A.N: So, I'm officially making this my main project, considering how consistent the reception on this is. It's funny, what was once my main had so much crazy shit in it and at least a decent plot, I thought that it would be perfect. Hey, such is life! Anyway, onto reviews!

Falconpuncher: Ding-ding, we got a winner!

SkeenTheDream: As stated above, it's not Muscular unfortunately. Although, it should make you wonder who's going to take Rappa's place as one of the Eight Precepts... I've said too much.

netapel: Nice on also figuring bothe Death-Arms and Kamui! As for Tensei, I've thought about the idea in the past, but no dice unfortunately. He's actually one year younger than Aizawa, so at this point he's currently twenty years old, having already become a Pro-Hero. Don't worry though, he does make an appearance a bit later down the line.

Anyway, let's see if you all can figure out two new characters that I put in! Enjoy!

Rumble, Young Man Rumble!

Chapter 7

The difference of power and strength

He closed his eyes, forcing his body to go to sleep. Even when it did, his dream was… questionable. He felt his body floating, limp and numb in an inky blackness. From nowhere, someone stood in front of him. A near-spitting image of himself, another Kendo Rappa, but different. Twisted. His skin literally steamed with a flushed red, veins and arteries threatening to burst from his skin as they pulsed violently. Muscles writhed and tensed, an animal, a predator that was prepared to pounce. His eyes… there was no white to be seen on his maniacal, bloody-toothed grin. The whites of his eyes were replaced by red, his yellow irises almost glowing.

"…What the fuck do you want?" Kendo asked himself.

"YoU fEAr." The beast replied simply.

"I don't fear jack shit!" Kendo roared. "What do you want!?"

"FaILuRe. IT hAunTs yoU, BeCaUse yOu aRE WeaK. BeCAUse yOU aRE stUpId."

"…I'm strong! I just need to get stronger!" His voice wavered.

"ThEN uSe mE. KiLL, and bEcoME unKiLLable. An EteRNal fIGHt yoU will never LosE." The beast's hand shot forward, grabbing Kendo's face.

He woke up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding. His veins seemed to hum, painfully. He sighed, looking at his clock, staring at it for a moment as he tried to make out the numbers. 5:20 am.

"…fuck." He sighed, wiping the sweat from his face.

…

Over half of them were removed from class 1-A after Aizawa's assessment, with only the shred of hope that they could return to try next year. Frankly, it was fairly terrifying for the remaining portion of the class. No matter the confidence that was built up, even Kendo was a bit shaken. Only eight remained in the entire class. Four boys, four girls. "It's good to see that you all haven't run off yet," Aizawa said bluntly. "Though allow me to make myself clear: you are still free from this point on to quit the Hero-Course should you feel that it's too much. The General-Studies and Support-Gear classes are always open to you." The silence was deafening, tension thick in the air. "Good. Now, open to page seven of your book please…" Kendo fell into a pattern, doing his best to keep up, occasionally squinting at the book hard, stuck on a few sentences. Rumi, slightly looking behind her, seeing him struggle, wondered. She wasn't the only one who noticed: small, beady eyes stared hard at Kendo, hatred and smug triumph surging in his gaze. 'Gotcha.'

Finally, it arrived: Combat Training. Or at least, it was next period. "Finally, we can really stretch out and let loose, huh?" Rumi sighed, chomping down on the last of her rice. "Great way to shake off the nerves!"

"Hah! You too?" Kendo chuckled, a bit less enthusiastic than usual. Rumi naturally picked up on this.

"…You seemed… frustrated in class today. Wanna talk about it?" He clammed up for a moment, words stuck in his throat. He almost laughed upon thinking that metaphor. 'Hah. Always trouble with words.'

"… maybe a bit later Usagi." He saw her glare and grinned, both hands up. "Don't worry, it ain't something I can keep from you forever, nor would I want to. It's just… a bit… annoying for me to come to terms with."

"…hmph. You better." She said haughtily before her expression softened. "I'm always here to listen, alright?"

"Yeah, I know. Thanks Usagi," He said, his heart a bit lighter at the prospect. "Now… let's get ready to kick each other's asses."

"Damn right!"

…

His costume was, all things considered, fairly bare and straight to the point. A black white t-shirt under a black trench-coat, tough combat-boots and leather pants. Such was his aim when he sketched up the costume, though the designer he sent it to made a few extra additions. The coat was made from a strong, thin and flexible Kevlar, enough to protect against a heavy knife-stab or a low-calibre bullet, and with deep-enough pockets to hold light medical supplies among other things. The real attraction was his one and only support-item. His barebones gauntlets looked crude, with worn leather wrapping around his forearms, metal-plating protecting the top of said arms. Rather than brass-knuckles that would hinder his hands' mobility, dense cast-iron perfectly rested on top of his knuckles, the plates large enough to roll with his knuckles as he clenched his fist. Combined with his punching-speed and power, such a simple addition had undoubtedly made him that much more dangerous. A hand that wouldn't break, combined with knuckles that had the potential to break anything. "Yeah… this is more my speed," He muttered, his grin turning near-feral. The darkness of the tunnel he walked through gave way to the light of midday, the eight remaining students all gathered up in one group.

