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[End of the First Stage]
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...
-Sigh...-
Taka let out a sigh as he watched both combatants being carried off on stretchers to get treated by Recovery Girl.
"It feels a bit regretful." He smiled wryly.
He had trained Midoriya to be a notch above his version from the show. The guy had actually learned to kick, already knew how to manage his output, and had mastered channeling One For All throughout his entire body rather than just one limb.
But in the end, he still hadn't managed to surpass Bakugo, going out in the very first round of the tournament.
"At least he aura farmed a lot in that last clash, despite losing," Taka muttered.
Losing might not have been the ideal result for the greenhead, but that final clash had left the crowd restless and in awe regardless.
Especially the pros. He couldn't hear them from this high up, but he could get a rough guess of what they were saying just by watching their expressions.
"The students this year are incredibly promising!"
"We are witnessing the birth of monsters of the hero world."
"They'll be at the top for sure when they go pro. I should try my luck and rope them into my agency right away!"
"That Takahashi kid was incredibly strong—and handsome too."
Taka nodded along, agreeing very much with the voices he had just made up.
While he carried on with his antics, Cementoss got to work below, fixing up the arena once more.
A few minutes later it was done, and with it, the next fight got underway.
{"The last fight was pretty bonkers, right everyone?! Let's see if our next participants will let us calm our hearts down—or if this is going to be just as thrilling, and we might need someone standing by in case of a heart attack!"}
Soon, the next two fighters stepped into the light.
Tokoyami and Sero.
Taka leaned forward, watching the incoming fight with a flicker of interest.
They weren't the main characters, sure, but he'd helped both of them improve a bit before the festival.
He was curious how a fight between the two would play out.
'Although there's a side with a pretty clear advantage here.'
Sero's control over his tape—using it to swing and move around—had improved a lot. But there was a problem.
There was nothing to hang off of. The platform was a wide open space.
That left him with only one real option.
Using his tape offensively.
Taka smiled, curious to see how things would go.
Soon, both reached their positions, facing each other with focused looks.
"I won't go easy on you, y'hear me, Tokoyami?!" Sero called out, smirking.
"An unearned victory would be a greater shame than losing," Tokoyami answered, pulling both hands from his pockets.
"Nicely said."
{"Readyyy—?!"}
Both contestants set themselves.
{"GO!"}
In that instant, both jumped into action.
Sero shot a tape at speed, aiming to latch onto Tokoyami and bind him.
But the shadow was faster.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Dark Shadow's distorted voice rang out as he sprang from Tokoyami and struck the tape down.
Sero clicked his tongue and retracted.
But before he could try anything else, Dark Shadow was already charging toward him, closing the distance in seconds.
"Crap!"
He had to lunge desperately out of the way as the shadow came crashing down where he'd been standing.
In the gap while he landed and Dark Shadow floated back up to give chase, Sero shot a tape toward Tokoyami, who had stayed back.
With minimal reaction time, the raven-headed teen tried to block it—but all that did was let it latch onto his arm.
Sero yanked himself toward Tokoyami immediately, slipping past another blow from Dark Shadow in the process.
The moment he got close enough, he drove a kick into Tokoyami's side.
-Bam!-
The hit landed—not on his side, but on Tokoyami's guard, which absorbed some of it.
Sero blinked in disbelief.
But before he could think of anything else, a fist came swinging down at him.
He jumped back quickly to dodge.
Still holding the tape though, the distance he could put between them was limited.
And someone else moved to fill that gap.
"Stay still!"
Dark Shadow's voice fell on him as Sero caught the movement coming down from above.
He had to let go of Tokoyami and throw himself clear.
—Bam!—
He got out of the way.
But someone else came down on him right after.
-Thud!-
"Uck—?!"
A kick landed cleanly into his stomach before he could react.
Tokoyami's.
Sero rolled across the platform from the blow.
And even then he wasn't given a moment to breathe, as Dark Shadow was already on him again.
In desperation, he shot a tape toward the edge of the platform, catching the curb by a thread.
It was enough to drag him just clear of the blow coming down.
Sadly, Dark Shadow wasn't the only one chasing him.
