My Hero Academia - Under Pressure - Season 2 - Chapter 10 - End Of Round 1
"Alright then, shall we head into the final matches?" asked Projection from her booth.
The UA Sports Festival crowd roared in answer to her question. They had already seen some great matches, the only question was, what would the next ones give? With six matches in the books, there was only two left, and each had a different flavor to them based on who was there.
"Ok, then let's go! Our next matchup features the final students from Class 1-B! First up we have the mover and shaker of earth, Sanda HIdeaki!"
Sanda was in one of the entrance areas when his name was called. He took a deep breath and calmed himself before stepping out. He did his best to keep a straight face despite the fact that his mind was racing.
"And his opponent, a lady who always gums up the works in battle, Ebirima Koge!"
In the opposite tunnel, Ebirima was also doing her best to go and calm herself down before walking out. She had gotten some encouragement from Kuroda and Tonen before they departed to the nurse station alongside Eri. But even with their words, her nerves were nearly overloaded.
"You got this," she said to herself. "You trained for this, you have a plan...make it work!"
She used her hands to slap her face and get her adrenaline pumping. As she felt it pour through her system she went out, and did her best to smile for the crowd.
"This is going to be an interesting one folks!" noted Projection as she watched the students go onto the field. "Sanda Hideaki is able to move any ground he touches. Ebirima has literal bubble gum in her system and can cause some...heh...sticky situations. So who will get the advantage first? Let's find out...now!"
She sounded a horn via her Quirk, and the match started.
"Don't hold back on me, Sanda!" called out Ebirima as she readied her stance. "I want to push myself, and I promise to give you that same courtesy."
"I appreciate that, Ebririma," replied Sanda with a small bow of his body. "And I promise not to hold back. Though in truth, I was going to do that anyway because it honestly would've been disrespectful to hold back with everyone watching and-"
Seeing her opening in his run-on talk, Ebririma fired a strand of her gum right at his face. Snapping to, Sanda stomped on the ground and raised a barrier of earth to stop the shot and protect him.
He lowered it and looked her displeased, "That wasn't nice!"
"I can't help it that you're monologuing after the match starts! And I told you I wouldn't hold back!" she pointed out before shooting some more strands at him.
Sanda again raised an earth barrier to protect himself, and then went on the offensive against Ebirima. He felt he shouldn't push things since they were both fresh, so he fired off some chunks of rock from the barrier right at her.
At first, Ebirima just went and dodged the shots, but then an idea came to mind, "Oh, that could work!"
She waited for a big chunk of rock to be launched at her, and when Sanda obliged, she dodged under it, shot two big strands of her gum at it as it whizzed by, and then when it started to reverse in momentum she launched it at his protective barrier.
Sanda only just ducked in time as the huge rock collided and sent debris everywhere.
A thin veil covered part of the field, Sanda couldn't see much, but because the earth was all around him in dust form, he was able to clear it up easily so he could get visibility back.
"Surprise!" shouted Ebririma
He looked up and saw she had somehow jumped high into the air, "Uh-oh, I think I know what's coming..."
Ebirima weaved her hands around in a unique way, gum supply growing as she did, and then when ready, she reared back and launched something at Sanda, "Bubble Gum Web!"
Sure enough, after being thrown, the collection of gum expanded into a very web-shaped entity that rushed towards him.
Sanda knew that he couldn't escape its reach in time, so he again raised a barrier, this time though, it wasn't round, it was spiked in many places. The intent of this defense was made clear to the audience very quickly.
As when the web hit, it wasn't able to completely cover the barrier. It got caught on the spikes, leaving gaps. Ones that Sanda used to his own advantage. For after the web hit, he dropped the barrier on one side and then launched himself through the gap to get to a clear part of the arena.
He dusted himself off and looked at his classmate, "You've gotten better with that technique!"
She gave an appreciative nod, "Thanks! I knew it would come in handy in one-on-one scenarios. That was a great counter though, I wouldn't have thought of that."
"If I went flat, it would've covered me completely and likely would've been stuck. Couldn't have that."
"Well...you may not have a choice in the matter...look behind you."
Hesitantly, he turned around, and it was then that the scope of what had just happened hit him. The web was still there, and it truly was huge, as it was sticking to much of the battlefield, and even some of the outsides of it.
