed that he took out Koukoka in one attack! Well, where else but here would such an incredible moment take place? It just goes to show that, win or lose, these students are destined to be the top heroes of their generation!”

Sandatsu paced back and forth, massaging his head. The headaches had been getting worse lately, he had begun shivering, and he kept spotting…things in his peripheral vision. Was he going crazy?
Heh. ‘Going’. Nice one Sandy.
Sandatsu thought to himself, unwittingly using the nickname given to him by his mates. Ever since his quirk had been discovered, his mother had been training him for his current life: a government hitman, killing those who needed to be killed, and who had quirks worth stealing. He knew that his quirk was responsible for his current state. He hadn’t exactly been a pinnacle of mental health before his mother recruited him into her work, but ever since that day at Tartarus, he had been going downhill. Unlike most teenagers, school had been a respite for him, providing normality and letting him pretend that he was everything was OK. He did not want to fight any of the other students, but when had he done anything that he wanted to do in his life? He had considered dropping out of the tournament, but of course his mother had other ideas:

-

“A tournament? Wonderful! This will be a perfect opportunity to test your repertoire of quirks!”
“But mother, I –”
“Hmm?”
She snapped back to him, as if she had forgotten that he was even there in the scant seconds between him informing her of the tournament, and her response. She almost seemed irritated that he had even spoken.
“What is it?”
“W-well, I already have a registered quirk. Wouldn’t people be suspicious if I suddenly have more?”
Shihai rolled her eyes.
“That is utterly irrelevant. What matters is gathering more combat data on current efficacy.”
“But won’t people ask questions?”
“Irrelevant. We will ensure that any information released on your quirk is vague enough to allow for your current abilities. The School are already informed not to ask any questions.”
“What about my classmates?”
“No-one will care about the ramblings of children. They shan’t be a concern for possible leaks.”
“But they may ask me questions!”
Shihai almost looked puzzled.
“Why would that matter?”
Of course, why would you care about how MY life may be affected? You’ve never cared before. Sandatsu thought to himself as he just looked down.
Seemingly satisfied by this display of submission, Shihai turned back to her computer, dismissing Sandatsu. As he turned to leave, she suddenly spoke up.
“Oh! Before you leave, the boffins passed this up for you.”
She pulled out a bottle of pills and tossed them over to Sandatsu, who caught them without effort. They were unlabelled, looking no different than any other generic medication.
“Your physio results following the last mission showed growing irregularities, both in your physical and mental performance. These should counter them. Take one when needed.”

-

Sandatsu’s hands were shaking as he shook a pill out of the bottle. He had been using more of the pills recently, particularly after Psyking. He put the pill in his mouth, drank some water to help it go down, and prepared for his match.

Christopher was never one for last-minute cramming, all-minutes cramming was much more his speed. He had done all he could preparing for his upcoming bout with Sandatsu, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t figure out the secret of his quirk. It was supposedly a transformation type, but whenever he copied it, he found he could not transform at all. He had seen Sandatsu use powers that were typical of multiple quirk templates – Restoration and Body Manipulation – and while that was far from unheard of, Sandatsu was the only one that Christopher couldn’t use when copied. Why? What was it about his quirk that made it unusable? He knew he wasn’t able to copy mutant-style quirks, but he could copy Sandatsu’s, so why didn’t it work?

That was a question for later though. As far as the tournament went, his objective was two-fold: demonstrate the versatility of quirk-copying, and if possible, defeat Sandatsu. His odds were low without understanding how his opponent’s quirk worked, and he had to hold out hope that his classmates would come to watch so that he could copy their quirks, or he would have to resort to heroes in the crowd.
He continued to charge up Ki. He had planned his opening moves, as though this were a game of chess.

Kaylee’s version of chess, perhaps.

He was starting with Hailey and Jugo’s quirks. By flying out of range, he could pepper Sandatsu with Ki blasts, and use Hailey’s telekinesis to repel any counterattacks. The problem was predictable though; Jugo’s quirk required charging, and while he had practiced immensely with it, he knew he wasn’t as skilled with Ki control as Jugo. He “leaked”, as Jugo would say, the energy spilling out of him. It was powerful for a couple of minutes, but beyond that and he would be running on empty.

So, once Jugo’s runs out of power, who do I switch to?

It would depend on who he could switch to, but if he wanted to show off (as well as potentially gain more information on Sandatsu’s quirk) then Yui’s would be optimal. Her threads could link targets, with that he might be able to get some insight into the quirk, but even if he didn’t, he’d be able to show that he’s adaptable. A useful trait for an intern, he hoped!

Plus, she’s highly likely to come and watch.

What after that? If Yui/Hailey didn’t work out, and he had time to realize that, then the match had gone on for longer than Christopher expected. In that scenario, he should do his best to end it in a bang. Heroes may like seeing their quirks represented…
The one-minute call came through. Christopher finished charging up Ki and headed to the arena.

The sun was getting higher and higher in the sky. The two teenage boys, each in the gangly growth stage of puberty, ascended the stairs to the arena and went to their starting lines. One had eyes flaring with intelligence, darting around the arena and the crowd, while the other seemed to be zoned out, with a glassy-eyed stare.

N. “Tenth Round! Cain Chris VERSUS Owari Sandatsu!”

“TENTH ROUND! HAJIME!”

Christopher wasted no time, hurtling himself skyward as quickly as he could. Sandatsu merely stared, his gaze following his opponent into the air. Christopher thrust his hands forward, Ki blasts flying out.
As Sandatsu stared, it was as though he suddenly started paying attention. His eyes widened, arms shot out of his back, ripping through his uniform, and sheltered him from the blasts. The replicated arms were blown apart, but either repaired themselves or were replaced before any damage was done to Sandatsu’s body.
N. “What an opening! Both of these students have their powers on full display! Christopher can copy a person’s quirk with but a glance, but Sandatsu has that mutant toughness!”

