Chapter 19 - Tournament - Round 3 - Semi-Finals
Izuku felt his cheek, wiping off trace amounts of saliva, as his body stopped glowing. His arms and legs felt much better than they had moments ago. He gave the tiny form of Recovery Girl an embarrassed smile. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, Midoriya-san," Chiyo said warmly to the young boy. "I am glad to see your control over your Quirk is improving. Those injuries were less severe than the two previous times you pushed your limits today. Your training and hard work is paying off."
Still embarrassed, Izuku rubbed the back of his head and was unwilling to look the elderly Pro-Hero in the eyes. "Yeah, it's been a big help. But Haruno-san's advice helped me, too."
"Oh?" Chiyo asked, curious about this news. She had yet to hear that she had given him any training. "How did she help?"
"I was trying to increase how much of my Quirk I used in my limbs for brief periods, hoping that the shorter duration would reduce the damage, and she told me to instead focus on the point of impact. That was what I did at the end of the fight, and it worked! But I hit the wrong Sakura..."
Chiyo nodded, smiling at her charge. She would have spoken further, but they were interrupted as the door opened and Toshinori entered.
"All–" Izuku halted himself as his eyes momentarily glanced at Recovery Girl, unsure how much he could say. He already knew his sensei had his secret revealed to others in his class recently, but he wasn't sure how Recovery Girl factored into things. Or if he was 'supposed' to know that this was All Might. "Err, Yagi-san, why are you here?"
Toshinori and Chiyo chuckled at his nervousness but were happy with his discretion. "It's okay, Young Midoriya. Shuzenji-sensei knows I am All Might and is one of the few who know I gave you my Quirk."
Izuku's eyes widened as he turned to look at her before embarrassment took over, and a slight yet happy grin formed. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know…"
"It's okay, boy," Chiyo said warmly. "And it is important to be cautious with such delicate secrets."
Izuku nodded before looking back at his hero and remembering his failure. "I… I'm sorry, All Might... I lost," Izuku said, his head tilting downwards in shame.
Toshinori sighed, having hoped he could have gone farther, but he also knew what his successor was facing. Unlike him, his body couldn't handle the full strength of his Quirk yet. "It's okay, Young Midoriya. We did know you would be facing an uphill battle against some of your classmates."
Chiyo snorted as she grabbed the jar of candies from nearby, shaking a few out before turning back to the two males, both of whom were staring at her with a bit of confusion. "Hold out your hand," Chiyo commanded, with Izuku responding, and she set the colored bears in his hands. "That should get your energy back. Try to let your body relax for an hour or two before you push it much more. This is your third visit today, after all."
"Ummm, right," Izuku said, confirming her instructions, though he was still confused by her small outburst. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, dear. You should head back to be with your classmates," Chiyo said, backing away to let him stand up from the bed.
Izuku almost started walking towards the doorway but decided he still needed to finish apologizing. "I'm sorry for failing you, All Might."
Toshinori was prepared to respond, unsure if he should tell him not to worry about it or explain how it was his own failure, but was beaten to it by Chiyo.
"Midoriya-san, do you think you would have won even if you were not limited on how much of your Quirk you can use at this time?" Chiyo asked, looking the young Hero in the eyes steadily.
Izuku was surprised by the question. He was about to answer that if he hadn't been such a failure, he should have been, but he couldn't voice it. And neither could Toshinori, who was also surprised.
"While having the strength of your Quirk would have evened the playing field significantly, do not presume you would win automatically," Chiyo said.
Izuku paused before closing his mouth and nodding at her. "Right. I can't just assume I'll win every fight just because of my Quirk. Thank you, Recovery Girl," Izuku said before bowing to her. After receiving a nod of approval, he walked out of the infirmary.
Toshinori blinked as he watched his successor walk out before he noticed Chiyo sitting in her office chair and waiting for her next patient. "Are you saying that Haruno-san would have won, even if Young Midoriya wasn't at risk of injuring himself from using One for All?"
Chiyo looked him in the eyes, telling him she was serious when she answered him. "Most likely, yes."
At that time, Toshinori was a bit lost for words, unsure if he should believe her. Not because he felt she would lie but because he knew just how powerful his Quirk was. "Why are you so certain?"
Chiyo sighed as she turned away from him. She trusted Toshinori almost as much as she would her son, but she knew he would need more time with Sakura and the girl's approval before she could reveal the reality that was the young pink-haired girl.
