Chapter 9: Old Rivalry and New Costumes
Joey
The third day at U.A. started with Joey getting up and stretching before putting on his workout clothes and heading to the Gymnasium. Kasai-kun was already there, warming up on the punching bag. When the shorter boy saw him, he smiled and said, "Rematch time, Freeman-kun." Joey nodded and went to the mats in the gym. The two of them had first fought each other in their first year of middle school at the Japanese National Karate Championship. Joey had been the star of his school's karate club, and Kasai had been the same for his school. They had faced off against each other in the final round to determine the champion, and Kasai had won, but it was a close match, they had received a respectful silence from the onlookers who saw it; the equivalent of a standing ovation in a Western setting. The next year, they had faced each other again, and this time Joey barely scraped out a win.
They would have had a rematch the third year, but Kasai's grandfather had passed away unexpectedly. Kasai and his family were laying his grandfather to rest on the day of the tournament. This fight between them would be the best 2 out of 3 for them and their karate skills.
They stepped up to the mats and bowed to each other like they had in their previous fights and assumed their stances. They both looked at each other, looking for weaknesses and advantages. Joey was taller, stronger, but Kasai had trained since he could walk, was as fast and as powerful as a 120lb (54kg) person could be. And he wouldn't hold back against the only person to beat him in a match. The two teens stared each other down, waiting for the moment to strike.
Joey lightly moved his foot, and Kasai darted to him, aiming for a high kick to the head. Joey blocked the kick and tried to counter with a backfist, but Kasai dodged it and then went for a lower kick to his stomach. Joey blocked the kick and three follow up kicks before he performed a roundhouse kick at Kasai. Kasai was forced to jump back to dodge Joey's long leg, and Joey seized his chance. As soon as his leg was lowered, he jumped at Kasai. Kasai dodged Joey's fists as he threw them quickly but precisely, aiming for his head and body.
Kasai's speed was astounding, but Joey kept him on the defensive the entire time, moving as fast as he could move to maintain his momentum. After an entire minute of Joey throwing punches, he felt himself slow down, and Kasai seized his chance and dodged to Joey's side and landed a solid punch to his ribs. "Point," the shorter boy said as they stopped, both boys were sweating. "You're faster now," Joey said as they resumed their stances again.
This time they both darted forward, Joey with a low kick that Kasai jumped over and tried to counter with a punch, but Joey caught his fist before it could land and landed a quick elbow to his stomach that made him grunt in shock. "Point," Joey exclaimed as Kasai went to his knees. "Oh man…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard!" Joey said as he helped his rival up. Kasai smiled at him though, and said, "It's alright man. Accidents happen in fights, this ain't the first hit to the gut I've gotten. Just give me a minute."
Joey helped him to a bench and they both caught their breath. "You got better," Kasai remarked, "You didn't use a lot of elbows before." Joey shrugged, "I practiced a little more with my sister. She was trained in an American style, Shaolin Kenpo Karate, it's…messier than most Japanese styles, has moves from all kinds of martial arts. She encouraged me to be more willing to use my entire body, not just my fists and feet." Kasai nodded, and the two went back on the mats one more time. The two teens were covered in sweat and felt the bruises forming from where they were hit, this was the last round.
They both charged at each other with all the strength they had left, and immediately started trading blows, blocking and countering every strike and kick the other threw with all their skill. There was nothing in the world for them except their opponents and the desire to land the last strike and finish their rivalry once and for all. It was only for two minutes, but those two minutes felt like hours for them as their adrenaline surged and enhanced everything for them. Joey suddenly saw his chance as Kasai ducked under a chop, and he went for a kick to Joey's stomach. Joey dropped an elbow on Kasai's head at the same time as the smaller teen landed a hard kick to Joey's stomach, and they both fell from the hard blows.
"Damn…that was good…" Joey gasped as he rubbed his stomach. "It's a good thing I got my Mom's hard head, or I'd be knocked out," Kasai grunted as he got up and helped Joey up. "I guess this is a draw," Joey remarked. That was when they heard cheers and saw several of their classmates had entered the gym and were cheering for them. "Man, that was awesome!" Jougo exclaimed. "Definitely," Jorogumo-kun said as he walked over on his six legs, "You guys were moving like something out of a shonen anime!" Joey saw Mine-san was there, in a sports bra and tight yoga pants that left little to the imagination, smiling at them as she said, "I love watching two guys going at it."
"Calm down, Mine-chan," Rukia said, then told Joey and Kasai, "You guys should hurry if you want to be ready for class." Joey saw the time and nodded and headed to his dorm to shower and get dressed in his uniform. After getting ready he headed for the Dorm's kitchen and quickly made a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, and orange juice. "So," Eri said as she sat next to him at the table, "I heard you and Kasai fought in the gym. Did you settle things?"