With his arms acting as a shell, Sandatsu could formulate a plan. Christopher was flying high, beyond his reach, but that wasn’t going to stop him. Those blasts had also hit the arena, blasting craters in the stone, leaving rubble all around him. He brought out more arms, these ones reaching out and grabbing the stones, hurling them right toward Christopher.

Christopher saw the rocks careen toward him. He reached out with Hailey’s telekinesis to stop them in mid-flight – aiming to turn them back on Sandatsu – but before he could, he saw a much larger object in flight.
Sandatsu had taken advantage of the lull of blasts to lean back, putting his weight onto the multitude of arms, using their strength to propel himself directly at Christopher! But this alone wasn’t enough to get him high enough, and Sandatsu knew it. That was why he had added in the psychic strength of Psyking’s Telekinesis, providing both lift and guidance. There was a chance that Christopher recognized what this was, but even with his intellect, the reality was almost certainly outside of what he would consider.
Christopher was taken off guard by the sudden arrival of Sandatsu at his altitude. He reached out with telekinesis, hoping to prevent an air collision, dropping the rocks in order to focus. But to his shock, and not a small amount of horror, he found that he simply couldn’t! The psychokinesis of Hailey’s quirk had seemingly no effect upon Sandatsu’s momentum!
Sandatsu continued his Icarian approach. His hands, his true hands, reached out to Christopher. They brushed against his throat.
In that instance, Christopher was no longer in the Shiketsu Stadium. He was no longer fighting Sandatsu in from the world. He was in that alley, and rather than his classmate in front of him, it was the man who murdered his mother. The man who nearly murdered him.

“NO!”

This was no battle cry; it was a shriek. It came unbidden, summoned by his trauma and the inherent violent nature of the copied quirk. Christopher lost control of Jugo’s Ki, releasing it all at once. Not that he was conscious of what he was doing, this was on instinct. The explosion was massive, reaching several meters in all directions from Christopher. The sheer force ripped at Sandatsu’s body, blasting off the weaker summoned arms, and burning his skin. Both of them were momentarily knocked out; Sandatsu from receiving the blast, Christopher from PTSD blackout.
N. “WOAH! Man am I glad I have sunglasses on! That was one incredible fireball! I wonder if any pro-heroes are on the market for some firepower, pun VERY much intended!”
Christopher only blacked out for a moment, but thanks to gravity, that was enough to be halfway to the ground. He could tell that Jugo’s quirk was out of power, so he had to use Hailey’s to telekinetically catch himself before he ended up as a pancake! With less than two feet before impact, he managed to slow himself enough to land on his feet.
Sandatsu, meanwhile, had a far less graceful landing. While his healing power was great, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t be knocked out, if only for a couple of seconds. What he saw as he came to, was the cold hard ground. With a nasty sounding splat, he made impact.
N. “Ooh, that had to hurt! Don’t worry viewers and advertisers, young Sandatsu is a healer, and known to be tough! The only question is if he gets up in time to avoid being counted out!”
Sandatsu could feel that his head was split open, feeling the flesh and bone knit itself back together. That recovering from such injuries was becoming a familiar feeling was disconcerting, but Sandatsu had other concerns at the moment. He reached to cover his face with one of his own hands, as he stood up, and turned to face Christopher. As he removed his hand and revealed his face, the only sign of an injury was a rapidly sealing scratch. His mouth split open in not quite a grin, not quite a grimace, but something in between.
Christopher held his breath for a moment to stop his hyperventilating. It was OK. He was OK. He wasn’t facing a killer; he was having a competition bout with a fellow classmate. Worst case scenario, The Doctor would patch him up. He stood up, combing around for a suitable replacement for Jugo’s quirk, and once he found it, he turned to face Sandatsu, the memories of Jugo already vanished from his mind.

N. “It looks like Sandatsu and Chris are ready for round 2!”

Sandatsu flexed and contracted various facial muscles. He had taken the medicine before the match, but he still felt that coldness that kept creeping into his every moment. He was laser-focused on Christopher, so much so that he didn’t even notice that other students were watching. He respawned his many arms and started charging toward Christopher.
Christopher barely had a chance to shoot out his threads. He guided them to wrap around the ankles, the wrists, any hinge joint that he could get. For a moment, it looked like Sandatsu was about to faceplant for the second time, but Christopher’s thread was outnumbered by Sandatsu’s arms, which were more than able to catch him. As soon as they did so, however, Christopher commanded the threads to weave between them and bind them. Sandatsu was tied up in a manner not unlike Sora before him.

N. “It looks like Sandatsu is on the ropes, or within them! If he doesn’t get out of this, then Christopher will win!”

Sandatsu was not going to take this lying down; literally or metaphorically. He retracted the arms back into his body, before with a scream, releasing as many as he could! The arm bombardment was too much for the threads, snapping before the onslaught, the backlash from their esoteric nature knocking Christopher off balance for a moment. A moment which was all Sandatsu needed. The secret enforcer launched himself forward, keen to show his mother just what he was capable of. But Christopher had a plan. Before Sandatsu could reach him, he suddenly flew upward!

That’s not telekinesis… Sandatsu thought to himself. He may not have had time to practice with Psyking’s quirk, but the quirk itself was powerful, powerful enough for him to be able to recognize telekinesis when he was in its presence.

N. “Incredible! It seems Sandatsu has shifted the balance of the battle, but Christopher has shown how flexible his quirk is once more! He has replaced his copied quirks with two that should seem familiar to those who have been watching since the beginning! Those new quirks seem to be young Sagara and Tanaka’s!”

Christopher was exhausted; the Ki explosion had worn him out as much as the quirk, but he still had a couple of tricks left. If he could elevate himself enough, then with the threads he would be able to –

He didn’t have the chance to finish the thought. He was wrenched from the air, his own threads turned against him, by Sandatsu simply grabbing and yanking them. The strength of dozens of arms overcame the gravitational force that Christopher was able to conjure, and the next thing that he knew, it was his turn to plant his face on the arena floor.

I don’t have the energy to move!