"Haruno is not like your other charges, Yagi-san," Chiyo finally said. "Her life was not so kind to her. Her life, before I met her, was similar to our own. One where you are forced to grow up far earlier than a child should."
Toshinori was surprised but accepted her words, wondering what the young girl had lived through.
"She has far more experience with how to fight than Midoriya, which you know is important. But she has yet to reveal just how strong she is."
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Shoto's brows were narrowed as his classmates finished explaining. He did find it nearly unbelievable. However, it explained many of the oddities in his father's behavior for the last year. It made more sense than any other theory he had guessed. Learning of someone as strong as Ranma, whose Quirk had nothing to do with their strength, was difficult for him to grasp. For someone like his father, who had pushed himself to get as strong as possible to surpass All Might, it would drastically make you reevaluate things.
Yet there were still some oddities that felt off about his father. Instead of making assumptions like he had already been doing, he would wait and ask. Hopefully, Ranma would have an answer for him. If not, he would simply confront his father.
The next round of matches was about to begin, as evidenced by Present Mic riling the audience up. Which was also when Sakura walked down the steps.
"How's Midoriya-kun?" Ochako asked, concerned for her friend.
"He'll be fine," Sakura responded, giving the brunette a kind smile. "He pushed his Quirk a little too far, but not too badly. He should return shortly after Shuzenji-sensei finishes looking him over."
Ochako nodded before sighing in relief.
"Sakura-san," Tenya asked, getting her attention after she finished sitting. "Whom do you think is likely to win this next match?"
Sakura paused to think of it before giving her evaluation. "Saotome."
"I know Saotome is pretty awesome, but why are you giving it to him?" Eijiro asked. He liked and had faced both of them, but he wasn't sure who would win.
"Training and experience," Sakura said, a few of them nodding in understanding. She continued on, though, since she knew some of them didn't understand the importance of it. "Parker has experience in real fights, but I would still give that to Saotome since he has all of that and more. Parker's natural skill and Quirk help, but he hasn't been trained. Training is where it counts the most, however. He will be inefficient and not always make the correct choices."
"Training helps that much?" Sato asked.
"Yes."
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Aizawa glanced down at the field as Parker and Saotome entered. His long-time friend continued to do his job of exciting the crowd. He suspected who would win this fight but also knew that Parker, in some ways, had been handicapped before it even began. While his web-shooters had been allowed, as that was integral to his fighting style and also something he designed, made, and had provided all the necessary documents for their usage, he didn't think it would be enough.
The question of their effectiveness was whether Saotome had a means of cutting or ripping apart the silk-like synthetic chemical mixture. While Parker had a few more tricks, he didn't think anything else would narrow that gap.
Ultimately, Aizawa knew he couldn't give a proper evaluation because he didn't know their backgrounds or why they were chosen beyond each of them providing some sort of service to their world. Were they equal in strength or capability? How much were they hiding?
It left him uneasy, not being able to answer those questions. He had been tempted to approach some of them to relieve his curiosity and worries, but he followed Nezu's lead and did not prompt them for now. Frustratingly, without more information, he couldn't know if inserting his hand to interfere with the falling dominoes would be helpful or detrimental to their future.
Though there was one thing he was sure of: He wanted to watch these coming fights in their entirety. They would hopefully be… enlightening.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Start!"
Peter leaped backward, having already adjusted his Web-Shooter's settings for rapid-fire web-balls, and shot them out as fast as he could down at Ranma's position. Ranma had to repeatedly dodge and change direction, which was very impressive to Peter, considering how much conservation of motion he was canceling. He moved so fast that few eyes could track him, stopping instantaneously and then moving in a different direction.
Multiple dozens of shots of webbing smashed into the cement, getting closer to where Peter was just landing without hitting their mark. The missed shots began to coat the ground, the balls of goo being fired off like it was an automatic weapon. When his feet touched down, he had to immediately bend backward to avoid Ranma's foot as it passed by his head with a powerful whoosh of air displacement.
When making contact with the ground, his left hand became his next pivot point to flip himself away from the subsequent leg sweep. His other hand came up while flipping, shooting a wider net. Ranma simply slid under it as he continued to press the attack.
Peter had to rapidly step backward, leaning his head to the sides, as his Spider-sense was constantly going off, helping him dodge the incoming fists and occasional kicks. Even with all of that, the fact that he was feeling heavily pressed really spoke of just how fast Ranma was.
While he was on I-Island, his reaction speed had been tested for Quirk registration and found to be around forty times faster than the average human. Now he was putting those reflexes to excellent use and it still almost wasn't enough! To the audience watching, he suspected they both looked like blurs as they moved across the arena floor.