"How's that for a sticky situation, folks?" commented Projection impressed with the outcome. "Ebirima just cut the battlefield basically in half! Sanda still has room to move, but a few more of those webs and that won't exactly be accurate!"
"Go get'em, lass!" called out Fenella in the stands, overjoyed that her friend was doing so well. "You can totally win this."
"That was never in doubt," Doza pointed out a few seats away. "Her bubble gum is very versatile. But, so is Sanda's earth-moving Quirk. He's not out of this yet."
"Since when were you and him good friends?"
"Since we trained together. He helped me refine my technique a bit, and I helped him with some strategies as well. I'm not rooting against Ebirima to be clear, I'm just saying Sanda can still take this. Clear?"
"Indeed. Let the best...friend...win."
The two looked at one another and nodded before shouting at the same time, "Go get'em!"
Back on the field, Sanda was amused by his new situation, but not fazed, "That's pretty cool, Ebirima, but while you may have trapped me, the same can be said of you. You now have less room to dodge my attacks...and I think you'll find that it's hard to do when everything is going seismic!"
With a roar, he slammed his foot onto the field, and when he did, it seemed to go from a solid to a liquid. Because it started to bend like water and a ripple effect started to rise and lower the ground.
Ebririma was caught up in this, and wasn't sure what do to as her once stable footing was now lost in a rather warping situation.
Sanda took advantage of her station and was able to raise up one of the "waves" of earth and literally kick it at her. She tried to jump over it but was caught and it carried her right towards the edge of the arena before flinging her off.
The crowd gasped as they were sure that she was a goner, and for a moment, Ebririma thought that too. But she recalled her training with Fenella, Kuroda, Eri, and even Tonen, and knew that she had options if she reacted fast.
She spun herself to face the fast approaching ground, and launched a pair of strands at it. But in a twist, she threw the other ends in a crossing patterns so that they would touch the tops of the nearby walls. Aiming herself carefully, she used her exposed arms to grab the crossed strands, and then used their momentum to fling her back towards the battlefield...and stick the landing.
The crowd paused for a moment, then erupted in cheers at her move. Fenella in the stands had to take some deep breaths after that stunt. Even Ebirima was relieved it work.
Sanda meanwhile was still not sure what happened, "So uh...that happened."
"Almost didn't," she admitted with an exasperated laugh, "only my body and my hero outfit aren't affected by my gum. So I had to grab it carefully...else I would've had a bit of an issue being stuck myself. Anyway, your technique was just as awesome. Did you seriously change the state of the ground?"
"That's one way of putting it. Certainly took you off guard at least. So...shall we continue?"
"Yeah, let's go!"
With a nod to the other the match raged on. Both Sanda and Ebirima gave their all as they tried to figure out how to stop the other. For Sanda, he tried to keep her from firing off too much gum as he knew that if she caught him, he would likely be done. As for Ebirima, she did her best to stay on top of Sanda and his variety of attacks. Including when he tried his "fluidity" strike again.
This time though she would "ride the waves" and then used her strands to get closer to Sanda without having a close call like before.
Both of them got good shots on the other. Sanda even had to ditch the top part of his uniform because of gum catching on it and sticking him to the ground. Thankfully he had an undershirt and thus was able to escape easily.
Knowing that he had to go big to end this, Sanda put both hands on the ground as Ebirima prepared another bubble gum web. With another roar, he flung his hands upward and various spikes shot up from the ground and raced towards her. She fired her web and used her hands to bounce into the air above them. But that left her vulnerable, as Sanda wanted.
As she fell back to the ground, he got the spikes to shift and form a rock barrier around her, to which he safely brought to the ground, rolled over to the edge of the arena, and had the earth jettison her out right onto the ground. Ending the fight.
While stunned at first, Projection sounded the horn to signal Sanda's victory, and the crowd cheered for him, "Wow, that was a lot more intense than I suspected it would be! But with a very clever use of Earth, Sanda Hideaki was able to trap Ebirima and then easily get a ringout afterward. It'll be interesting to see him in the second round! But Ebriima Koge did fantastic as well, give her a hand folks!"