The thought and subsequent realization should have made Christopher feel panicked, but instead there was an almost calm. He knew the pieces on the board, that his chance of victory had always been slim, but had played to the best he could. He found himself thinking back to that first chess game against Kaylee, how she had been doomed to lose long before the game ended but had kept playing. He had to do the same here. He looked at the VIP seating area, at a specific family, and forgot two more people.
It was a peculiar feeling, Sandatsu thought to himself, being perfectly fine yet still feeling fatigued. It was not a physical drained sensation, but his recent overuse of Comeback. Keeping himself mobile even as half of his skeleton was revealed had taken a lot, to such a point that he could feel the consequences of it even now. So, seeing Christopher stagger to his feet, even bloodied, was something of a concern. His mother was watching this!

N. “Looking at these two students, it seems we’re coming to the end of this showdown!”

Christopher tensed up, almost every muscle in his body contracting with the effort, as ice covered the left half of his body, blue flames covering the right.

“FLASHFIRE TORNADO!”

A great pillar of flame erupted from the boy, whirling around, reaching to the sky.
It was the only way Christopher could think of to maximize the quirk combination while keeping the spectators safe. By controlling the convection currents of the ice vaporizing, he could combine it with the blue flames, creating a massive fiery tornado!

N. “WOAH! HOT, HOT, HOT! I can’t see a thing through these flames! Sorry listeners, it looks like we’re going to have to wait and see what’s left after these flames disappear! What tension!”

Inside the flames, Christopher was rapidly losing consciousness. This was nothing more than showboating really, a chance to show what he could do, that he was capable of living up to the lost memories of his mother. He could hardly see the burning skeleton walking toward him on legs that had clothes fused to the skin, before its knees buckled and it fell to the floor. Eyes that were bloodshot and leaking from the heat glared at him, eyelids little more than ash, as the embers from Sandatsu’s body began to swirl and cover him. Beneath their cover, burned flesh began to knit itself back, blood vessels healing and skin rejuvenating. Had Christopher been able to see this, his brilliant mind would have deduced that there was something far, far greater about Sandatsu’s quirk than anyone publicly knew, but such a sight was not meant for him. The Mirror Devil finally passed out, the hellish flames proving too much to sustain at this point. As he did so, the Flashfire Tornado spun its last, revealing one unconscious student, and one covered in ashes, panting, yet awake.

“OWARI WINS!” Roared Majestic, having been using his own heat vision to control, or at least mitigate, the temperatures close to him.

Imai needed this tournament to go well. He had been fighting prejudice against mind-manipulating quirks his whole life, and this was a phenomenal opportunity to show the world that they were not doomed to be villains, that they could be heroes too! But his opponent was one that could counter his Mindbreaker. Damien Jackson was known for his quirk, Chronovision. Plenty of students were rumoured to buy info on upcoming exams from him, seeing into their futures a couple of days before the tests. It got to the point where a randomization system was bought in to shuffle questions, as while his quirk was accurate, it was not set in stone. That was Imai’s reprieve. He had no experience mindreading a precog and thinking about how it worked quite frankly made his head spin, but he had practice in using all aspects of his quirk. The one-minute call came through, though Imai had detected it beforehand, and made his way to the arena.

From the moment Imai stepped out onto the stadium’s floor, he was probing for his opponent’s mind. The sooner he could get into his thoughts, see the future, and change how Damien reacted to it, the better.

At the other end of the arena, Damien walked up his steps. He seemed completely relaxed, as though he was simply going through the motions.

N. “Eleventh Round! Soujyuuro Imai VERSUS Jackson Damien!”
“ELEVENTH ROUND! HAJIME!”

Imai’s third eye flashed and spun, prying its way past Damien’s skull, seeking the secrets within. He saw the future, how he would move, how Damien would move. He saw Damien draw his whip, and an instant later, him doing it in the present. He saw them closing the distance on each other and found himself walking as his future counterpart did so. What was this?
The Narrator was almost whispering, as though he didn’t want to risk breaking the boys’ concentration. “This may seem a slow start, ladies and gentlemen, but I assure you that this is riveting stuff! These two have extremely powerful mental quirks; one being able to see into minds, the other able to see into the future!
Imai was confused; was he mistaken in the potency of Damien’s quirk? He saw the next instant of time, that he would begin to charge Damien, and decided to refuse fate. He planted his feet and held his ground.
As soon as Imai did so, both he and Damien clasped their heads. Their vision of the future spiraled out in fractals, the possibilities compounding upon possibilities. Damien had always been the only one to see the future his quirk showed, meaning any alteration was at his discretion, but now with Imai poking around, the future became more and more chaotic. It was still technically but a single future, but with two observers the predicted path kept on changing.
Imai knew that he could stop reading Damien’s mind in order to remove this problem, but that would in turn mean that he would be effectively quirkless against Damien’s Chronovision. As he contemplated this stalemate, he heard Damien’s thoughts.

If I stop seeing the future, then he’ll just be able to read my mind, and I’d be quirkless against it!

So, they both realized they were in a catch-22. Neither could afford dropping their quirk, but if they didn’t then neither would get anywhere. That would be the case, at least, if Imai didn’t have the hidden power of Mindbreaker. He reached into Damien’s mind, and started to try and shape Damien’s thoughts.
Meanwhile, The Narrator, as well as the audience, were somewhat confused. What was actually going on was lost to all but the few audience members who happened to have some level of telepathy quirk. To everyone else, there just seemed to be two students who were staring at each other, until they started clasping their heads in apparent pain.

N. “Remember everyone, this match is a mental match more than anything. While it may look like they are just staring at each other, there’s a lot going on in those brains of theirs! Once whatever lock they are in breaks, there should be a burst of action!”
Both Imai and Damien were getting tired. They had been using their quirks at full blast in such a manner that they were starting to feel as though their brains were about to start leaking out of their noses. That was the opening Imai was waiting for.
He broke into a run, sprinting toward Damien, even as his electro-whip coiled back and cracked towards him. They had somewhat closed the distance over the minutes of mindlock, creeping closer at a pace slower than that of snails. Damien’s whip split the air as it closed in on Imai, who raised his arms in front of him, crossing them and shielding his head. The whip split his skin, delivering its potent electrical shock straight into Imai’s left arm.