As he was getting back to his feet, he found Tokoyami already rushing at him, winding up a punch.
Sero blocked in a hurry, cushioning it a little.
Then Dark Shadow followed up with one of his own.
He had to jump back. Tokoyami's punches were one thing—Dark Shadow's weren't something he could just tank through.
But as he stepped away, Tokoyami gave chase, winding up another attack.
He barely dodged it and still had to keep retreating as Dark Shadow followed right behind.
"Oh, come on—ganging up on someone is playing dirty!" Sero exclaimed, looking genuinely pressed.
"Someone asked me once what I am without Dark Shadow." Tokoyami said as he wound up a kick. "Which made me realize how much I'd been relying on it."
The kick landed. Sero blocked somehow, but the recoil still pushed him back.
He prepared to jump away from Dark Shadow's follow-up.
But it never came.
Instead, when he refocused on Tokoyami, the boy was standing still, Dark Shadow quiet at his side.
"Which is why—right now—you've gotten a taste of what my real power is."
With that, he gave Sero his back and began walking away.
"Wha—?" Sero's expression twisted at the strange move.
He was about to fire a tape at him—
{"Sero is out of bounds—Tokoyami advances to the next round!"}
But reality was quicker.
"Ah?!"
Sero's eyes dropped to his feet. His heels were touching past the line.
Both hands flew to his face and he threw his head back.
"I thought I still had room, NOOOO!"
While he wailed at his own mistake, Taka watched the conclusion with a smile.
It seemed the raven-headed teenager had been practicing his hand-to-hand—as Taka had advised him, since he'd always had a tendency to let Dark Shadow do all the heavy lifting.
Which wasn't necessarily bad, given the gap in raw stats between the Quirk and its user. But that meant the numerical advantage of having two fighters on one side was being wasted.
Here, that advantage had been used to its fullest. Sero had been given no time to breathe, while Tokoyami and Dark Shadow rotated the pressure between them and kept a steady level of energy.
'Not sure whether Dark Shadow can get tired, but at least it applies to Tokoyami.' Taka mused.
There was another reason he'd advised Tokoyami to work on his close combat, though.
But it seemed he'd held that card back for now. Probably saving it for his next fight.
That was his call to make, so Taka shrugged it off.
After that, the arena had survived this one fight in decent shape, so Cementoss didn't need to step up.
Which meant, of course, the next fight wasn't far behind.
Soon, two new figures stepped onto the field.
Taka's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward without realizing.
It was Kirishima and Jiro's turn.
Climbing the stairs to the platform, Jiro swallowed quietly as she sized up the eager-looking Kirishima across from her.
This was a genuinely bad matchup for her.
Her opponent just had to be the one person who could shrug off most of what she had in her arsenal right now.
Her luck couldn't be worse.
"… Still, I have a chance," she said, her nervous smile curling up a little.
{"Readyyy—?!"}
Kirishima bumped both fists together, grinning.
"Yessir!"
Jiro sweatdropped, her earlobes lifting semi-threateningly.
"So-so."
{"GO!"}
The instant his voice dropped, Kirishima's body hardened and he charged toward her.
Jiro wasn't significantly faster, and Kirishima closed the distance quickly.
He was almost on top of her—looking to tackle and drive her straight out of bounds—when he got too close.
"I don't think so!"
"Wha—?!"
Jiro's earlobes aimed straight at his eyes.
He was forced to raise his guard to cover them, cutting off his own vision—which Jiro immediately used to slip past his tackle and get away.
"That's dirty…!" Kirishima muttered as he caught on quickly and spun to give chase.
Jiro glanced back, clicking her tongue when she saw him following closely.
'I won't win in a drawn-out fight. I have to try now.'
She pushed her eyes ahead, noting the bounds not far off, and sped up.
Kirishima followed close behind—but he noticed the approaching line too, and his eyes narrowed briefly.
As they got close, Jiro kicked off to the left to force him past her without being able to stop.
Kirishima had seen something like that coming, and he, of course, wasn't a bull, so he adjusted his direction almost immediately.
But what he hadn't accounted for was a feint.
