Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
A couple that will go down in legend
Chapter thirty-seven: The exhibition battles mini-arc, part four
"Are you serious, Saiko?" a blonde girl with bowl-cut hair and glasses said as she, along with Saiko Intelli stood outside of a pair of double doors that led into the arena of their school's stadium. They were not alone, as they were accompanied by a total of ninety-eight other Seiai Academy students, all of them female; not a single student at Seiai Academy was a boy. As one can imagine, it was a good thing that Minoru Mineta was not a Seiai Academy student.
Intelli nodded once in the affirmative, her single nod giving off something of an air of smug self-confidence. "You heard me right. All one-hundred of us here are set to fight in an exhibition team battle against just one member of the team visiting from the United States for the purpose of going up against U.A. High School in an official team battle event. That's what the principal told me, at least."
The girl with long white hair that covered one of her eyes looked at Intelli with a concerned look. "Umm, doesn't the fact that all one-hundred of us are going to be fighting just one lone opponent all at once set off any alarms in your head, Intelli?" The monocle-wearing smart girl turned to look at her white-haired schoolmate when she heard her speak up just now. "I mean," the white-haired girl continued as she flustered a bit under Intelli's judging look, "Shouldn't we be worried about the possibility that whoever it is we're fighting may be strong enough to face odds like what we're giving him or her and still come out on top?"
The girl with pink hair in a double-knot nodded in agreement with her white-haired schoolmate. "Yeah, we may not be as likely to win this exhibition bout as what some of us here may be thinking," the pink-haired girl said, her tone sounding similarly as troubled as the white-haired girl she agreed with.
Intelli let out a mild, understanding sigh. "Girls, you all forget that, even if our lone opponent ends up pulling out some sort of surprise power, there in no way that he or she will win." Intelli tapped the side of her head with her right index finger. "Regardless of who we end up facing, I can very easily come up with the perfect strategy to take them out, even in the midst of battle." The smart girl then patted a metal, thirty-two ounce canister bottle that hung from the side of her belt that she wore around her waist as she gave all ninety-nine of her schoolmates an assured look. "And since I'm bringing a full canister of my special tea that I like to use in conjunction with my quirk, there's no way that I won't be able to come up with a winning strategy."
The other Seiai Academy girls, though most of them were still nervous, all relaxed a bit, having been reassured by Intelli's speech. Speaking of the smart girl, Intelli turned around to face the double doors that led into the arena of Seiai Academy's stadium. She pushed the doors open as she said, "Alright, girls! Let's get in there and show the Americans their error in deciding to face off against Japan's top girls-only hero high school!"
All of the Seiai Academy girls let out battle cry shouts as they all ran into the arena after Intelli, spilling out into one of the far ends of the arena pit. The doors closed and locked behind them after the last of the girls got into the arena, effectively leaving them in a battlefield surrounded by high walls that basically kept anyone from getting out until things were settled.
At first, the Seiai Academy girls all looked around a bit in confusion, as none of them could see where their supposed lone opponent was. There were a few obstacles in the arena pit, mostly large rock mounds with some actually tall enough for others to stand on and have a bird's eye view of all that was below them. Some of the Seiai Academy girls figured that the opponent that they had to face was just hiding behind one of the rock mounds.
However, that theory was quickly dismissed when the girl with long light-brown hair pointed to one of the tallest and widest rock pillars in the arena pit while shouting, "There's someone on top of that rock pillar over there!" Every last girl all turned their attention to where their schoolmate was pointing, as the clouds overhead moved in the breeze so that they blocked out a lot of the sun, covering a lot of the battlefield in shadows.
It looked to be a male young adult, from what the Seiai Academy girls all saw. They all knew that this fellow had to be their lone opponent, but a lot of them, Intelli especially, were surprised when they noticed that this fellow, despite being from the United States, did not exactly look like he was an American. In fact, he actually looked like he was a native of Japan, with only his platinum blonde hair color being any sign that he had mixed ancestry.