Peter wanted to create some distance, so he leaped high into the air, up and away from Ranma. His eyes expanded as Ranma joined him in the air with his fist wound back.
Peter shot a web-line at him, but Ranma twisted himself in mid-air, his torso moving to the side in what seemed like an impossible maneuver to anyone but the two of them. When his web-line touched the ground below them a moment later, both used it to pull each other closer. They looked ready to crash in mid-air, but they twisted to avoid each other's strikes and sailed past each other. They landed a respectable distance apart but they didn't press the fight immediately.
"Soooo, what's the score tally up to now?" Peter asked as he stood up from his crouched position, grinning at the other boy as they seemed to mutually agree to a pause in their fight.
"Depends. What are we counting?" Ranma asked, his hands going behind his back. He started rocking back and forth on his heels and sporting a similar grin. "If we're counting ranged attacks, I think you're in the negative now by about a couple dozen. With fists, I'll admit, it's reversed. Then again, you've barely thrown any punches. You do know how to throw a punch, right?"
"Maybe we should keep them separate?" Peter suggested, glad for the slight breather. He hadn't been pushed like that in a long time. At least not by a single opponent. "Though, that does bring into question which one is more important?"
Ranma adopted a thinking pose, purposely not looking at Peter. Peter was tempted to attack, but he knew well enough he was just being goaded. "Hmmm, I think the effects of the hit should determine how much each is worth? I don't know, you're the math genius."
"We could work out the details later," Peter said, his grin widening as their verbal exchanges picked up. "As for punches, I was never taught how to throw a punch and had to learn it myself. I was too busy ensuring I was a math genius to focus on that."
"Here's a free tip, the thumb goes on the outside," Ranma said, grinning as he held up a properly held fist.
"Really? That explains soooo much! I always wondered why my thumb hurt after beating someone down," Peter said excitedly, though his eyes and grin hinted at mischievousness. Since Ranma appeared to be wanting to converse, he took the time to exchange some of his cartridges from his belt to his web-shooters while he had the chance.
Ranma nodded. "Well, since you seem to be branching out lately, you should probably look into it," he said, giving Peter a smirk. "It might have helped you here."
Peter raised an eyebrow at that as he finished slotting his extra cartridges, his earbuds updating him about their status. "And why is that? You've yet to land a blow."
Ranma's smirk widened. "Don't you scientist types go on and on about testing things, right?"
"... Yes?" Peter was now frowning as he realized he didn't like the direction that line of thought headed.
"Martial Artists aren't so different since I was doing a little testing of my own. I got some useful information out of that!"
"What information?"
"Oh, just a little something you've shown off a few times," Ranma answered, his smirk unwilling to leave as Peter's frown deepened. "Let's see what the results are!"
Peter's spider-sense blared as Ranma blurred to one side. Peter was glad for his enhanced senses since Ranma probably looked like he was disappearing to everyone else. He was also thankful for his reflexes as he saw Ranma attack him from his side. Peter felt the attack coming and began to jump–
His feet adhered to the ground at the last moment, letting him avoid the spear hand by leaning backward, watching the extended arm from his parallel position. That attack would have hit him if he had leaped backward like he had started to do. That had been too close!
He flipped through a few more follow-up strikes, trying to avoid Ranma's new assaults, which was subtly different from what he had done before. Peter was getting worried now, though it wasn't due to the change of speed but how those attacks seemed to change as he dodged, adjusting to his movements so quickly that it had become far more challenging to evade.
At first, fighting against Ranma was like dealing with a more unstable chemical reaction like Katsuki's nitroglycerin, in which a single mistake could result in a dangerous reaction. It was simple enough to keep it safe. Now it was like trying to handle azidoazide azide, and he was doing everything in his power to keep it from going off.
His Spider-sense was running in hyperdrive to keep him up to date. This was going to be tricky– Peter grunted after a fist hit his head. It wasn't clean, but it still hit. He needed space. Now!
He pointed both hands towards Ranma, flicking their settings to disperse a wide webbing shot as he bent his knees to leap backward and away.
What he hadn't expected, and his Spider-sense had been too late to warn him about, was that Ranma's arms intercepted Peter's arms at the wrists and shoved them wide. Ranma blurred forward, and both palms impacted Peter's torso, sending him flying back a dozen meters. He then slid a few more meters before his feet halted his movement.
