"Next up, a match that has raised quite the interest. On one side, the undead from a world of zombies. On the other, the martial artists that fights to seek strength! Which of them will prove victorious and advance?!"
Huanli took a deep breath. Three more fights to win the Tournament. She entered the arena and looked at Zombie, who just nodded. Frankly, if Huanli had to judge purely based on who needed the win more, he won by a landslide. A way to take people to safety form his world plagued by zombies was a far more important cause.
But she still needed to win. Not because she wanted to, but because she needed to prove something. She needed to know she was the one in control, that she deserved to be Huanli Quanteng. Was it dumb to be so hellbent on it, at the cost of so much? Would her mother say she loved her anyway? Maybe, but Huanli wanted to prove to her she wasn't a mistake.
She was Huanli Quanteng, and she would prove herself.
The Announcer gave the go, and Huanli dashed forward. She knew how Zombie's power worked, and she knew that if she allowed him to change form the fight would be a lo trickier, so she opted to fill the gap between them before he could flip through the book.
Zombie's axe cut through the air. Blunted or not, the weapon could definitely split her jaw in half if it hit like that, but Huanli ducked back and activated the Shou Quan. The White Tiger Claws, her Qi weapons, cut through the air, slasing at Zombie's coat, and she followed it up with a headbutt reinforced with Qi. She felt bones crack as the ribs felt the blow, and when a knee came up she blocked it with both hands, before pushing it down and opening Zombie's defenses.
She grinned as she brought forward her fist, slamming it in the man's jaw, and then finished with a turn and a hit of her Qi tail. Zombie rolled back on the ground, and she pursued, not wanting to leave anything to chance. Her eyes were fixed on the free hand, waiting for the moment he would open the book.
Instead, he pulled out a second axe, charging her with both weapons, seemingly unconcerned with the certainly broken ribs he had suffered. She dodged the first swing of the new axe, then the second slammed in her side. She gritted her teeth, letting her Qi shield her from the worst of the damage, and focused on using he animal instincts to guide her body past the pair of axes. She slammed her foot down, and from that position switched again, this time into the Renlei Quan.
Time seemed to move at a slowed pace as her nerves hypercharged and she moved to attack. Four fists in a beat of her heart, the Chaopin Shuchen, slammed into her opponent's body, so fast a normal person would have never felt the difference between each hit.
Huanli felt good. She felt fantastic. She was winning, and by a good margin. She blocked an incoming axe… And then she realized something odd.
She had hit Zombie so many times, pushed him back further and further. So where was the book.
"Really putting me to the test today, Huanli." The man whispered, coughing out black blood that trickled slowly from his mouth, "Goo thing I came prepared."
She didn't know what he meant, but decided to not let him break her focus as she switched back into the Shou Quan, slamming a reinforced fist into the man's chest.
She hit fur.
Werewolf looked down at her, the transformation giving him a feral grin. "Good thing I knew you were ready."
He swung his right axe, and she moved back to dodge, but it had been a feint. Without even looking at it, he let go the weapon and used Huanli's precarious position to bring down his clawed hand.
But Huanli had her own set of tricks. She couldn't change her direction with any of her limbs, since the back was arched enough she couldn't pivot on her arms or legs. She could, however, pivot on something else. Her Qi tail pushed to the side so suddenly the lunging werewolf didn't manage to react in time, letting her turn to a better position and open the distance before she switched again.
He pursued at inhuman speed, and the follow up attack with the remaining axe did carve a pat on her belly, even if her Qi managed to stop it from drawing blood. She would have called it insanely dangerous, but after all she had seen this world's medicine cure, she could very well believe that it was just a friendly strike.
She slipped under the claws, kicking upward with her Horse Kick, the extended Qi structure sending the Werewolf's head back, but the monster didn't stop, snarling and grabbing her with her free hand.
Then she was slammed back down.
Again.
Again.
She gasped for air, but she didn't get the chance to breath before she fell to the ground again.