The lone young adult looked to stand around six feet tall; he had fair skin, and his long platinum blonde hair was bound in a single men's ponytail that fell down over his back, save for long bangs that framed his handsome face. He wore a long-sleeved light gray shirt under a seafoam green men's tank top, a sleeveless haori long coat (it reached his knees) over that, a pair of light gray cargo pants held up with a belt, and worn over his back was a carrying case for bokken, peeking out from behind his right shoulder and left hip. The strap for the case went from his right shoulder to left hip. Helping to sell this male young adult's connection to Japan were the shape of his eyes, which clearly denoted some degree of Asian heritage; those eyes of his, plus his haori long coat and his hairstyle to an extent, made this lone young adult look like a samurai.
Further selling the samurai air that the young adult gave off was the rest of his outfit; a headband with a metal place covering the forehead area with said metal plate had an etching detail that resembled the Japanese rising sun flag, a pair of han kote that covered the top of his forearms (it also had small plates that covered the back of his hands) as well as the black fingerless gloves he wore, a pair of suneate that covered the fronts of his shins over his tabi socks worn in a pair of zori sandals, and finally a simple necklace made of (fairly big) wooden beads.
The male young adult, with his arms crossed over his chest, was silent as he looked down from where he stood on the flat surface of that tall rock pillar. It was Intelli and Intelli alone who saw that, aside from an arched eyebrow, the male young adult had a look of indifference on his face. The smart girl, even as she was in the presence of so many of her fellow Seiai Academy students, could not help but pale a bit, as she felt raw power radiate from that lone person.
"Hold on a second, everyone…" a Seiai Academy girl with short black hair and long, elf-like ears said as she and the others all looked up at their lone opponent, "…I think that I know who that guy up there is."
"Who is he, Sylvanas?" Intelli asked as she turned to face her elf-eared schoolmate.
The elf-eared girl, apparently identified as Sylvanas, gently shook her head, a look of worry mixed with creeping dread on her face. "…He looks to be one of the heroes who stopped some manner of vast chaos from being unleashed over in the Midwestern United States a while ago. He's a half-Japanese half-Swedish hero regarded as one of the leading reasons why crime rates in that part of the country are so absurdly low."
The girls that had turned to face Sylvanas as she spoke all turned back to face where their lone opponent still stood on top of that rock pillar. "And he's still technically in high school, from what I heard," the elf-eared girl went on as all of them continued to look at their lone opponent. Some of the girls, none of them knowing why, shuddered as if shaken to their very cores when Sylvanas said who exactly their opponent was.
"That guy up there is the Samurai Hero: Sengoku."
Without warning, Sengoku jumped down from where he stood, landing on the ground in the arena's pit in a crouching position with his arms out at his side as he looked down at the ground a bit. He then turned his gaze right to where the mass group of Seiai Academy students all stood, giving them a look that went well with what he said as he stood up straight.
"Well then, let's begin."
…
As all of the Seiai Academy students fought their lone opponent, the principal of Seiai Academy sat in a VIP section of the seats that surrounded the arena. Sitting with the lady principal of Seiai Academy was Mrs. Butterbean, the principal of Royal Woods High, the high school visiting Japan from the States with the intent of having their scheduled team battle event against U.A., the top hero high school of Japan. Accompanying the American principal was Lori Loud, one of her school's senior year students, and Lincoln, Lori's twelve-year-old elementary school brother who was brought along because he spoke Japanese fluently, thus was needed as a translator.
The principal of Seiai Academy and her American guests weren't the only ones in the VIP booth, either; hoping that her girls would humiliate the American school that was visiting before their fated team battle event, Seiai's principal invited a group from the village of Konohagakure (known as Konoha for short), one of the leading powers that was taking part in the currently ongoing war between multiple of the elemental shinobi nations. The visiting party consisted of Lord Naruto Uzumaki, the current Hokage of Konoha, and his three advisors; Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame.
All of these men, highly trained and experienced shinobi one and all, were all paling a bit as they watched the fight unfold before them. "…I'm getting the weirdest sense of déjà vu here while we're watching this exhibition battle," Naruto remarked aloud, a mildly grim look on his face as his arms were crossed over his back. He turned around to look at his advisors, who all sat behind him in the VIP section of the seats around the arena of Seiai Academy's stadium. "Please tell me I'm not the only one here."