The moment he kicked off to match her, she kicked off again—going the other way, and breaking his ankles… figuratively speaking.
He tried to follow, a beat behind, but as he changed directions an prepared to chase again, Jiro had already circled around him.
As he turned to face her, he found her already crouched low, earlobes shooting to the ground.
The next second—
—BZZZZZZ!—
The platform before her erupted. A tremor tore through the arena, and Kirishima was caught right in the middle of it.
'Damnit, I forgot she could do that!'
He grit his teeth and dug in, doing everything he could not to be thrown over the line.
And he managed it. Some earth movement wasn't enough to bring him down.
But what came next was.
As the worst of it passed and he lifted his head to find Jiro, she was already right in front of him.
"Huh?"
"Oryaaaaa!"
—Tatatatatatata!—
Jiro let out a war cry and her earlobes launched into a rapid-fire barrage at Kirishima's hardened body, striking again and again at speed like a Gatling gun.
He was forced to raise both arms as shields. Even then, they were actually stinging.
Just how strong were those?!
"I've been striking concrete for a whole week—DON'T UNDERESTIMATE MEEE!"
Enflamed by the memory of her pain, her attack speed climbed.
Kirishima had no room to move.
Gradually, the pressure mounted, and while his toughness held, his resistance to knockback began grinding down.
Before he'd even noticed how close to the line he'd gotten, the barrage stopped
"...?"
He looked up confused for an instant—
Then saw Jiro following it with a dropkick.
-BAM!-
The blow hit him cleanly on the chest, and unprepared.
That was enough to send the red-haired teenager one full step back.
And thus—
{"Kirishima is out of bounds—Jiro advances to the next round!"}
Kirishima's guard dropped. His head came up and he looked around in confusion before his gaze fell to his feet.
"... EH?! I LOST?!"
He fell to his knees, a pained look taking over his face. "You can't be serious, I was just getting fired up!"
"Heh."
Jiro's short laugh rang out, snapping Kirishima's eyes to her.
There she stood, unbothered, with a smirk.
"You're still too green, Kirishima."
And with that, she turned and walked off—hiding the wheezing from the effort of that last barrage as she went.
That sequence had taken everything she had to pull off.
Who could have thought something that simple would leave her so winded?
From the ceiling, Taka stared at her retreating form with a face full of disbelief.
"Oryaaa?" He muttered, smiling wryly.
Whatever. If she'd had fun doing that war cry, who was he to question it.
Setting that aside, he ran the strategy back over in his head and nodded.
Kirishima had the edge on her in nearly every stat. Which made combat with him a big no-no.
The earthquake move he'd helped her develop was the only real advantage she'd had. And while its raw attack power wasn't dramatic—seeing as it had mainly destabilized Kirishima rather than actually hurt him—that was precisely why it worked so well.
It wrecked the platform, shook his footing, and bought her the gap she needed to launch the earlobe barrage and shove him out of bounds, which was likely the only real path to victory available to her.
And Kirishima hadn't thought that far. Not that he blamed him, she had only shown that technique back when both were controlling the skeleton, and there was a lot of chaos back then.
The secrecy had paid off now.
'The problem is—now everyone knows she can do that.'
He smiled wryly at the thought, then shifted his gaze to the bracket displayed on the stadium screen.
'But her next opponent is either Kaminari or Uraraka. Neither one has the same kind of stat gap Kirishima had with her.'
He shrugged.
It seemed she still had plenty of chances.
Down below, Cementoss got to work on the mess Jiro had made of the platform.
Minutes passed, and soon the fight between Kaminari and Uraraka got underway.
Taka smiled and settled back comfortably. "Let's see just how much better these guys have gotten."
...
°
°
°
| Somewhere else, at that same moment... |
...
"W—what is someone like you doing here?" Tensei Iida asked, his eyes struggling to lift toward the figure standing in front of him.
Two red eyes settled on the fallen Tensei.
"What else? I came to lend a hand." A deep voice came down, unhurried.
"T-that's what you call a hand?"
What lay before Tensei's eyes was an unbelievable sight.