'Destroy, Eri.' Kai Chisaki whispered in her mind, and she growled as the Egui Quan, the Hungry Ghosts Fist, took over, the pain vanishing completely. When the werewolf made to slam her to the ground again, she instead bent her back, grabbed onto the arm, and twisted. She felt the satisfying crack of the bones dislocating, and the arm went limp long enough for her to slip out, before Werewolf forced it back into the socket.
"Good fight, Huanli, but you got distacted." He chastised her, the girl barely controlling herself through her mind, but then she realized her mistake.
She had let him grab the book.
He grinned, turned the page, and closed it.
Eri looked up at the Dragon he had turned into. Not as big as Izmird had been, but still similar enough. Pale green scales covered his body and as it strode forward she felt herself grown nauseous. This wasn't the same as Izmird, this was a dragon of ancient legends, a poisonous snake with limbs and wings, the incarnation of sin.
"You are not pulling your punches." She snarled, the Egui Quan pushed momentarily back by the smell of rot.
"I'm afraid I can't afford that, Huanli." Dragon replied, "Winning for me is a bit more important than it is for you."
Huanli jumped forward, ignoring the nauseous smell and the cloud of gas that spilled from the dragon's maw and nostrils, and tried to think as the beast brought down a large clawed hand to toss her aside. What could she do? She had… She had enough of her techniques, but none that would work here.
Unless…
'Use the Diyu Quan. Absorb his Qi and a dragon can die.' Chisaki whispered in her hear. The Diyu Quan, the Fist of Hell. Her natural form.
Eri's natural form.
She dodged the tail by jumping above it, but that proved a mistake when the tale snapped upward like a whip, sending her flying. She switched out of the Equi Quan into the Shou Quan and used her wings of Qi to change the trajectory of her landing, allowing her to land, breaking her fall with a roll that turned into a sprint just in time to dodge the hulking dragon dashing at her.
She slammed both fists into its flank, but the mass was just too different. She avoided a hit from the wing, suddenly opening to toss her away, but she had already lost if she didn't find a way to stop the dragon. She switched back into the Shou Quan. Whatever Chisaki suggested, she would do the opposite. She wasn't tapping into the Diyu Quan.
The Xuanwu Dun, Black Tortoise Shield, blocked an incoming attack of the claws, the shell of Qi holding against the natural weapon of the dragon… even if Huanli herself didn't, tossed back by the sheer size of the attack and forced to push herself back up.
'You can do it, Huanli.' Her master's voice said gently.
'Diyu Quan! Use it!' Chisaki shouted, Eri's master waiting, calling for her to destroy her opponent.
She grit her teeth and charged forward. She needed to win this. She had to…
The tail of the dragon slammed into her side. She rolled back, her Qi protecting her once again, but she was burning through a lot of it. Sooner or later, she would become too tired to tank a blow. She needed to recharge.
'Diyu-'
"I know!" She growled. She knew he was right, but she could feel it. She could feel the other side of her, the side that was Eri, the heir of All for One, waiting for her chance to have fun and let go.
She should have just let him win. The fight was one sided, and frankly He was dominating. He deserved that win…
Except that Huanli knew she could do more. She knew she would never be content with just letting this go. Worse, she knew Eri never would. With a growl and a grin on her face, she entered the territory of the Egui Quan again, and then went lower. The Fist of Hell, the Diyu Quan.
She slammed both hands into the dragon and started to absorb, to fill the hungry void at her core. The dragon's Qi, however, felt weird. There was darkness there. There was an abyss of black Qi, unlike any she had felt before. It slept under the Qi of Zombie, something deeper, malicious.
And when she stared into the abyss, the abyss stared back.
-x-
Huanli was in an empty void of darkness. There was no color, and yet the darkness wasn't a perfect one. It was a chaotic mass of black, but if one was pure absolute black, the one next to it was sheer incomprehensible black. Her mind tried to make sense of that but it couldn't. She could tell the difference into that darkness, and yet that same darkness was not different.
She emitted a ragged breath and stumbled back, though calling it stumble when her feet weren't touching the ground and she wasn't even sure of where up and down were didn't make sense, before a voice spoke.