"Hey, guys from Royal Woods," Sasuke said as he turned his head slightly to face the two Loud siblings and Mrs. Butterbean. The Uchiha man pointed down into the arena pit while keeping his focus on the Americans. "Who the hell is that guy?"
"That down there is Aggro-sensei," Lincoln replied as he turned to face the shinobi, "He's been my sensei since before the elementary school that I still go to was hit in an act of terrorism a while ago." The white-haired boy turned his attention back down into the arena pit, keeping his focus on the performance his master was giving. "At first he was only tutoring me in Kendo, but soon enough he started tutoring me in Japanese as well. He's also helped me learn new styles and techniques to help me make the most of my own quirk."
The Seiai Academy principal, a notably slender red-haired woman who was just shy of qualifying as underweight, paled more and more as she saw her school's team of one-hundred students get taken out one by one by the lone member of the Royal Woods High team. As for Mrs. Butterbean, she merely nodded once in a sign of approval of Aggro's ongoing performance in the exhibition battle.
…
At one point, Aggro, who was completely enshrouded in a cloak of golden flames, jumped back to get a good distance, putting all of his opponents right in front of him. Returning a bokken he had taken out to the carrying case that he wore over his back, Aggro then held both of his hands with the palms aimed straight in front of him, thus pointed at his opponents, as he said, "Majestic Destroyer Wildfire."
A huge, bursting rush of golden fire surged forward towards the Seiai Academy students. Intelli, her eyes widening with alarm as she saw the brilliant inferno rushing towards her and her fellow teammates, yelled, "I need people to push back against that attack with ranged emitter quirks!"
About a dozen Seiai students came up and, with each of them putting in every last bit of effort that they could all muster up, fired as much as they could with their respective quirks. There was a basic electricity quirk, one that fired pastel-colored winds what had sparkles in them, one that lobbed a torrent of some manner of liquid slime, and even a somewhat potent telekinesis quirk that, although it was not as powerful as one belonging to a certain autistic girl over at U.A., was still a fairly respectable in terms of power.
All of those energy attacks formed something of a wall that met the rushing inferno of brilliant gold, the two forces colliding into one another. Even so, the golden flames easily pushed through, going on to scorch a good number of the girls, although some of them were able to quickly hide behind rock mounds that, for the most part, covered them.
"What the hell are the Americans even thinking?!" the girl with long white hair exclaimed as she sat next to Intelli while they hid behind a particularly large rock mound for cover, "Bringing with them someone of Sengoku's level?!"
"Don't worry," Intelli replied, trying to be a calming presence even though she herself was unsettled by the force that she and her fellow Seiai Academy students had to face. Reaching to her right side, Intelli said, "All I need to do is drink some of the tea that I brought with me then used my quirk to-" The smart girl stopped short when, as she felt around her right side without even looking, her right hand did not brush against the metal canister of her tea that she brought with her.
Turning her attention to her right, Intelli saw, to her shock and growing worry that her tea canister was missing. Intelli swore, choosing to swear in German partly because she liked appearing smart in front of others, but mostly due to the fact that she didn't really want her classmate that was with her to understand what she was saying, even though the long white-haired girl could tell by Intelli's reaction that they were in a lot trouble.
As Intelli and the long white-haired girl hid, they were joined by Sylvanas, the elf-eared girl. Pointing right up into the air, Sylvanas said with worry in both her tone and expression, "Girls, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a gigantic sphere of golden flames right above us." Looking up to where Sylvanas was pointing, both Intelli and the long white-haired girl saw a very large sphere of golden flames fall down from the sky to their two o'clock, crashing right down onto a group of ten Seiai Academy students, knocking all of them out. Knowing that they had to face their opponent, Intelli led her two classmates out from where they hid.
When they did, Intelli pointed at Aggro, a look of somewhat ecstatic glee on her face that made it clear she was trying to bluster. "Aha!" Intelli proclaimed as she pointed dramatically at Aggro, "After you've just tossed out so much power, there's no way that you should be able to stand up to those on my school's team who are left!" Aggro merely looked on with a dry, almost bored look on his face as his opponent was clearly aiming to scare him into surrendering. "If you yield now, my friends here and I will go easy on you!"
To the confusion of Intelli, Sylvanas and the girl with long white hair, Aggro casually pointed straight up into the air. "…So you have a plan for the second Solar Flare, then."