Joey shook his head before swallowing, "Nope. It was a draw. Like I said before; that guy is as fast as lightning and hits just as hard. Man, my arms are sore from blocking all his strikes. And my stomach…I'm pretty sure I have a giant footprint shaped bruise on my gut." The horned girl looked concerned and asked him, "Do you want me to heal you? I can ease any pain in a second." Joey shook his head, "No, that'll also rewind my muscles, and prevent me from getting stronger. Don't worry, Eri-chan, I've been through worse."
Eri nodded, and Joey remembered years ago when they were kids and had been kidnapped by the League of Villains, or the 'Paranormal Liberation Front' as they called themselves then. To make sure Eri wouldn't run away they had taken him too to be a hostage, and his parents' murderer, Pyromaniac, had almost beaten Joey to death to make their point. He would have died if Eri hadn't used her Quirk to save him.
The students finished breakfast and headed to class. Shinso-sensei was already there and once the students were all assembled, he pulled out a remote and pressed a button. The walls of the classroom opened up and robotic arms carrying briefcases came out and Shinso-sensei said, "Alright students, we're going to be doing combat training today, and to help supervise your lesson, we'll have a special guest." That was when everyone heard a loud, "PPPPPOOOOOOOWWWWWWWEEEEEERRRRRRRR!" And a large man with blonde hair and blue eyes, and a white shirt and boots with blue pants and a red cape popped out of the floor. "It's LEMILLION!" almost everyone yelled when they saw him.
It was indeed Togata Mirio, aka Lemillion, the Number Two ranked Hero in Japan! "Hey guys! I popped by because I thought it would be exciting to see the next generation and what they can do!" Lemillion cheerily said, and then Eri jumped out of her desk and ran to him, "Mirio-nii-san!" She wrapped him in a hug and Lemillion laughed, "Eri-chan! Wow! You've really grown up!" He smiled and lifted her up like a child nonetheless, and she said, "I'm going to surprise you today, Mirio-nii-san!" Eri happily said. "Ahem," Shinso-sensei cleared his throat, "As nice as this is, we have a class to do. Save it for after it's over, Aizawa-chan, Lemillion-senpai." Eri blushed and Lemillion laughed, "Whatever you say, Sensei." Eri was blushing, but smiling as she retrieved her briefcase, and soon all the students headed to their locker rooms to get changed into their Hero Costumes.
When they were in the locker rooms, Joey went to his locker and changed into his outfit. He chose a practical outfit that was like his late father's, a vest and pants, but his was different. Taking inspiration from his mother's homeland of India, Joey wore an open white vest with black and silver floral patterns on the edges of his vest, and a simple white dhoti, the traditional Indian male garments that were folded into a pattern like trousers that ended just under his knees. "You look Indian in that," Nekoto-san said, the catboy's own costume was a bright green sleeveless leotard and shoes. "My mother was from India. I wanted to honor her heritage with my costume," Joey told him as he finished his outfit with simple sandals that he could slip off and store in his vest when needed.
Joey looked around at the other boys, all of them had varied costumes. Jougo was dressed like a western knight in shining armor complete with sword and shield, and a sliding panel in his armor's abdomen to let his Quirk out. Kurosawa was dressed in a dark red suit that covered his body with a white mask, belt, boots, and cape and a symbol of eight white arrows pointing in all directions on his chest. Joey noted that his boots were steel toed from the sounds they made as he walked, and his gloves looked very thick. Daiji-san was dressed in the black robes of a Buddhist priest, except that he wore a white shawl over the robes with the word 'Asura' on the white shawl in Japanese.
Jorogumo-san was dressed in an all-black suit with white web designs all over it, making him look like a large spider that got stuck in his web. Awata-san on the other hand was dressed in a white and blue sleeveless shirt with an open neck and white gloves and pants with blue boots and a clear helmet similar to what Bubble Girl wore. Kasai was dressed in a black and red gi with flame designs on it and boots, with white wings on his back and wore a golden headband that had the word, 'Archangel' in Japanese on his head. Toyota-san was dressed in a skintight yellow leather suit with matching helmet that had electric blue lightning bolts on the sleeves, legs, and sides of his helmet.
Kota was dressed in a green and yellow outfit that looked like tights with a yellow life vest and gloves and green helmet, and red boots. And the last boy Joey saw in the locker room was Mori-san, dressed in an outfit that looked like a robe made of green leaves with curl toed brown shoes on his feet. "Is everyone ready?" Daiji-san asked, and the guys all said, "Ready!" The boys left their locker room and Shinso-sensei was waiting for them. "Alright, now we need to wait for the girls, and we'll be ready to go," he said.