"Oh my, what a peculiar situation." She looked toward the voice. It felt like that voice came from above, so she looked 'up', raising her head. However, what she saw instead was a man sitting on a chair, twisting and turning her world as her mind told her that meant he was 'down' and she was 'upside down'. She tried to turn herself around, but suddenly she was… raising? Falling? She was going 'up', if one was looking at her using the man as perspective, but down if she was the perspective.
She screamed and fell, and fell, and fell, until she landed… back in front of the mysterious man. She had somehow fallen down so much she eventually had fallen… up?
"Where am I?!"
"Ah, isn't that an excellent question to ask? I have so many of my own. Like, who are you? How did you reach my core? And what do you fear? But I suppose I might as well start by answering. I'm One Book for All Evil, my dear. Or, as dear Midoriya calls me, just The Book of Evil. And you are inside my core."
Huanli stumbled back again. This time, somehow, it felt like there was solid ground under her feet, though it was just pure darkness like the rest. But this looked like a different, unbroken darkness than the darkness that… She forced herself to look up, back at him. Back at the only hint of something beyond a dark void in this place. "The core?"
"The core of power. I am… Tell me, dear, would you say you believe in Gods?"
Huanli nodded. She had met a few in her journeys. She Who Bears Gifts, of course, was a Goddess of Power. Or perhaps a Goddess of Talents. Then there had been others.
In one Universe, she remembered a night around a campfire, a young man destined one day to become the God of Thieves that had sang a song for her on an instrument so beautiful the God of Poetry had accepted to take it once in exchange for a terrible crime he had committed. He had offered to steal for her all the stars in the sky and make a ring for her, if she gave her a single kiss in exchange. He could have, Huanli had realized, but instead she had kissed him on the cheek and told him she wasn't looking for love, just for another opponent. He had laughed, admitting he should have probably offered to give her every strong hero in the cosmos. The next day he was gone. He was also destined to become the God of Travellers, after all.
Another time, she had met a God of Strength in a Battleworld. He had laughed at her challenge, and promised her she would accept if her fist could so much and bruise his palm with one hit. She had punched with all her strength, but while her hand broke and bled, his didn't move. She had to admit defeat and walk away.
There had been more of course, like a God of Tides on an islands world, and a large beast called the Sky God. So yes, Huanli believed in Gods. Hard not to, in the multiverse. She said as much, and the man smiled. He had not features, Huanli realized, his face hidden in the shadow, and yet she could see him smile.
"Well, I am a God of Fear. Trapped forever in the core of the Book of Evil, I was forced to become the Book. Now we are one and the same, prison and prisoner, forever united into one as we – or I – pass from hand to hand."
Huanli nodded, "What do you want from me, though?"
"Nothing. You shouldn't be here. Only one person should be able to touch on my core, and that person is Izuku Midoriya. Ah, what a fine writer that young man is. He composed inside me the most tragic of tales. The death of a lover, the survival of an undying. What fantastic vision! If it wasn't a story about zombies, I would suggest he informs Clarkes World of a new piece for their interest. Alas, top of their list of hard sales is Zombies. A pity, really." He shook his head, "But tell me, how are you here?"
"I… I tried to absorb his Qi…"
"Ah!" He grinned, "Alas, that was a mistake. You see, Midoriya's Qi is, at least partially, the Qi of the Book of Evil. He is an extension of it… of me… of us… of One Book for All Evil. You tapped into his Qi, but you tapped into the book too."
Huanli stilled. She didn't know that was possible. Ideas sprouted in her mind. What would happen if she used the Diyu Quan on someone with One for All? Could she tap into the Vestiges' Realm? That was… "How do I leave?" She asked, suddenly focusing again.
"Good question. You touched my core, after all. That should mean you can stop." The God was deep in thought, shadowy head resting on shadowy fist, "Perhaps you could tell me about yourself." A piece of paper and a pen appeared out of the void, as if they had always been there. "Tell me, what is it you fear?"
"What?"
"I'm the Book of Evil, dear, but at my core I'm a collection of fears. Barbarism, isolation, greed, violence, death, being one of the mass… People call it evil, but it's just fear. They fear barbarism because it represents the lack of the social structure that defends us. They fear greed because it means what they have could be taken. They fear violence because it hurts. They fear death because it's an undeniable end. Fear is evil and evil is fear. So tell me. What do you fear?"