Wondering just what the Samurai Hero was talking about, Intelli and her schoolmates looked up into the air. To their alarm, there was another gigantic sphere of golden flames that was falling down from the sky, right at all of them. "You…" Sylvanas said somewhat quietly, in a tone of total disbelief, "…You have got to be kidding me."
There were a few other Seiai Academy students aside from Intelli, Sylvanas and the girl with long white hair in that area, but regardless of that, all of them were engulfed in that Solar Flare attack, blasting into all of them with explosions of brilliant golden flames. When the flames dissipated, everyone who was watching saw that the last seven Seiai Academy students that had remained at that point were defeated.
The principal of Seiai Academy was beyond shocked by what she, the Americans and the visiting shinobi from Konoha had just witnessed; a team of one-hundred of Seiai Academy's finest students fought a lone opponent all at once and lost. "…Now I see why you Americans are so confident that you will win your upcoming team battle event against U.A.," the principal of Seiai Academy remarked nervously, a nervous smile on her face, as she turned her head to look at Mrs. Butterbean, Lori and Lincoln.
After some English talking between Lincoln and Mrs. Butterbean, the white-haired boy looked to the Seiai Academy principal and said, "Mrs. Butterbean said that given how much of the future of schools all over the state of Michigan are riding on Aggro-sensei and the rest of the team for Royal Woods High winning against U.A., due to an agreement made by our state's schoolboard, she had to do all that she could to make sure the team doesn't fail."
"Well with power like what your master down there has," Shikamaru remarked aloud, getting Lincoln to turn around and look at him, "I don't see how your school's team could fail." The Nara man turned to look at the others from Konoha, a look of knowing on his face. "You guys all agree with me, right?"
The others all nodded in agreement, with Shino even saying, "That fellow down there has all the makings for a proper shinobi if you ask me. His performance in the battle just now denoted a high level of skill and power, not to mention his physical attributes like speed, agility and strength puts him on par with Konoha's most elite chunnin at a minimum, as well as a good number of our jonin." Turning to face where his village's leader sat, Shino asked, "What do you think, Naruto?"
The current Hokage, his arms still crossed over his chest, continued to look down into the arena's pit, his grim gaze looking down at where Aggro was now helping up some of the defeated Seiai Academy students; he handed a metal canister to that Intelli girl who, upon looking like she recognized it, popped it open and began to greedily drink down its contents while Aggro turned around to help up that girl with the pointy, elf-like ears.
"…Seriously. Déjà vu."
Lori and Lincoln were waiting outside of the office of Seiai Academy's principal as said principal was discussing something with Mrs. Butterbean; the visiting party from Konoha had by this point already left. As the two Loud siblings waited for Lori's principal, they were approached by Aggro, still in his hero costume. There was a look of angered annoyance on the face of the Samurai Hero.
It was at this moment that the Seiai Academy principal and Mrs. Butterbean came out of the former's office; seeing the latter, Aggro walked up to her and began to air some grievances that he had. "(How come I didn't learn until the moment all of my opponents entered the arena that I was chosen to fight against the team of an all-girl's school?)" Aggro demanded in English, "(Do you know how many people out there will be liable to throw unwarranted accusations against me since I, being a man, just defeated a bunch of girls?)"
Mrs. Butterbean, to her credit, seemed to understand what had made one of the stars of the team that Royal Woods High brought to face off against U.A.'s team in the upcoming team battle event so upset. "(Sorry, Aggro, but it was sort of dropped on me at the last minute as well. If I had known ahead of time that this was an all-girl's school, I would have saved either Allison or Amy to fight here, and had you face off against either Ketsubutsu High's team or Vulcan High's team in either of those battles.)"
Aggro, with a look of close-eyed exasperation of his face, crossed his arms over his chest as he inhaled through his nose before exhaling. "(…At least the girls that I spoke with understand how I felt when I saw them to apologize for any hard feelings,)" Aggro said, "(And that they accepted my apology. Oh, that one girl, Intelli, even gave me some of her tea from her canister by using the cap as a small cup, and it was really good. I even asked her for the recipe so I could brew it myself when we return to Michigan.)"