As the crowd cheered for her, Sanda went out onto the ground and helped her up, "Sorry about the shooting out, had to make sure you hit before you had your gum do anything. Not that I was sure what you could've done but in all honesty you were already doing things that I-"
"Sanda!" Ebirima cried out to get him to stop, "It's ok, I appreciate you taking me serious enough to do that."
"I took you seriously the moment you told me not to hold back."
"...well thank you. And good job on your victory. You're going to be hard to beat next round."
"Eh, we'll see."
As they smiled to one another, Project tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention, "Yeah...so...those two really destroyed the field...and covered it in gum. So we'll need a few minutes to get it right for the final match of the round!"
"Shall we head to the nurse's station?" suggested Ebirima with a point. "I could use a check-up."
"Yeah, and I need a new gym top since my is currently stuck to the arena floor," answered Sanda with a point of his own.
"Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it. Come on, we can talk to the others while we heal up."
They left and went through the same entrance. In the stands, Class 1-B was still winding down from that match.
"I feel bad for the lass," said Fennella with a sigh. "She was trying REALLY hard to learn some new tricks for an event like this. I'm sad she didn't make it to at least the second round."
Hana was next to her and gave her a consoling touch on the shoulder, "You're thinking about it all wrong, Fenella. Ebirima went and made it to the final sixteen. Plus, that match absolutely showed how strong she was and how much she understands her Quirk. She'll get an internship with a Pro-Hero, no doubt."
"Thanks...Shifty."
She snickered and Hana rolled her eyes, "It's bad enough I left Tonen call me that, but I swear you do it to tease me endlessly."
"You know me so well."
"We'll tell you what WE know!" piped up the Twins. "No matter what happens next match, all but one of the people next round are in Class 1-B!"
The others paused and looked at one another and realized that this was indeed the truth. Ikaim went over the matches in his head as he counted the finalists out, "Yeah, they're right. We got lucky with the placements. None of the 1-A students had to fight one another, which left most of them for us."
"Save for this last match," said Kanagita softly.
"Anyone else get a read on that last 1-A student?" asked Azujima with a glance at the others.
"What do you mean?" asked Doza.
"Well...he was one of the first to finish the relay race, but I don't remember him on the field of play at all. And then in the tag-team round, Goya was almost...protecting him. Does anyone know his Quirk?"
One by one they all shook their heads, Anno was sitting in the back of their group and thought hard about this, "Class 1-A has been very distant with us as a whole. Something about a request from their teacher. But the few things I did hear...were troubling."
"More troubling than them being able to fire a freaking laser?" wondered Ikaim.
"Don't remind me about that..." begged Kanagita with a shiver.
Anno cleared his throat to get their focus once more, "There's something about this next guy that freaks out much of the other class. So whatever his Quirk is...it's powerful."
This very much put a damper on their mood, because if they didn't know what this final student could do, they had no idea how any of their classmates would be able to handle it in the next set of rounds.
Pulling them out of their state was another tap of a microphone, "Ok, The Tinker has gotten everything back to normal, so the final match of round 1 can begin!"
The crowd cheered as they were eager for more fights.
"Glad you're excited! Because this match is going to be something special, I promise. First up, we have our sole advancer from the Support Class of students, the bomb maker himself, Hagiken Tokuhei!"
Hagiken approached the battlefield, bombs adorned all over his body, a familiar snicker coming from him.
"And finally, and appropriately the final member of Class 1-A, we have the enigmatic Kazekuwa Norihisa!"
From the other entrance came the emo-style teen from before. His expression was like stone, it bore no emotion on it at all. If anything, one could argue that he didn't want to be there, but for what reason...was not clear. Nor was it made clear once he faced his opponent.
"Alright boys, let's end this round in style! Let the final match, begin!"
She sounded the horn, and without skipping a beat, Hagiken whipped out his bombs and threw them all over the field, including several in the area where Kazekuwa was positioned. He didn't try and avoid them as they landed.
A cackle came from him as the bombs all sounded off ready to explode, "Tick...tick...tick...BOOM!"
On cue, the bombs exploded. All shapes, all sizes, various types of intensities let loose on the field. To the extent that a thick black billow of smoke arose. Covering half the field at first, then all of it.