Huanli didn't realize when her hand started moving. Maybe it had the second she had been asked, and she had been focused on the words of the god for so long she had not noticed, but her hand was moving. She was pouring her innermost fears into the page, and she couldn't stop herself. It was intoxicating, like taking a breath after winning a match. Her heart sung as she revealed what she had kept hidden in the form of a story. When Zombie had explained his powers to them – at least what he was comfortable explaining – she had thought he had been dumb. How could he not realize what he was doing.
Now she could understand. Each word, each sentence, each paragraph gave her heart a freedom unlike any she could imagine. She felt the words pour out because she wanted her fears to be sealed away, to be taken by something or someone.
She told Eri's story. Not a story of monsters, but the story of a girl born with too much. She was born wrong, with a natural predisposition for the Diyu Quan. She told of how she was found out by the All for One, the martial artists organization that since ancient times had tried to take over the world with the ancient power of Qi. She told the story of the fights that the organization had with the sect of fighters that wielded Qi, and of how ultimately Itsuka Quanteng, last of her generation, won and defeated her opponent. She recounted the tale of her encounter with Kai Chisaki, a survivor that took orphans from various branches of the All for One and brought them together for an experiment. She told of the competition and the isolation. Of being forced to see violence as fun, power as intoxicating, death of others as something glorious to celebrate. She told of how Itsuka Quanteng had freed Eri and given her a home. Of how Huanli had come to be, her new name for her new life. She described Eri still lurking beneath the skin though. Was she waiting? What was she waiting for? She was watching, intently. She was ready to come out. Whenever Huanli tapped into the Diyu Quan, or even in the other techniques, the voice of her past Master came back. She wanted to prove herself, but she feared her. She feared Eri. She feared the monster. She-
She stilled.
What was she doing?
She looked down. Twenty pages rested before her, twenty long pages she had penned herself. She made to grab them, but they flew away, landing peacefully in the hands of the God of Fear. He parsed them at superhuman speed, back and forth, back and forth, his eyes zooming left and right as he did so.
"Yourself." He finally said when he read the last letter. "You, you fear yourself."
"I…"
"Delightful. Fascinating. Magnificent. Eri and Huanli, the Fear and the Scared, wrapped together into one single body. Which one is the real one? Is the violence your core? Or is it what you became past the violence?"
"I'm Huanli Quanteng…"
"You are, and yet you are not. Eri is still there, isn't she?"
"She won't leave." Huanli growled. 'Stop talking. Don't bring her up. I wrote, so let me go.' She wanted to say all that, but she wasn't sure she could. Not to the Book. Not to the God of Fear.
"She won't or she can't?" He asked.
"What?"
"She won't, or she can't? Isn't that the question? Is Eri there because she wants to be, or are you the one keeping Eri there?"
"I want her gone!"
"Do you?" He asked, a wide grin on his face, "Do you want Eri to leave, Huanli? Or are you afraid of what Huanli would be without her? She is the Violence, isn't she? You see Eri as the powerful one, don't you? You here your two masters, and what you feel from Kai Chisaki is that he taught you what power felt like. Itsuka gave you control. She gave you focus. She gave you rules. Chisaki gave you power though. So, so much power." He shook his head, "You are afraid, aren't you? What happens if I let Eri go? Am I letting go my strength? Am I letting go my power? Somewhere in your heart, you crave the fight. You crave Eri."
"I don't!"
"Then let her go." The deity shrugged, "Cast her out. You have the mental fortitude to do it, if you wish. Had it all along. The reason you didn't before is that you don't want to."
"Why are you saying this? You are a god of fear!"
"And fear is a desire for survival. You fear something because you want to survive. Only the living fear after all." He shook his head, "So do it, if you want. Cast her aside, become Huanli. Or are you scared of it?"
"Of course I am, I'm…"
"Terrified? I know. I can smell, your fear. It's intoxicating too. What a fantastic gift you are, Huanli. It's a pity you are leaving."