The Seiai Academy principal looked at Mrs. Butterbean, a curious look on her face. "So, what do you plan to do next?" the lady principal asked her American counterpart. Lincoln translated the Japanese into English, then when Mrs. Butterbean gave an answer, the white-haired boy turned around to face the Seiai Academy principal and translate the English into Japanese.
"Mrs. Butterbean said that all that is left now is the upcoming team battle event against U.A. She hopes that Aggro-sensei and the rest of the Royal Woods High team is able to pull off a win."
"At least U.A. is a co-ed school," Aggro muttered to himself under his breath, too quietly for anyone nearby to hear.
In a shady part looking building in the shady part of town, Giran, the info broker working for the villains that made up part of the Paranormal Liberation Front, was sitting in a casual yet stylishly decorated office-like room. He sat alone in the middle of a two-seater sofa that sat on one of the long sides of a coffee table that was between that two-seater sofa and another two-seater sofa that was occupied by Dabi (on Giran's left) and Spinner (on Giran's right); Toga stood next to the sofa occupied by her companions, further on Giran's left so as to put Dabi in the middle.
Giran, as he let out a sigh, leaned forward a bit to tap some ashes from his cigarette that he was smoking into an ash tray that sat on the coffee table between the two sofas. "…So you three went over the details in the packet on the one assignment that our mysterious benefactor wants the three of you to carry out," the info broker remarked, a look of knowing expectance on his face accompanied by a knowing smirk, "And judging by the looks on your respective faces, I can only assume that my hunch that I had earlier when I went over the details myself and saw what the job in question was is right." Giran leaned back, resting his right arm over the back of the two-seater sofa he occupied by himself. "You three don't want to take the job."
"Don't get any of us wrong, Giran," Dabi began, gesturing to Giran with his right hand, "Spinner, Toga and I normally have no trouble with killing people. Granted, I think I speak for Spinner and Toga here when I say that the job that the three of us had to do a while ago where we killed that Uraraka woman still leaves a sour taste in our mouths, but I can at least understand the logic and reasoning behind it." The blue flame villain crossed his arms over his chest, never taking his eyes off of Giran. "It wasn't the first time in history business people tried pulling such tricks to intimidate competitors out of the scene. And I highly doubt that it'll be the last."
Spinner gestured to a small stack of paper sheets that were stapled together; said packet rested on the surface of the coffee table, near the ash tray that Giran was using. "But this job here would have the three of us kill a ten-year-old kid. Not only that, but it's written in the details for the job that the kid's only offence is something that can be reasonably argued isn't even his fault."
Toga, with a mildly confused look on her face, turned to face Dabi and Spinner. "Wait a minute, I'm confused here," the psychotic school girl began, "I didn't read the copy of the job detail report, so all I know about it is what you guys said about us having to kill an innocent kid if we take it." Crossing her arms over her chest, Toga asked, "Why exactly does that benefactor guy want that kid dead?"
"Read it," Dabi said as he picked up the report for the job, which laid on the coffee table next to Giran's ash tray, then handed it to Toga. She skimmed through it a bit, and as she did so her expression soured more and more. After she was done, the psychotic school girl turned to face where Giran sat.
"What the fuck?" Toga all but exclaimed in a disgusted tone, "So the kid has a panicked meltdown in public right as mystery benefactor guy comes out of a fancy restaurant with his wife, the wife sees and hears said meltdown and it sours her mood, which meant that she didn't offer up later that night?" Lowering her arm that held the report, Toga said, "The mysterious benefactor wants us to kill a kid because said kid kept him from having sex that night?"
Giran nodded once in confirmation, before he looked at all three of the villains with a knowing grin. "So I was right that you three don't want to take the job." Giran took out a phone from his purple suit top, dialed up a number, and held the phone up to the side of his head, waiting for the other end to pick up. "…Ah, glad I was able to reach you, my good man," the info broker began in a casual, friendly tone, "Yes, well this is concerning the job you wanted some of my associates to carry out, and as it turns out, they are occupied with other work so they aren't able to do it."