N. “And here we go! It looks like whatever mental battle they were in has concluded! Let’s see how their physical match goes!”

Imai gritted his teeth. He had to power through the agony if he wanted to win. Fortunately, his sprint was in a good condition.

Thanks Nippon-Sensei!

His arm flopped down, the nerves in it unresponsive, the muscles limp. Didn’t matter, he still had one arm and two legs!
He was too close now for Damien’s whip to be effective, it was down to melee. With a crash, the triclops tackled Damien, both boys ending up on the ground.

N. “After what must have been an epic mental battle, it looks like we are at the climax of this match!”

Imai only had one arm working, but Damien’s experience with martial arts was centred around the use of his whip. Without the distance for it to be effective, he was at more of a disadvantage than Imai. Imai landed on top of Damien, and without hesitation, took his working arm and wrapped it around the back of Damien’s neck, getting the crook over the windpipe. Taking his working arm, Imai grabbed onto his stunned one, and between his grip and pressing his head in for extra leverage, Damien soon fell unconscious.
“SOUJYUURO WINS!”
As Imai got to his feet, he turned to walk away, but before he could exit the arena, he felt compelled to read Damien’s mind. Surprisingly, he found his former opponent to be quite calm, as though in spite of everything, this was expected.

I know you’re reading my thoughts right now, Imai. Want to know why I’m so unconcerned about losing? Because I already knew exactly how this tournament is going to play out! Want to see the future?

Imai closed all three of his eyes and walked back to the waiting areas, holding his arm. He wasn’t one for spoilers, and he needed The Doctor to fix his arm up anyway.

Minerva ran a current through herself to get her hair to stand on end, before she got to work on styling it. A mix of spontaneous with enough care that it didn’t actually look spur-of-the-moment or bed hair. Once she got it just the way she wanted, she got her phone out for the all-important pre-match selfie. She took her wand, and in a mock salute, posed for the camera:

Right, that’s done. She thought to herself, putting the phone aside as to not get distracted by the allure of social media so soon before her match. She took another look at her wand, as she called it. It looked like something from one of those classic animes, but it was far more than mere cosplay.
She had called in a couple of favors from some connections, gotten it professionally designed, then sent the schematics over to the Support Course students to build. Internally, it was some sort of tesla coil combined with a capacitor, allowing for her electricity to both be stored externally as well as modified so that (among other tricks) she would be able to project her electricity out further distances.
She did some stretching, made sure her electricity was as potent as she could make it, checked the charge on her wand, and got ready for the match as the one-minute call came in.

Genma went over the schematics, as well as one of his drones, one last time before the match. He had been working on this model in preparation for the tournament. He had familiarized himself with the design, meaning that if the match lasted more than 5 seconds, he would be able to create more.
The one-minute call came through, and with a touch, the drone Genma had been examining vanished into his pocket dimension. With that, he went to the arena.

N. “Time for the twelfth round already!”
The two took their starting positions.

N. “Twelfth round! Kim Minerva VERSUS Go Genma!”
“TWELTFH ROUND! HAJIME!”

Minerva started to charge – movement-wise this time – at Genma, but he simply raised an arm, and out of his pocket dimension came a swarm of Drone’s drones!
Minerva skidded to a halt. She recognized those designs!

N. “What’s this! It seems that Genma’s brought in back-up!”

No doubt about it, those are the same style that they used in the training drill!
Minerva thought to herself. She had seen them in the Fight Club, as the students had affectionately called it, but it seemed as though Genma was capable of replicating them by himself now!

“Sorry to borrow your friend’s work, but in fairness I did at least half of it, now get her!” Genma said, commanding the drones to advance.

“Urgh, take THIS!”
With a cry, Minerva shot out a spark of electricity from her wand, straight toward the closest of the fast-approaching drones. However, far from the expected result of the drone crumpling to the ground, there was almost no effect.

“Their hulls, they’re covered in –”
N. “Insulation! It seems that young Genma has done his homework! Looking at those drones, it seems that they are covered in a golden rubber! That’s going to make Minerva’s work a lot harder!”

Minerva certainly did have her work cut out! While her electricity alone didn’t seem to have much of an effect, when she swung her wand into them, the simple force knocked them back. She kept a current running through it, heating it up. This meant that with each hit, the rubber was being damaged, melting and losing its protective abilities. After a couple of hits, one drone had enough of a hole in its rubber for the electricity to get through, and as she had hoped, it fell to the ground with a satisfying ‘thunk’! So long as she kept it up, she could keep the drones back!
So, she took one out, no matter with my replication! Genma thought to himself, as a new drone finished materializing from his hand before it flew off to join its allies.

“Drones! Restrain her and carry her off the edge!”

With that command from Genma, the drones revealed another upgrade. Restraining claws sprang out from their chassis, their ends clanking together menacingly. In co-ordinated flight paths, they converged upon Minerva.
It was all Minerva could do to keep those pinchers off of her! Looking vulnerable worked wonders on social media simps, but not so much in a tournament! She dodged and dived, keeping away from them, until one got lucky, slapping its mechanized cuff onto her wrist, restraining her wand!

N. “Look at that! Mass producing that kind of machinery could revolutionize hero work! There’s more than a few hero-tech companies watching, I’d recommend they keep an eye on Genma!”

Minerva wasn’t going to take that lying down! It wasn’t as though she needed the wand for her quirk anyway; it was simply good branding. With her free hand, she slapped the drone with an electricity-infused hit, channeling a huge amount of power right into it. No ‘thunk’ this time, this drone went BANG! With her hand now free, she used just some of the charge she had built up, and with a cry, released an explosion of electricity!

N. “WOAH! Now that’s a lot of power! Got to wonder how low of an energy bill her house has to have! It seems that took out the drones, protective rubber or not!”

Current still running through her, she turned to face Genma, who was starting to look concerned. She had now taken down most of the drones, and while he had more, she clearly was capable of more than she let on. If she was capable of more blasts like that, which judging from the ambient energy around her was the case, then his drones wouldn’t last much longer.