"I'm what?" She looked down, her legs vanishing slowly in the darkness that was enveloping them.
"Yes, it seems you are being called back to the real world. I hope you will heed my advice though, miss Quanteng. Live in fear of Eri, or cast her aside and survive as Huanli." He smiled, stood up and stepped forward. As he did, his whole body changed. Shorter, grey hair, red eyes. A cruel smile on her face, a vicious light in her eyes. Huanli stared at Eri as the girl that could have been – that might still be – put a hand on her cheek, brushing it gently.
"Will you make your choice, Huanli?" Eri asked, "Otherwise, I will have to make it for you." The touch on her cheek turned ice cold, like Eri was becoming one with the swirling darkness that was absorbing Huanli, her smile and eyes remaining even as her body faded. "And if I make the choice, you might not enjoy the result."
-x-
Huanli's eyes opened wide and she shot up, sitting, trembling. She was on a bed, she realized, in the infirmary.
"What…" She looked left and right, seeing Zombie sitting near her, on a chair. Izumi and Itsumi were also there, looking at her in surprise.
"You made us so scared!" They both shouted after a moment, Zombie sighing in relief.
"I… What happened?" She asked, still trembling.
"You attacked me and then collapsed." Zombie said, "No one was sure what happened at first, and we couldn't wake you up. Matter of fact, we couldn't even touch you. Anyone that did felt this ice cold feeling and started to lose their strength. In the end, they got a Reiko to carry you here by floating you." He seemed upset saying that name, even if Eri herself didn't remember anyone she had met having it.
"Ah." She said after a moment, "I lost then."
"Yes." Itsumi said, "I'm sorry."
"They declared it a loss by recoil." Izumi explained, "They assume whatever you tried to do exhausted your resources."
'It didn't, that was…' She sighed. Whatever it was, she had still lost. She should have known there were risks in attacking Zombie with the Diyu Quan. Magic interacting with magic was unpredictable, and she had just happened to trigger something she shouldn't have.
'Will you make your choice, Huanli?' Her mind recalled the voice – her voice – say, and her hand brushed her cheek where Eri's had, before she stilled.
It was cold, deathly cold.
-x-
Deku had wanted nothing more than to go check on Huanli, but Itsumi, who had been checking on him right before the match, had told him to not be an idiot. Izumi and Huanli would be taken to the same infirmary, and by the time Huanli woke up Izumi would have also been patched up and fully awake. She would have people keeping an eye on her.
He knew she was right, but he still worried. However, dropping out now, after all the trouble the League for All had already caused to this year's tournament, would be pretty catastrophic. He still needed to ask more fighters for their support and didn't want the JFO to think he was a nuisance. So, against his better judgment, he had remained in the changing room.
The entrance lighted up and he stepped forward, hearing vaguely Announcer making his introduction. He wondered what he had to say. With so many One for All users in the Tournament, that didn't make him special.
In fact, he was fighting one now, wasn't he? Ragdoll having One for All was a surprise, but combined with Search it would surely make her a tough opponent. And unlike him, she was already a trained fighter, so he couldn't hope on the recoil of her body to take her out. All he could hope for was that constant 100% was still too much for her. She had beaten All Might though, injured or not, so it wasn't that reassuring.
He touched the Gauntlets. He had one change left after this, according to the nanomachines' screen. He better not waste them.
"Are you ready Epsi?" Deku asked.
The girl on his wrist nodded. He looked at her. She had a focused expression, but she looked… off. Like she was fatigued. Deku had already tried to ask her what was wrong, but she kept insisting nothing was.
'I will ask Kiruka later. She should know.' He breathed in. 'Are you guys with me?'
"Sure are."
"Give 'em hell."
"Naturally."
"It's another step on the road to take down All for One. Take it."
Izuku smiled. The Vestiges were becoming more… physical, in a way. It had started a few days prior, when while he was working on Float's control. According to them, the more he trained his new Quirks, the more they became in sync.
"You are not ready for my Quirk." The Second said, "Yet. Don't use it."
Izuku nodded. That one could wait. If he couldn't win with six Quirks against one, he doubted that would make a difference. 'We are sure she hasn't unlocked the Vestiges, right?'