Dabi, Spinner and Toga watched as Giran lied through his teeth as he spoke with the mysterious benefactor on the phone. "…Yes, yes, I know I said that I thought that they were available, but their other work had popped up between when I last spoke with you and just now. …Yes, yes, I know that with them occupied that there's no one available to do the job period, and I'm very sorry that my group is unable to carry out the hit you requested. Hopefully at least one of my associates will be freed up later. …Yes, I'll talk to you later. Good-bye." Giran ended the call before he slipped his phone back into his purple suit top.
"I can't honestly blame you three for not wanting to carry out that hit," the info broker remarked as he gestured to Dabi, Spinner and Toga, "I looked into the incident mentioned in the hit report, and it turns out the kid's panicked meltdown was caused by a bunch of pro heroes rushing by on their way over to Seiai Academy High School for some odd reason, and the noise that said rush generated is what had caused the poor boy to have his panicked meltdown."
"I can't believe that you willingly lied through your teeth to our mysterious benefactor," Dabi remarked, a mildly amused grin on his face.
Gently shaking his head, Giran said, "Oh no, that was one of his men who, unlike the benefactor himself, we've actually seen. Don't worry, he'll relay the message to the big boss himself." Giving the three villains a serious look, Giran went on, "Don't worry, you three. I got your back on this one." Dabi and the others nodded in thanks before Dabi and Spinner got up and, with Toga following them, left the office they were in with the info broker.
…
"I still can't believe our mysterious benefactor is so petty that he'd order a hit out on a kid simply because said kid having a meltdown in public ultimately led to our benefactor not getting to have sex that night," Dabi spat in a disgusted tone as he, along with Spinner and Toga, were all walking in the alleyway that led to the building that they were in.
Spinner, with his arms crossed over his chest, nodded in agreement. "It's bad enough that we had to carry out a hit on an innocent woman whose only offence was that she was part owner of a Construction Company that suddenly got a boost in business, thus breaking the monopoly that our benefactor had on those businesses in the city." The lizard man gently shook his head as he lowered his arms back down. "But to kill a kid? And for the reason listed? Nuh-uhh, no way, that don't sound kosher to me, not to mention how it goes against the ideals of Stain."
Toga looked like she was about to say something as she and the boys began to turn a corner, but she was stopped before she could get even one word out when Dabi, who spotted something, jumped back behind the corner while pulling her and Spinner with him. The psychotic girl was going to complain, but Dabi hushed her. When all of them there quiet, the blue flame villain pointed to around the corner, making his companions silently peek from the corner with him to see what was going on.
Toga and Spinner both saw why Dabi pulled them back into the alleyway; standing out in a more public street were a very familiar group consisting of three older shinobi and one large dog who Dabi, Spinner and Toga had the rather unfortunate luck to bump into during a previous job over in the United States. There was no way that the trio of villains were going to forget that pink-haired man, that blonde-haired man, that brown-haired woman and said woman's dog, who wore an eyepatch and was missing an ear.
"Yo Inoichi, my good man," the pink-haired man said to his blonde companion, "How come your son wouldn't let us come along to watch that exhibition match at the school that he and the others visited earlier today?"
"Maybe mah boi wanted us to keep an eye on the rooms we have reserved at the hotel we're staying at while we're here on tour, Harold," the blonde man, apparently called Inoichi, said to his pink-haired friend, apparently called Harold.
As the three seniors talked, Dabi and his friends watched them from the alleyway, hidden so that they wouldn't be spotted. "Oh hell the fuck no," Dabi swore under his breath, his eyes a bit wide with alarm, "What the fuck are those crazy older shinobi from one of the elemental nations doing here?! They're way far from home over in the shinobi territories."
"I say we back up further into the alleyway," Spinner began, "And wait for those guys to leave before we try to make a break for it." Both Dabi and Toga nodded in agreement before they proceeded to sneak back into the alleyway with their lizard man friend.
END, CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Author's notes;
In case any of you are wondering why so many characters from other realms have shown up over the last few chapters, it's because the stage is being set for something big, which was partly hinted at over the last two chapters; you will get more of a hint of what's to come in the next chapter. But yeah, this is the last chapter that will feature an exhibition match before the upcoming team battle event between the forces of U.A. and Royal Woods High. There will be a few points that are covered in the first portion of the next chapter, then things for the rest of this arc as a whole will be kicked off.