The Hero Killer—already responsible for the deaths of many capable heroes and the crippling of many others—now lay flat on the ground, completely unable to move, with his head pinned under another person's foot.
A vigilante's foot. One Tensei had heard of a long while back, and whose music he personally enjoyed.
Rockinesis was, for some reason, here.
And he had intervened at exactly the right moment.
Tensei had engaged the Hero Killer upon catching sight of him, but the man had proven far more dangerous than he'd assessed. His combat abilities were vast, and his Quirk—still unknown—had left Tensei completely immobile at the worst possible moment, nearly ending him.
If Rockinesis hadn't dropped in and pinned the Hero Killer before he could deliver the finishing blow, this might well have been the end of the hero Ingenium.
"You're…"
Stain's weak voice came from beneath the foot; his eyes were bloodshot as he stared up at the sole covering his field of vision.
"You're the performer—that clout-seeking fool… why are you here? Why are you interfering with my duty?"
Rockinesis glanced down at him.
"Same reason anyone would. You're crazy."
"You don't understand the responsibility I carry. If you did—"
"I don't need a monologue."
-Wham!-
With that, Rockinesis brought his foot down hard on Stain's head.
The hit was brutal—probably cracking something—and with it, the Hero Killer went unconscious.
Rockinesis gave a small nod, then turned back to Tensei.
"Next time, don't take on a murderer with that kind of track record alone, will you?"
"… I'll keep that in mind." Tensei sweatdropped.
Was he really being lectured by a vigilante?
This was not a good day.
While he sat with that, Rockinesis turned and began heading out of the alleyway.
"You're just going to leave me here?" Tensei called after him.
Rockinesis simply lifted one hand and flicked a finger.
Tensei was lifted off the ground immediately and carried along as the vigilante walked, all the way until they reached the street.
As they stepped out, however, several figures were already converging.
"Rockinesis!"
"Team leader, what did he do to you?!"
"You bastard, I knew that camera-friendly act was just an act!"
"Don't worry, Ingenium—we'll get you out!"
The moment they arrived, they began circling the vigilante, readying for a fight.
But before any of them could move—
"All of you, stop!" Tensei's voice cut through. "It was the Hero Killer who left me like this. He's still in that alleyway, unconscious—go apprehend him before he comes around!"
"B-but Ingenium—are we supposed to just ignore this guy?"
"No. As heroes, it's our duty to apprehend vigilantes, regardless of their intentions."
The group tensed, bracing for a fight.
"… However." Tensei's eyes drifted upward, settling on the silent figure beside him. "… You're not the real Rockinesis, are you?"
"…"
Rockinesis didn't answer. Instead, he raised one hand and swept it sideways. Tensei was sent gliding toward the heroes, who caught him.
Then the vigilante spoke.
"No."
Everyone flinched, swallowing nervously at what that implied.
A mere clone had been enough to deal with the Hero Killer, the same one that had left Ingenium in this state.
Not only that, but judging from his speckless appearance, he probably hadn't even struggled much, if at all.
A clone was capable of that much… then how strong was the real one?
The weight of that realization settled over all of them at once.
-Step, step, step-
As Rockinesis began walking forward, they stepped aside without thinking, clearing the way on instinct.
It was a few seconds after that they realized what they were doing.
—Yet, even then, no one moved to apprehend him. Instead they simply watched powerless as the infamous vigilante walked past them, unbothered.
Just as he was passing through, however, he stopped.
"Well, look who is here..."
In the blink of an eye, his head snapped toward a distant building—locking onto a smoky figure standing there.
It didn't last. The moment the figure realized it had been spotted, a portal opened and it stepped through, disappearing without a trace.
Rockinesis stood still for a moment.
"Hmph."
Then he snorted in amusement.
And vanished.
...
°
°
°
| Back to Taka, minutes later... |
...
"What a sad sight," Taka muttered, watching Iida's fight play out exactly as it had in the show—with him becoming Hatsume's guinea pig to demonstrate her inventions to the crowd.
He sighed and lay back down to stare at the sky instead. That pitiful sight didn't need his eyes on it.
As he did, it occurred to him that this was going to be the last fight of the first stage.