"It would be insane if she did this quickly." The Third, Teleport's wielder, said, "We know she didn't have One for All in the early rounds."
Right, because One for All the Quirk reacted to other versions of itself, so long as they were also Quirks. When they ha stumbled into Ragdoll before, they had never gotten a reaction, so that had to mean she had received One for All at most a few days earlier.
Izuku entered the Arena, and instantly, when he looked at Ragdoll, the ring of One for All recognizing itself was there. She definitely had the Quirk. In that case, they had to figure out how. They were probably going to also ask Haimawari now, but the two could have been from different people.
Ragdoll waved at him. "Let's have a good match!" She said with a smile. Izuku smiled back, then the fight begun.
Ragdoll activated her One for All, yellow lightning streaks rushing over her body as she stepped forward on all fours. The knives hidden in her claws came out, simulating the claws of a cat, but Danger Sense had given Izuku ample time to jump, use Float to stop in mid-air, propel himself forward, land behind Ragdoll, and kick.
She blocked his 45% kick by raising her own percentage, and then grabbed on his leg, trying to twist it. In response, Izuku spun, using Float in midair to follow the movement of the leg, then extended Blackwhip to try and grab onto her arms. She saw it coming however, and jumped back at high speed thanks to One for All, building enough distance Deku had to retract Blackwhip.
"Good job."
'Thanks.' Izuku said, replying to Nana's words, but this was hard. Having to constantly mix the multiple Quirks at his disposal was like trying to drive a car, a motorbike and an airplane at the same time and with a single controller: each required a different way to balance it, and Deku had to move each in sync to get the effect he wanted.
Tough, but he would manage. His training with Endeavor's Agency for Blackwhip was proving its value even more now. He dashed forward from mid-air, using Float to propel himself, and then slammed both feet in Ragdoll's arms. She blocked with One for All's enhancement again, but the gritted teeth proved she was still feeling it.
Just as much as he did when a second later she spun to the right of his dual kick, using the fact he was floating, and slammed a fist into his right side, forcing him to block with his arm. The Full Gauntlet rattled at the blow, but it held, though the impact reverberated in his bones.
Izuku extended Blackwhip, and she made to move out of dodge, but just as she did a white net shot out of Epsi, the bracelet encased in the right Gauntlet, and she stared at the spiderweb, confused. She had been focused on Blackwhip, and hadn't expected a different capture weapon.
Izuku pulled with all his might, but Ragdoll planted her feet and used One for All to fight the pull.
In response Deku just let himself be pulled by her instead, punching with his left at full power. Ragdoll blocked, but this time she was launched back by the sudden impact. When she stood up, her right arm was swollen, clearly damaged. 'So we are about the same.' Izuku thought. Good. If he was much stronger, it would have been better, but realistically Ragdoll's generation had to be after All Might's, if she had beaten him so handily.
Ragdoll dashed forward, fainting to the left, but Izuku knew it was coming thanks to Danger Sense and instead blocked with his right arm.
He felt a quick aching in it, but pushed the pain aside as he slammed his right foot's heel in Ragdoll's side, forcing her to stumble back. She attacked again, her claws extending out and rattling against his right arm's Full Gauntlet, before she kicked his right shoulder.
The arm fell, going completely still.
Izuku stared at it. Ragdoll grinned.
"That's your weak spot, isn't it?" She asked, rushing forward with a series of rapid hits. Izuku had only Danger Sense to thank if he didn't panic instantly and managed to dodge or block most.
'What did she do?!'
"Your right arm is the one you damaged over and over, right?" En said, "She must have a way to eat weak spots like that."
'Search…' Ragdoll's Quirk allowed her to identify the weaknesses of people she had seen, but Izuku had assumed that didn't apply to him because he lacked something truly debilitating. Against All Might, she likely had several injuries to exploit, but against him he hadn't expected something like this.
The muscles of his right arm ached, and his nerves stung whenever he moved it.
'Did she poison me?'
"Maybe." The Third said, "But more likely she attacked your nerves."