"Yo, Usagi!" He called out, gaining her attention. She was in a form-fitting body-suit, covering everything except her muscular arms. White around her torso with a gold crescent-moon on her chest, purple from her waist down, he saw the modified footgear in accordance to her more rabbit-like feet, literal steel toes to ensure maximum damage upon any kind of kick. "You've got a good look going for ya' Usagi. Like the purple and whites."

"Speak for yourself big-guy," She said with a grin, "You look like a rugged underground streetfighter. Diggin' it!" He had no idea why, but the specific words 'underground streetfighter' gave him an insane sense of déjà vu. "Huh… yeah."

"Alright you brats, listen up!" They turned to see a very large and rather intimidating hero in a red jumpsuit walk through the tunnels. "I'm Vlad-King, the Combat-Simulation instructor for this year. The old man retired not too long ago, so if you were expecting him then tough luck. Today, since that damned Aizawa sheared your number down, we're gonna doin simple one versus one's. Rules are simple enough, you can use your quirks, knockout or incapacitation is allowed, but no trying to intentionally kill someone." Rumi and Kendo glanced at each other, both of them thinking the same thing. 'Finally.'

"Since we're already here and we don't have that much time, I already have the match-ups decided. First up, can I get uh… Kendo Rappa!" He grinned wide at the call, rolling his shoulders as Rumi stepped up with him, their blood already singing.

"And Tetsude Ken?"

Once more, the fist and feet duo thought the exact same thing: "Goddamnit!"

"Shit… fate's a bitch," Rumi muttered angrily before looking to Kendo. "You better beat his ass into the ground, got it?"

"Ain't doing anything less," He grumbled back, "Fuckin' blueballing us from a good fight." Glancing at Tetsude, his eyebrows went up as he saw the gleeful hate on the guy's face. He'd been waiting for the chance to do this since yesterday. "…Might be a bit of fun though." The area they got to fight in was simple: a fairly wide and open street, smaller faux-shops and buildings acting as barriers to the left or right. The rest of the class went into a viewing -facility, multiple cameras from different angles giving everyone a clear sight of the battlefield, though what it didn't give them what sound to what they were saying to each other.

"How's the nose?" Kendo asked with a smirk.

"Fine now and go fuck yourself," Tetsude barked, cracking his knuckles. "You think you're hot shit because you got the highest score in the entrance exam?"

"Don't care what my score is," Kendo laughed, rolling his shoulders, "I'm here to fight."

"If it's a fight you want…" Tetsude started, growling as the muscles in his arms seemed to bulge.

"Alright you two, Ten minutes starts now!"

"Then you're already signing your own loss!" He slammed his fist into the floor with a loud *CRACK*, grunting as he heaved out a chunk of stone easily twice the size of his body before he roared, launching it straight at Kendo. He didn't even move out of the way in time, the boulder crashing into him and sending him flying into a building-wall with enough force to go clean through. Kendo grunted as he shoved the remnant of the boulder off of him, kissing his teeth in annoyance: there was a gash right above his left eye, blood obscuring his vision. His body was suddenly yanked by the ankle out of the building, tossed back into the street.

"Arm-Enhance is my Quirk!" Tetsude bellowed, ramming his fist into Kendo's open stomach, the boy's lungs hacking up whatever air they had in them. "Just because you can throw a punch and you've got muscles, it doesn't mean shit!" Again, Tetsude easily grabbed Kendo by the neck, hoisting him up and cracking his knuckles across his jaw, sending him flying across the street. "Because I'm stronger than you!" Kendo quickly rolled to his feet, surprising Tetsude. 'He must have some kind of toughness quirk!' He thought, bringing his fists up in an aggressive, though inexperienced stance. 'It's no wonder he's able to stand up! But that kind of quirk won't last forever. I'll whale into him until he breaks!'

"You know," Kendo started, "I was kind of expecting a bit more from you. But you know what?" His bloody smile split his face as he lowered his center of gravity, arms held out at his sides. "I'll make it interesting for myself! Hit me with everything you've got! I'LL TAKE IT!"

'He definititely has a tough-quirk! But...' Tetsude charged forward, smirking with the feeling of having won the fight. 'Flesh is still flesh. My fists can break concrete, so I'll break YOU!'

…

"He's… really getting messed up in there," A pale-blonde girl said with a worried voice, idly biting her nail with surprisingly sharp, almost dragon-like canines. Aside from that, and her slit reptilian pupils, she looked like a normal human.

"I mean, yeah, he isn't even bothering to defend himself, the idiot," Yu spat, smirking as Tetsude landed another hook into his body. "Makes you wonder how he even got to the top in the first place."

"It's because he saved your sorry ass." Rumi said simply, loudly enough to make everyone wince and Yu fume. "Besides… Kendo is gonna win."