Fine then, plan B!

A strange face mask materialized over Genma’s face, looking like some combination of a gas mask and tactical goggles. He called out some pellets, the same type he had used before to great effect. He threw them down, and in an instant, the arena was covered with smoke!

I’ll use the smokescreen to buy time for more replications! Genma thought, the next devices already forming from his body.

N. “What’s this? I can’t see a thing! Just kidding folks, after one of the earlier matches, I got prepared, with some handy-dandy infrared goggles of my own! Seems Genma had a homemade one, so let’s see how this new paradigm plays out!"

Gotcha! Minerva thought. She had seen him use this tactic as well, to great effect, but this time he had screwed himself. She released it all, as much electricity as she could, right into the smoke. She wasn’t aiming for anything; she didn’t need to.
The electricity ran through the smoke, almost instantly covering the entire cloud. Minerva refused to allow it to ground itself, she made it seek out metal – including Genma’s prosthetic hand. The energy produced a great deal of wind and light, seeming to almost ignite the smoke, as a brilliant radiance overtook the arena.

The Narrator grabbed at his eyes, ripping off the goggles. “AAAAHHH, MY EYES! IT’S TOO BRIGHT! THE GOGGLES MAKE IT WORSE!” He groped blindly until he got his eye drops, and after a couple of blinks, he was ready to continue.
“Woah, what a lightshow!”
As the smoke cleared, the victor of the match was clear.
N. “Genma’s down!”

“KIM WINS!” Declared Majestic, as half the crowd cheered, the other half still recovering their eyesight.

Edith was slightly irritated that her quirk couldn’t be used in conjunction with selfies, the way that the others could, but considering how cute she was – and how much of an ‘I win’ button her quirk was in most circumstances – she wasn’t going to complain. She arranged herself in the most fitting way she could, made sure her appearance was as perfect as she could make it, and took her pre-match selfie:

She wasn’t concerned about the match; she had a plan. After all, she only needed to close about 5 meters and she would win. While that may be a bit tricky considering the munitions of her opponent, she had ten cubic meters to play with in terms of defence!
She limbered up, did some leg stretches, and when the one-minute call came in, she was ready.

She walked into the arena, crowd cheering, their eyes having recovered from her friend’s impromptu fireball. Edith played into the crowd, smiling and waving, eliciting more cheers. Far cry from her opponent, who was so serious that she didn’t react at all to her surroundings; utterly focused on the upcoming bout.

N. “Thirteenth round! Lee Edith VERSUS Tenshi Tetsuko!”
“THIRTEENTH ROUND! HAJIME!”

The instant that the start was called, Tetsuko locked onto Edith, drew her wrist-mounted machine guns, and opened fire. Only rubber bullets, of course, as no tournament would allow live ammunition in fights between students and televised worldwide. Her ultra-high framerate vision allowed her to see the bullets in almost slow motion, flying right toward Edith. However, by the moment the bullets got halfway across the arena, a wall appeared out of nowhere! It was 2 meters tall, five meters wide, and blocked her hail of gunfire.

What? Ah, of course, summoned from her pocket dimension. Switching ammunition.

Edith had only just been able to bring her barrier out before Tetsuko’s bullets had hit her. This wall wasn’t that thick, a sacrifice for its other dimensions being suitable, but even 20cm of brick was enough to stop most rifle rounds. Taking advantage of her cover, she dashed forward. All she needed was to get within 10 meters of her opponent. She got behind her wall and began to focus, looking to trap her opponent…
Suddenly, large chunks of brick were being blown from the wall! What kind of firepower had Tetsuko suddenly started using?!

Tetsuko had done her homework, as befitting a class representative, and knew of the range limit of her opponent. Clearly the wall was to provide cover while she got close enough. To counter this, she had moved back, dangerously close to the edge, but that was highly unlikely to be the means of a potential defeat, while the added distance provided outweighed any risk. At the same time, she had switched ammo to a sturdier type, with enough punch to pummel down the wall. She would have to react quickly to switch back to a safe round when she got line of sight on Edith, but with her high spec body, that wasn’t going to be a problem.
N. “Now that’s some firepower! Edith may have an instant-win quirk, but only if she gets close enough! Now, it may just be me, but if this wall was close enough, then this match would already be over. That means Edith’s going to have to break out of her cover if she doesn’t just want to get gunned down! Don’t worry though, all the ammo is non-lethal! This isn’t one of those tournaments!”

Damn it! Thought Edith. She couldn’t stay behind this wall, not for much longer, but she had to get closer! There was only one thing for it. She ran to the end of the wall, it blinking out of reality as she left its cover, before reappearing in front of her new position an instant later!

N. “I see! Edith is planning to reposition the wall as she closes in on Tetsuko! Will it be enough?!”

Negative, thought Tetsuko, her in-built wi-fi picking up The Narrator’s narrations. She knew how to counter this tactic. She kept up her fire, but modified the rate, until a bullet got past the wall in the brief moment that the wall was not there! It didn’t break the skin but left a massive welt on Edith’s leg. Edith gasped in pain, stopping behind her wall again. She fell to a knee, the wall now half gone, and looked at her rapidly darkening leg. She wasn’t going to be able to run anymore, not until The Doctor healed it. Edith reached out with her quirk. So close! She only needed to get a little bit closer for Tetsuko to be in her range! Edith had pushed Tetsuko back until she was at the very edge of the arena, all she needed was one more push. She only had one shot.
“UWAAAAA!”
With a cry, she forced herself to leap out of what remained of her cover, rubber bullets almost instantly pelting her, with her hands covering her head. It hurt like crazy, but it was enough! Tetsuko was finally within her 10 meters, and with a pop!, she vanished into Edith’s pocket dimension.

N. “There it is, everyone! With that trapping, Tetsuko is no longer able to fight, meaning Edith has won the match!”

“LEE WINS!” Majestic roared.