Izuku nodded, before a punch hit his face, Danger Sense calling his attention to it but the attack too fast to dodge. He raised his percentage of One for All, but it still hurt. He was still connected to Ragdoll by the spider web though, so even as he had his eyes closed he pulled it with his left arm, unbalancing his opponent and dragging her directly against his incoming left kick. The attack struck, the woman stumbling back as suddenly she found herself on the defensive.
From that stumble she switched a second later into a roundhouse kick, the tip of her shoe slamming in his shoulder. The right arm grew even more numb.
"Epsi…"
"I can tell your nerves are being compromised, Midoriya. Not permanently, but if she hits you a couple more times your arm won't work for at least an hour." Epsi replied, "I can't do anything about it though."
Izuku nodded, looking at Ragdoll and at the cord between them. The reason he had elected to use the web rather than Blackwhip was that it allowed him to not focus on one more Quirk.
"I'm gonna do it." He said.
"I'm ready." Epsi replied.
Deku breathed, and then he used Teleport.
For so long, Izuku had avoided the Third's Quirk like the plague, due to the obvious risk of using it and accidentally flinging himself into the Multiverse. But he needed to learn to control it. And he already knew he could use it, in a limited fashion, without flinging himself into the Multiverse.
So he did that. Ragdoll and Deku reappeared three meters to the left from where they had been, and five meters up from the ground, Ragdoll suddenly finding herself without footing, started to fall, while Izuku, thanks to Float, was able to charge in and attack.
He unleashed a fist charged with one-hundred percent of One for All, the Full Gauntlet shaking and breaking as it hit Ragdoll.
The woman was sent flying and fell to the ground, defeated.
-x-
'Didn't think he would have the balls to use Teleport.' Kiruka noted, 'But it was for the best. Confidence goes a long way. If I'm right, he already has the mental fortitude to control it.'
It was hard to gauge, because anyone could theoretically slip up, but Deku's control over One for All was growing stronger. If Kiruka was right, he was at the point where he would be able to control Teleport, or close to it. 'Just wish that didn't come with so many problems every time.'
It was always like this. Touching the Multiverse was like touching a delicate work of art and hope it didn't break apart in your hand. Kiruka had wondered if the League, the True League an whatever other organization existed out there was doing the wrong thing. Maybe the Multiverse was better left alone.
… Well, too late now. Too many organizations and people capable of traversing it, and someone had to be ready to help pick up the pieces of what they left behind. Frankly, out of everything they had to deal with, Deku's problems were barely notable.
She sighed. Man she was putting far too much thought into this. She was better off focusing on the True League's investigation. From Haimawari's questioning she had a decent idea of what the witch, a Kendo, looked like. Hopefully, once she woke up, Ragdoll would have something else.
"They are planning to attack here." She said.
"They are." The leader of the JTO, Rikiya Yotsubashi, said. "Too many moves in one single world. They are setting up the ground to strike. The question is when."
"You are not worried?"
"Maybe a bit, but I can't stop the Tournament. The show must go on, Kiruka, even if a battle might break out." He shrugged, "And we have enough defenses anyway. The True League makes a mistake if they plan to hit the Tournament, especially after they gave us two One for All. Let me handle this."
Kiruka knew she couldn't insist, but it still raised questions. Why had the True League been so obvious in their set-up? Was it because this was a distraction – and in that case, which of their bases was the real main objective – or because they wanted them to think this was a distraction? After all, the place was crawling with Midoriyas. Ideal hunting ground for them.
She didn't have an answer. But she definitely had a bad feeling about what was coming. Hopefully, Todoroki and Power Suit had figured out something. That was all she could hope for.
(XX)
Top 8 done with the arc I have been waiting for more than any others. Yes indeed, it's Huanli character introspection! Nothing like a good old conflict with yourself to drive home how hard you are having it, after all.
As for Deku, this was fun. Less alternating of fighting style, but more focus on him learning his new style by using his Quirks for different uses, plus adding into the mix Epsi. And finally he has used Teleport again, been a while since. We will see what Izuku's final style in this fic is, but he is probably gonna be just as mobile as canon.
Kiruka, Kiruka, you know the battle is coming. You better hope you are ready.