"How, exactly?" The boy to Rumi's right asked, though not in any kind of negative way. His voice and boyish face were rather… cute, all things considered. Combined with the messy, spiky white hair, he was sure to attract many female fans. "I'd like to consider myself pretty adept at martial arts and being able to analyse someone's fighting ability, but… that damage is really adding up. I'm not sure he'll be able to fight back too well with those kind of injuries. You seem to be pretty adept in a form of Taekwondo yourself, Usagiyama, so I'm sure you must have the same worries."

"Pretty simple actually," Rumi chuckled, leaning on the wall with her eyes glued to the screen. "First: Tetsude is strong, and can definitely lift more than Kendo, but that doesn't make him better. Second: compared to me and All Might… this is light work for him."

"He's fought All Might!? How!?" The draconic blonde asked.

"Oh, couple of months back, he lost though. But anyway, look closely." All of them turned to the screen and saw him take another punch to the face, his lip spitting. But nobody missed it: his eyes were wide open, watching every punch that landed. "He's taking them on purpose, because compared to a real fighter, this kind of damage from a muscle-bound dumbass ain't gonna do shit to him."

…

"RAAAAGH!" Tetsude roared, a wild uppercut cracking into Kendo's chest and blasting him into a wall. He was breathing heavily, his arms and fists sore from punching Kendo as much as he did. He had never expected the cocky hot-shot to last as long as he did without being knocked out. Hell, Tetsude had never been in a fight that had lasted any longer than thirty seconds, for a full three minute beating, he was almost exhausted. "How's… that!?" He shouted hoarsely.

'I hit him so many times with my quirk… that last one definitely shattered his ribs!' He thought, wiping the sweat from his face. His mind ground to a halt as Kendo casually stood up, wiping blood and dirt from his face, though the cut continued to bleed freely. He grunted as he popped and rolled his neck, stretching his spine out and spitting a gob of blood onto the floor. "J-just because you've got a toughness quirk doesn't mean you get to act like hot shit!" Tetsude shouted. At that, Kendo burst into laughter.

"You think I've got a toughness quirk? That's cute, but nah."

"Bullshit, I hit you clean at least a hundred times over the past three minutes!" Tetsude was starting to panic as Kendo scowled, walking towards him.

"Damn right you did. But… you ain't a fighter. You're stronger than me, sure, but you've never been in that many brawls, have you? The ones you did have were probably only a few seconds long cuz' you're too used to knocking inexperienced people out in one hit." Kendo suddenly moved, covering the distance between them as he dashed forward, and he was right in front of Tetsude. "You're stronger, but I'm just a better fighter than you!"

*BANG*

His head went flying back, his ears and brain ringing. "Fuckin' ironic, ain't it!?" Tetsude roared and tried to lash out with a wild hook, managing to land clean on Kendo's cheek. He just grinned savagely and blasted his knuckles into his side, Tetsude hunching over as agony spread into his lungs. "You got big muscles, but that doesn't make you a good fighter! The only reason why you're here is because of a bullshit Quirk!" Another punch cracked into Tetsude's jaw, fracturing it and sending his rolling across the floor. He barely managed to scramble to his feet to avoid Kendo stomping his head into the floor. "Compared to the raw force of the Zero-Pointer…" He put his guard up, only for Kendo to punch straight through it, his nose broken and bleeding. "Compared to All Might's power…" Tetsude screamed and threw his right fist forward with everything he had, pumping his quirk to its max to try and knock him out in a single surprise-attack. His knuckles shattered against Kendo's own punch, raw speed and power fuelled by his Quirk and momentum blasting his arm backward.

"Compared to Usagi's skill, you ain't shit! WRATH HELIX!" Kendo set his feet down as hard as he could and punched.

*BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG*

One hundred blows hit Tetsude on the span of three seconds, the weight of a sledgehammer combined with the speed of a gatling-gun riddling his body with damage and pain like he'd never felt before his eyes rolled into his head, his mind blacking out as Kendo abruptly stopped. His body fell face-first to the floor with a dull *THUD* as Kendo shoved his hands into his pockets. "You might be stronger," He said after a moment, "But this match of power goes to me."

To Be Continued...

A.N: So, it's my belief that Rappa isn't all that strong. Before you start hurling fire and pitchforks at me, let me explain. By strong, I mean literal lifting-strength: of course he's strong within his own right, being over six-foot and packed with muscle. However, while he might not have the same outright lifting-strength as someone with a direct strength-enhancing quirk, he's more than able to handle someone physically stronger than him, because he's just built for combat. I'm proud to say that I'm no slouch at Karate along with currently being a pretty good boxer myself, and with that comes the experience and knowledge that big muscles don't instantly make you a good fighter.

On the contrary, it's a bad thing unless your body is used to fighting at a high pace within a certain weight-class. More muscle means more oxygen is required, which in turn further saps stamina and speed as a fight progresses: this is of course unless you have a nutritionist who guides you on how to put on weight while maintaining fighting-efficiency. In short, Death-Arms is physically stronger than Rappa, but Rappa by far is the better and more experienced fighter.

Hope the explanation makes sense, and hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Peace!