"Talk about starting the match with a bang!" proclaimed Projection in the booth as she tried to figure out what was going through the smoke. "I can't tell if that attack hit or not...oh wait...the smoke's clearing...what in the world?"
The crowd matched her confusion soon enough. Because as the smoke dissipated, Haigken was knocked out on the ground, and standing above him, not a scratch, burn, blast, or any kind of damage upon him or his clothes, was Kazekuwa.
He didn't boast about his victory though, he just sighed heavily and walked off the battlefield, leaving everyone watching there and at home in deep shock.
"Uh...uh...yeah... I guess we have a winner! Though I'm not sure how, Kazekuwa Norihisa was able to avoid all the explosions and knocked out his opponent! He is the final entrant in the second round!"
Though still stunned at first, the crowd eventually came to and cheered for him, but even this didn't stir him from his emo-mood.
Some of the few that weren't cheering were Class 1-B. Because they had no clue what he did to avoid those massive explosions.
In the nurse's station, Tonen, Eri, Kuroda, Oshibu, Sanda, and Ebirima all watched in shock at what just occurred.
"Guys...?" put out Ebirima, struggling for words, "What just happened?"
"Not even I won my match that fast," said Oshibu in disbelief.
"How did he survive those blasts?" asked Kuroda. "The bombs were all around him, and we know they went off, all of them."
"It's not just that," interjected Eri with a stern look on her face. "He didn't just avoid damage, not even his clothes were singed. It would've been easy to say he was invulnerable if his clothes showed damage but he didn't, but that's not what we see. He was completely untouched."
"So...we're thinking superspeed?" suggested Tonen.
Oshibu made a thinking noise, and the others turned to see him shaking his head, "If he had superspeed, why didn't he just rush ahead before the bombs were even blown up? He LET them explode and then attacked AFTER the smoke filled up the arena. He wanted to hide his Quirk, for as long as possible."
"Which is bad for me..." lamented Sanda, hanging his head as he realized he would face Kazekuwa next.
"It's ok, Sanda!" consoled Kuroda with a look, "Your Quirk is powerful too, and if you don't let him get close to you...you're good."
"I guess."
"Quake's at a loss for words, that's rare," joked Tonen with a playful smile to them all.
"Eh, first time for everything."
"Speaking of which..." started Eri, with a serious look to Tonen, "are you ready for who you face next?"
Tonen looked at the TV and the updated brackets, and as he and Kuroda noted before the matches began, he was going to get his chance to face Chuya. One of two who abandoned him when he was kidnapped by The Deck.
He did his best to not show his excitement and fury to his friends, "Yeah, I'm ready."
Kuroda got his attention and looked at him with confidence and pride, "You take of her, I'll take care of Goya, and we'll have a fun match in the semifinals. Got it?"
"You got it, K-Rep."
They gave a nod to one another, then Tonen left the room and headed for the entrance.
The field fixed once more from the explosions, Projection tapped her microphone for the big introduction of round 2.
"Alright everyone, here we go!" she said, face beaming with excitement. "Round 1 had some absolutely INCREDIBLE fights! And as we get into the advancing rounds you KNOW it's only going to get more intense. There are 7 Class 1-B students, and one from Class 1-A left..."
"As if that matters," said Class 1-A head teacher Maruzumi Utagai with a very sly grin, "my ace is in play, nothing can stop him."
"...but what these students will bring in this next set of bouts is completely up to them! The eyes of the Pro-Heroes of our country, and even the world, are upon them. Who will shine? Who will go Plus Ultra? Who will win? Shall we find out?"
She motioned to the crowd and they happily exploded in cheers and praises.
Projection fed off of this, "Excellent! Because this first match has all the makings of a classic. First up, the master of air pressure, Tonen Keitomo!"
Tonen walked out to the arena, but this time, his expression was one of pure focus.
"Oooohhh...he looks ready for battle! Which is good, because his opponent is the true 'lady of water', Chuya Taki!"
From the opposite end, Chuya walked out, and like Tonen before her, the expression on her face was one of determination. She was ready to fight.
As the two squared off on opposite sides of the battlefield, the tension could be felt as it rose higher and higher.
Projection even fanned herself off in the booth as it "reached her", "Is it hot in here, or is it just the intensity coming off of these two? We'll find out as the match...begins!"
*credits*