So his mind drifted back over all of them in turn, wanting to check on how things were going overall compared to the the show.
His and Mina's fight, where the pink head was able to show very good skills for someone on her first year.
Todoroki and Yaoyorozu's fight, where Yaoyorozu was at least able to show what she could do instead of just panicking, and against Todoroki of all people.
Bakugo and Midoriya's fight, where the two fought against one another on equal terms, even if in the end the green head still lost.
Tokoyami and Sero's, where Tokoyami was able to show off his new fighting style, while Sero didn't have much of the spotlight.
Kirishima and Jiro's, where Jiro was on the clear disadvantage, yet still outsmarted Kirishima enough that she was able to win against him.
And then the last three.
Uraraka and Kaminari's—where Uraraka had used her Quirk on herself to leap high enough to clear Kaminari's omnidirectional blast, then kicked him out of bounds the moment he entered dumb mode.
Ojiro and Shinso's—where Shinso had spent the whole fight desperately trying to get a word out of Ojiro, and received nothing but tail whacks on the face until he was out of bounds.
And lastly, this ongoing massacre of Iida's dignity.
Checking it over all, there were a few things that would have been better. Like the losers currently not having been able to showcase properly what they could do. Kaminar, Kirishima, and Sero in this case.
He supposed Shinso also entered into that category, but the guy wasn't his classmate, so he wasn't included in his improvement-assessment.
All in all, it had been quite a first stage. Better than in the show? He wasn't so sure.
But that's because it was an overall calm stage in terms of craziness.
In the next one, the heavy weights would be fighting one another, so the fight scales would be off the charts.
His own fights specially, of course.
Snorting, Taka shook his head with a wry look.
-Bzzz-
Just then, a small vibration from his phone pulled him out of his thoughts.
He pulled it out and checked.
[Phone for very real people: Just prevented a tragedy. What did you do in the meantime, original? I bet nothing.]
[Phone for very real people: By the way, Smoky was watching me the whole time. He probably went to report to Eyebags that we took down his potential comrade before they could even make contact.]
Taka let out a loud snort, his mouth curling into a smirk.
"Watching us, huh?"
It was ironic.
"If only they knew I already have an eye on them."
Since his realization regarding Eri, he'd become keenly aware that he couldn't afford to let Shigaraki move around unsupervised just because it might be worth more aura.
So, drawing on his knowledge from the show and the later alliance with Gentle and La Brava, plus her hacking skills, he'd tracked down their current hideout and sent aura clones everyday there to keep watch.
Right now, they were like animals in a hyper-realistic zoo. They thought they were moving freely, when in reality, they were under close watch and could be put down the moment they tried anything that escaped the expected of them.
He wasn't certain how he'd fare against All For One directly. But even a clone would make short work of Shigaraki.
Especially now that he could make one as strong as he'd been back when he fought the Nomu.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: (181 Base) 1500
▸ Defense: (362 Base) 3000
▸ Aura Projection: 37,000
─────────────
Total Aura: 83,125 → 41,613 (50%)
1st Clone's aura: 12,273 (15%)
2nd Clone's aura: 5000 (6%)
3rd Clone's aura: 5000 (6%)
4th Clone's aura: 5000 (6%)
…
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
The gains just kept climbing.
There were still two or three fights ahead, each as impactful as the ones before. Which meant there was more aura still coming his way before the day was out.
—And even after that, since people could also just rewatch.
"This day gets better and better."
With that thought, he pushed himself back upright.
Glancing down at the platform, he saw that—just as he'd assumed—Hatsume had given up the moment she'd finished her showcase, and Iida won by default. Even if his defeated look told a very different story.
Smiling, Taka got to his feet and dusted off his hands.
It was time for the second stage.
And the first fight?
The match against Todoroki.
"This is going to be good."
…
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: Like I said, I went a bit overboard with going over the fights. At least I noticed it at the end, and opted to outright skip the last few so we could move on to the next stage of the fight, with Taka's and Todoroki's showdown being inminent.
I struggled a lot on how to skip them naturally, but then I recalled what a clone of Taka was supposed to be doing right now, so I just decided for a POV change.
What did you think, was it natural?)