Edith crawled closer to the edge, before releasing Tetsuko from her dimension out of bounds. The android girl looked confused for a moment, before processing her loss, and standing up. With an implacable face that Hoge would struggle to match, she bowed to Edith, and left the arena. Meanwhile Edith needed some assistance to get to The Doctor and get her leg looked at.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!
It was all Ashleigh could do to stop a full-blown panic attack overwhelming her. She had tried meditation, she had tried breathing into a paper bag, she had even borrowed some of Hoge’s smelling salts, but nothing had helped calm her nerves. She was anxious most of the time as it was, having a crowd of who-knows-how many millions watching her was NOT helping! She had contemplated trying to use her quirk on herself to get a moment of reprieve but thought better of it once she realized that coming out of it would make things worse. She tried to think of something, anything, that could calm her down. Unbidden, that image sprung to the forefront of her mind.

Imai…

His smiling face, calm and collected, his fringe pinned back to allow his third eye to see, his sculpted body…
Well, that was one way to distract herself. But the memory held true; they had both said that they would do their best. He had tried and succeeded against an opponent who could literally see the future, she had to be brave!

For him…

The one-minute call came in, and once Ashleigh got her heart out of her mouth, she made her way to the arena.

Her opponent, meanwhile, was almost the complete opposite. Kaylee was relaxed, bored even. She had had to wait until almost the very end of the preliminary rounds for her turn, and while she liked Ashleigh, she wasn’t a frontline fighter. Still, Kaylee was never one to rest on her laurels, and as such had done her research on everyone – and their quirks. Ashleigh’s quirk wasn’t a combat type, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be tricky. At effectively any moment, she could find herself bereft of the last minute of time. That kind of disorientation leaves openings, openings that could easily be exploited. However, Kaylee, in her ‘genius’, had come up with a counter; to repeat in her head ‘Tournament match – beat Ashleigh’ over and over again, even before the match started. This way, even if she did use her quirk, Kaylee would have her thoughts remain consistent and her target secured.
The one-minute call finally came in, prompting Kaylee to dash to the arena.

N. “Fourteenth Round! Katsuragi Ashleigh VERSUS Suzuki Kaylee!”
“FOURTEENTH ROUND! HAJIME!”

The instant that permission left Majestic’s lips, Kaylee blasted forward, propelled by her Ki. Ashleigh barely had time to react, her eyes widening, before the tree trunk that passed as Kaylee’s arm slammed into her. The pair were carried almost off the edge of the arena, Ashleigh’s weight hardly slowing down the giantess.

Not too hard, you don’t want to kill her!

The thought crossed Kaylee’s mind just in time, reining in the power in her arm before it made contact with the much smaller girl. Still enough to launch her into the air, but not enough that it would shatter her body.

It’s over thought Kaylee, as she closed her eyes, partially in victory, partially in indignity. She hadn’t expected any opposition in this match; the faster it was over and done with, the better. But even so, it was so easy that she felt bad about it.

crack!

The sound, and subsequent sensation around her wrist, caused Kaylee’s eyes to shoot back open. Just in time to see Ashleigh swinging toward her, her momentum driving her kick into Kaylee’s abs. It didn’t have an effect, but the situation did shock her.
N. “WOW, did you see that? For those with slower eyes, little Ashleigh managed to use her whip to keep hold on big Kaylee’s wrist, preventing her from being thrown out of bounds! Then she swung back to deliver a blow! Doesn’t look like it had much impact, but ya can’t help but admire the attitude!”

Ashleigh was barely standing; the wind had been knocked out of her, her legs felt like jelly, and her social anxiety was causing her heart to deafen her ears. But all of that seemed to disappear into the background.
“No-one’s expecting much, not from me, not in this match. I know that. I know that I can’t beat you. But it’s not about winning or losing! It’s about taking you on, fighting even when there’s no chance, right here, right now!”
Even though Ashleigh was almost screaming out the words, powering through her anxiety, with the sheer size of the stadium the sound couldn’t carry to the crowd. Her words might have been lost – were The Narrator not an expert lip reader and relaying her speech through his microphone.

N. “sniffle Excuse me folks, just got to clear a tear from my eye after that! No matter how this match ends, I think we all agree that Ashleigh’s got the real spirit of a hero!”

Ashleigh pressed a button on the side of the handle of the whip, reeled her arm back to launch the tip at Kaylee, before all of a sudden, her arms were pinned to the side of her body. Kaylee had grabbed her, massive hands wrapping around tiny arms, her strength overwhelming Ashleigh. The giantess then simply walked over to the edge of the arena and dropped Ashleigh out of bounds.

“SUZUKI WINS!” Roared Majestic.

The Narrator sighed. “It seems that there are times when the heroic attitude cannot succeed alone. Ah well. LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE PAIR OF THEM!”
The crowd cheered in response to The Narrator’s epilogue of the match.

Maxine had the perfect pose for her pre-match selfie. She brought out her six extra arms, arced the top two into a heart shape above her head, while the other two formed hearts with their hands. One of her ‘real’ hands held her phone, while the other made a V peace sign next to her winking eye.

Her selfie taken; Maxine’s thoughts went to how the clique had performed so far in this tournament. Only Faith had lost her match, and who could blame her, really? Chihiro was a one-on-one fighter, and without much of any metal to make drones with, she was up the creek without the paddle, or however that saying went. Point was, she didn’t want to lower their win-loss ratio. Hiro was a nerd, but she had used that quirk-boosting drug that he had made for them, and that was potent! There was no ‘if’ about whether he could make other drugs of a similar level; he could, and he was smart enough to know how. She would need to be careful not to make too much contact, but how was she supposed to win with that limitation? She looked down at her quirk arms. They were bony – without muscle or (external) blood vessels. She had no idea if they would be resistant to the various drugs that Hiro could administer, but it was her best shot.
The one-minute call came in, and with a flick of her hair, she went to the arena.