"We're right here!" Mine-san said, and all eyes were drawn to the nine girls as they walked down the hall. Mine-san stole everyone's eyes, she was dressed in a dark green corset that showed off her cleavage and thigh high black boots and long fingerless opera gloves, small batwings were showing from her back and her eyes were covered in a black domino mask. She strutted towards everyone, and Joey was temporarily overwhelmed by the smell of the other boys' hormones going off. Rukia was following her closely, dressed in what looked like a black wetsuit with short sleeves and pants and some simple shoes. Behind her was Asui Satsuki, her hair in a braid and wearing a costume that resembled Froppy's, except that it was all black with bright green spots on it and her gloves didn't cover her palms.
Signora Pellegrini was next, dressed in what looked like a kind of ancient Greek armor complete with a shield and spear like was worn in ancient times. Next was Gomu-chan, dressed in a blue and yellow rubber outfit that looked like a cross between armor and a tracksuit. Hikari-san was next, dressed in a bright green and black tracksuit with a red cape, surprisingly the black parts of the costume were lighter than her skin. Takota-san was after her, dressed in purple overalls and a black shirt and boots, the only sign it was a costume was the symbols for 'Octogal' on her chest. Kuroda-san followed behind her, dressed in the white kimono of a traditional Japanese ghost and her long hair covering her face, making several of the boys uneasy.
Joey looked around and asked, "Where's Eri?"
"I'm coming!" Eri called from behind the girls, and everyone looked over to her. Eri was running towards them, dressed in a green yukata kimono that was lifted up around her legs to show her legs were in blue leggings and practical sandals on her sock covered feet, and a red headband was on her head that had a decorative golden horn to match her natural one on the right side of her head. She was also carrying a naginata, looking like she knew how to use it. "Sorry it took longer than I thought to get dressed," Eri said as she ran up. "More like because you didn't want to undress in front of everyone," Hikari-san muttered. Eri's overall getup made her look almost like a Japanese warrior princess.
"Alright then, now that everyone is here, let's go," Shinso-sensei announced, and led them to Grounds B. Inside the Grounds was what looked like a small section of a city, and waiting for them inside was Lemillion, holding two boxes. "Alright everybody," Lemillion said, "Everyone step up and pick a ball out of one of these boxes to determine if you'll be acting as a Hero or Villain for the Battle Trial. It'll also determine who you'll be teamed up with. Step on up!" Everyone stepped up and pulled out a ball, the balls were green and labelled with H for Hero or V for Villain plus a number. "Everyone that has a matching number is going to be together for the Trial, Heroes team up of course and same with Villains," Shinso-sensei explained.
Joey had drawn a Villain ball and was teamed up with Awata Kenji. "We're number 5," Awata-san said. "Then we'll be fighting," Kurosawa stated as he walked up with Kasai. "We'll be doing this in Numerical Order," Shinso-sensei said as everyone grouped up, "The Ones will go first, and the Fives will go last. Everyone else will come with me to the Observation Room to watch." Joey looked around and mentally noted the matches:
First would be Takota and Izumi as Villains vs Kuroda and Toyota as Heroes.
Second would be Jorogumo and Jougo as Villains vs Daiji and Pellegrini as Heroes.
Third would be Nekoto and Gomu as Villains vs Hikari and Mori as Heroes.
Fourth would be Asui and Mine as Villains vs Eri and Rukia as Heroes.
And finally, it would be him and Awata as Villains vs Kurosawa and Kasai.
Joey had numerous plans going through his head as he headed to the Observation Room with Lemillion while Shinso-sensei told Takota, Izumi, Kuroda and Toyota where they had to go to start the test. Once everyone not currently participating in the Battle Test was in the Observation Room and watching the teams through a wall of screens. Shinso-sensei walked up to a mic and his voice resounded through loudspeakers, "You have five minutes to plan your strategies. Then the Battle Trial begins. Remember, you're not really fighting each other, so pull your punches. The Villains win if they can avoid being captured when time runs out or if they capture the Heroes, while the Heroes win by capturing the weapon or the Villains before time runs out."
Everyone noted this, and as they waited the five minutes before the Battle Trial began, Joey looked over to Eri. She looked…stunning in her Hero Costume, like someone who deserved to be painted. Eri caught him looking and asked him, "Who do you think will win?" Joey needed a moment to think before he answered, "I think Kuroda and Toyota might win, they have good Quirks, but I could be wrong. Dad always told me it's not your Quirk that matters, its how you use it." Eri nodded and then asked, "What about me and Rukia? Think we'll win?" Joey smiled and said, "Definitely." Eri smiled back at him, and Joey felt his heart beat a little faster, then focused as Shinso-sensei announced, "BEGIN!"