Hiro reviewed his notebook; he had meticulously planned out which chemicals he would use and when in this match, as well as any potential future match ups that may occur. He didn’t have much concern over the tournament, it wasn’t his thing, but that didn’t mean that he was going to just surrender. There were many chemicals that induced unconsciousness in humans. By creating a carefully balanced cocktail of drugs, he would be able to knock out his opponents, or at least that was the plan. He looked down at his notebook one more time, even though the formulae were all memorized. When the one-minute call came, he simply closed the notebook and headed to the arena.

Maxine walked into the arena almost basking in the attention and adulation, waving to the crowd with all eight hands. All these spectators, where better to show off? Hiro was far more subdued; wanting to get in and done.

N. “Amazing, we’re already at the penultimate match! How will these two students battle one another?!”

N. “Fifteenth Round! Nguyen Maxine VERSUS Kyoda Hiro!”
“FIFTEENTH ROUND! HAJIME!”

Maxine already had her hands out and was more than ready to throw them. She charged toward Hiro, two arms crossed across her torso, two covering her head, and four (including her ‘real’ arms) ready to hit Hiro hard. As she sprinted toward her foe, she noticed the sweet smell in the air.

*Perfume, really? Well, better than B.O. *

Her arms gave her an effective armor, allowing her to defend herself while attacking, and she took full advantage of it. Her four attacking arms started pummeling Hiro, who without martial arts training, had little skill in defending from the powerful blows. He was fortunate though, as even though he had little skill in pugilism, he did have an endless array of drugs! There were plenty of painkillers that he could use. A modified form of ketamine was perfect for this case. He could barely feel the hits! His plan was still in motion, and while it hadn’t borne fruits yet, he could detect the effects coming in.

Maxine knew she was stronger than Hiro; her quirk allowed her a greater strength than humans were otherwise capable of. Meanwhile Hiro had, to put it politely, a nerd’s physique. Which made it all the more surprising that he was still standing after taking such a beating. It was almost as if he…

He’s using his quirk to create painkillers!

N. “Look at the beating Maxine’s giving! Those fists are strong enough to shatter concrete, but it doesn’t seem to be having much effect on Hiro! His quirk makes him a walking pharmacy, so he must be using quite the cocktail of medicine to counteract this! The question is, can he capitalize on this to get the win?”

Maxine had been watching the previous match, and while she still held to her clique’s view of Kaylee, the winning tactic of ‘grab them and throw’ seemed to be the best approach here as well. She had been shown plenty of PSAs about not doing drugs, and how they could affect a person. If he was incapable of feeling pain right now, then trying to beat him up was a waste of time, and she should just go for the ringout.
Two of her arms grabbed onto Hiro’s wrists. He pulled and struggled, but even with drug-enhanced strength, he wasn’t able to break out of their grip!

N. “It looks like Maxine has Hiro pinned! Will she be able to get Hiro out of the ring? It would definitely get past Hiro’s defense!”

Maxine picked Hiro right off the ground, walking toward the edge, when she stumbled. She felt dizzy, disoriented, as though she had suddenly become drunk.

Wh-what’s going on?

Hiro took advantage of the sudden change; he wriggled out of her grasp, but instead of retreating or even striking, he cupped his hands in front of her face and released more of the same halogenated ether anesthetic that he had been pumping into the arena from the beginning: Sevoflurane. This was the sweet smell that Maxine had noted at the start of the match; not a perfume, but one of the most potent (but also safest) knockout gases that was in common use. Even with the open-air ventilation, it had built up to disorienting levels as the fight had continued. Hiro had his drugs to counter the effects, but Maxine was not so protected. Once she showed effects, it was over.
Maxine didn’t even have the opportunity to think of what just happened. The sudden spray of the anesthetic knocked her out before she realized it.

N. “Maxine is down, repeat, Maxine is down! It looks like Hiro used some kind of knockout gas, the kind one could find in a hospital or dentist!”

“KYODA WINS!” declared Majestic.

“Hhhhhoooooooooooo”
Jugo exhaled slowly, letting the tension and apprehension drop, as his Ki rose. He had cursed his luck when he saw that he was stuck in the last match of the opening bouts. It had taken a colossal amount of control to watch everyone else get to battle, seeing them clash, while he had to wait. What was worse, he got to see all his classmates at their best but didn’t get to fight them! He had watched with envy the firestorm Christopher had summoned, the battle Hailey had with that Class 1-E girl, Hifumi’s knock out strike! He had been patient, and now, finally, it was his turn. He felt his maximum charge be reached, coinciding with the one-minute call. He rushed out to the arena, barely able to contain his anticipation. He only stopped just before he ran out into the sunlit arena.

Right, right. Got to play it cool here. Looking like an excited puppy would be bad for my credibility!

He paused, ran his fingers through his hair, checked his Ki was maxed out, and only then walked out into the arena.

N. “AAAAND HERE WE ARE EVERYBODY! THE FINAL OF THE PRELIMINARY MATCHES! It’s been a wild ride, and we’ve seen some of the best the next generation has to offer, but there’s still one more match!”

He looks tired enough to fall over at any moment! Jugo thought to himself. Normally, that would be a good sign for him, but Jugo was able to read, and had read his opponents blurb. This guy got stronger the more tired he got, so by the looks of it, he was intending to go hard from the start.

N. “Sixteenth Round! Son Jugo VERSUS Mirokazu Kaga!”
“SIXTEENTH ROUND! HAJIME!”

Both boys let loose the strongest Kiai’s they could muster, as the final match began!

Jugo was fast, but Kaga something else! He left an afterimage at the start line and shattered the tiles as he sprang off the ground to charge!

This is going to be good!

Jugo raised his hands, not to block his rapidly approaching opponent, but to let loose a Ki blast! It wasn’t at full power, more so just what he had gotten to the surface, but it was still a blast bigger than he was (and much bigger than his somewhat diminutive opponent).

Kaga didn’t even slow down. The burn of fatigue was coursing through him, his mind keeping his body going, and in response to the blast, he simply punched the air in front of him! The sheer shockwave blasted the blast apart, forcing Jugo backward, and even gave the audience in its path a gale!

N. “Looks like Kaga isn’t messing around! That’s one incredible punch!”

Kaga leapt into the air just before reaching Jugo, punching downwards toward him. Jugo sidestepped at the last moment, as Kaga’s fist slammed down, blasting apart the arena floor! Jugo went to kick him as he got up, only for Kaga to grab the incoming leg! He tried to slam Jugo down onto the floor, but all of a sudden found himself spinning around! Jugo was using his Ki to spin, and with how tight Kaga was gripping, he spun as well.
Jugo was far more adept at handling sudden rotation, having trained in it since manifesting his quirk, using the momentum to slam Kaga down. It didn’t stop the baby-faced boy, as he kept one arm gripping Jugo’s leg, while the other punched upward aiming at his gut! But as his fist approached Jugo, the taller boy glowed for an instant, before a wave of Ki shot out of him! The force was enough to cause Kaga’s grip to fail, the smaller boy flying off until he was able to bury his arm in the floor to stop himself from going out of bounds.

“Ha, you’re good, man. But round one is over. You ready to get serious?”

Kaga stared at the taller boy, bouncing up and down, cocky grin on his face. His muscles ached from exertion, the ache paradoxically fueling his strength. He took the chance to take in a couple of deep breaths, before responding.

“Yeah, yeah I’m ready. Let’s go!”

With that, the two boys charged each other. Kaga threw a side kick straight at Jugo’s head, only for Jugo to slip to the side and kick Kaga’s standing leg out from under him. Kaga fell toward the ground, only to reach his arms out, and use them to push off the floor to support another barrage of kicks. Jugo bounced backward, out of the range of the kicks, as Kaga flipped up to standing. As soon as he did, Jugo fired a wave of Ki right into his face. Kaga screamed, but powered through it, leaping through the blast of energy to continue his assault, landing a strike right on Jugo’s face!

N. “WOW, these two have really dialed it up! But if my eyes don’t deceive me, it looks like Kaga is getting even more tired, though with his quirk, that’s just as bad for Jugo!”

They certainly had taken it higher! Their blows were beginning to break even more of the tiles around them just from the pressure alone! Kaga was dripping with sweat, his vision was blurring, but he couldn’t stop now! He had the upper hand!
Punch, cross, rising knee, axe kick. Their moves collided with one another, moving past and through them as they each tried to block or dodge, before returning a counter which in turn is avoided. Both were tiring now, but while for Jugo that meant weakness, it meant strength for Kaga.
Jugo was on the back foot. Kaga was as strong and as tough as he was, but so much faster, and only getting faster! He was having to block and dodge, focus on defense, as Kaga flowed from one strike to the next, each one stronger and faster than the one preceding it.

Got to get some distance! I like fighting fist to fist, but if I want to win, I’ve got to use every advantage I have!

Jugo released another Ki blast, shoving Kaga back, before taking off in flight. Kaga rolled, stopped himself, and looked up to his airborne opponent. Energy was coalescing around Jugo, light emanating from him. He tried to take a step forward, but his legs buckled under him. He managed to catch himself before faceplanting, but it was indicative of how much he had left.
Come on body, just a bit more!

Kaga grit his teeth, flexed his legs, and leapt to meet Jugo.

Jugo had expected this approach; he had fought against opponents who couldn’t fly before, and they would often jump up to keep going. He kept his Ki raised, but conserved it, using as little as possible as he flew down to meet him, fist in front.

The two collided in mid-air, each one’s fist finding the other’s face. For a brief moment, there was stillness, before the shockwave rang out, its gust causing many in the audience to brace. They landed almost exactly where each had started. They were closer, perhaps 10 meters apart, but in essence they had returned to their start lines.

N. “Looking at how exhausted both of them look, I think we’re nearly at the end of this match!”

Neither boy had much left in their tanks, but neither were going to just lay down at this point. Jugo thrust his hands forward, charging Ki in between them, while Kaga chambered his right hand, waiting for the attack. One final blow to decide it!

“HHHAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
With that cry, all of Jugo’s Ki was released, the sphere of energy followed by a massive beam.

“FINAL MOVE: FINAL PUNCH!”
With the last of his strength, augmented to the maximum by his fatigue, Kaga punched the Ki.

No-one could see what happened; the resulting explosion was too much for anyone, even The Narrator, to observe. But when the light faded and the smoke cleared, both students were down on the ground. They were twitching, at the limit of their limits, just barely conscious.

N. “Double K.O! As per the rules, if only one gets up, they win! If neither gets up, well, we’ll sort something out!”

Come on, come on!
Kaga willed his body to move, even just a bit.

“ONE!” Majestic was counting down. they had until the count of ten.

“TWO!”

I can do it! Just gather some Ki…
Jugo allowed his body to go limp, savoring the few seconds of respite, as he charged even just a scrap of Ki.

“THREE!”

“FOUR!”

Come on, move!
Kaga struggled, trying to push himself just that little more. He forced one leg underneath him, trying to get to a one knee resting stop.

“FIVE!”

“SIX!”

Jugo felt a small amount of Ki within. It was tiny, but it should be just enough! He began straining, first getting onto his hands and knees, before pushing for the stand!

“SEVEN!”

“EIGHT!”
With a final, colossal effort, Jugo pushed his Ki downward, pushing himself up, finally getting to a stand! He locked out his knees, barely aware, but just enough to try and stay standing.

“NINE!”
He was so close! Kaga pushed his kneeling leg down on the ground, almost getting to a stand, before something inside him gave way. He found himself falling sideways, and before he could resist, the blackness at the edge of his vision consumed him, and he thought no more.

“TEN! SON WINS!”

N-no, this isn’t a win! Countdowns don’t count!
The thought went through Jugo’s mind, but it was drowned out by the cheers of the crowd.

N. “SON JUGO WINS THE FINAL PRELIMINARY MATCH! And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the halfway mark of this tournament! That’s right, of 32 matches, we’ve seen 16 of them! Oh, but don’t go anywhere, folks, because the best is yet to come! After these commercial messages, we’ll be back with the final 16!”