Peter grimaced at the pain, though it was nowhere near the worst he'd suffered. He rubbed it as he stood up again, and Ranma opted for another pause. He glared at his opponent, wanting desperately to wipe the smirk off of the pigtailed boy's face, but he silenced that part of his mind. It would just leave him vulnerable.
"So I see your tests had some success?" Peter asked.
"Yep!" Ranma said, his face perfectly mixing a shit-eating grin and a smirk that knew when you were on your back foot. "That little danger sense of yours is impressive! It sometimes goes off before I even decide on an action. I'd almost say it's cheating in a fight."
Peter snorted. "No it's not. There are no rules against it. I checked!" Peter said before tapping some buttons on his web-shooters and activating one of the settings.
"Besides, if you're not cheating…," Peter yelled before diving forward, "you're not trying!"
One hand shot some web balls, forcing Ranma to dodge them by moving side to side or contorting his body around as he moved forward to meet Peter's own charge. Peter threw his own haymakers. To everyone else, they looked more like jackhammers with how fast they were going.
But nothing hit as Ranma used minimal dodges or his hands to push the attacks to the side. This left Ranma the opportunity to retaliate, some flicker punches landed on Peter, using the redirected blows as a launching platform to dive in deep. The blows weren't sufficient to deter Peter, even if they were hitting harder than Eijiro's own blows. After several lengthy exchanges, having pushed Ranma backward with the hundreds of punches he had tried to land, Peter pulled back.
Ranma wasn't willing to let him go, as he moved in to throw his own attacks. Peter dodged the first few such punches, stepping away from a low kick and ducking a roundhouse kick aimed at his head as a follow-up. As he returned, Peter used one of his arms to intercept Ranma's wrist, much like the pigtailed boy had before. Unlike Ranma, Peter's webshooter made contact with the arm and released its primed electrical charge.
Ranma grimaced, caught off guard by the sudden high-voltage shock, disrupting his flow enough for Peter to hit him in the chest with a powerful blow. He flipped through the air a few times, bleeding off any momentum he could, before his feet touched down and slid a meter further, leaving him standing. He ducked the follow-up web-shot, flashed forward, and met Peter in the middle, fist to fist.
The impact created a thunderous boom, and a visible shockwave was felt as high as the third tier of the stadium. Those closer felt their hair swept backward, and many instinctively closed their eyes. For Ranma and Peter, they remained where they were, the blows nearly equal in power. Much of the force was released in the shockwave, but the rest flowed through their bodies into the concrete, cracking its surface.
Ranma and Peter held that pose for several seconds, employing their strength to overpower the other before their fists pulled back, and another series of barrages were sent at each other. Most of the strikes were dodged or redirected by the other, but some were blocked or landed, causing additional mini-booms to be heard by the audience.
Peter's web-shooters being capable of giving a powerful shock gave him a much-needed reprieve from Ranma's speed and control, using them as a threat if Ranma started to overcommit. Peter tried to push Ranma, using it as an advantage, but found his own attacks avoided or redirected. Ranma's arms avoided contact with his web-shooters, even when Peter tried to force that contact. They remained at a stalemate, each avoiding a thousand such blows from the other.
Eventually, something gave, and Peter felt a series of blows land on his torso. He wasn't sure how it happened initially; his Spider-sense was too late to warn him, and he never saw anything. Ranma got that look again, that perfect blend of a smirk and a grin that made people want to snuff it out. Peter had no more time to think as his Spider-sense started screaming at him in warning, but it couldn't save him as Ranma's arms became a blur even to his senses, allowing hundreds of blows to land in seconds. Peter skidded backward before a massive uppercut caught him under the chin, sending him flying in an uncontrolled somersault.
The series of blows, followed by that final hit, had nearly left him senseless, resulting in a very ungraceful landing. Squinting and breathing fast, Peter slowly got his bearings, glad that Ranma hadn't continued to press him. After a few seconds, he took stock of where he was and was startled to find he was just a few meters away from the boundary behind Ranma's original starting position. Ranma could have ended the fight just now but had chosen not to do so. Peter chuckled, realizing he deserved that after his two previous fights.
"Sooo, I think I'm leading now," Ranma said with a happy smile. Peter could barely tell that Ranma was breathing a little harder than before. Either he was very good at hiding his exertion, or his body hadn't been pushed sufficiently.
Peter grinned as he stood up, calming himself and getting his body ready for the next bout. "Yeah, I'll give you that. You are leading in punches."
"Don't forget ranged shots; you're down a few hundred there," Ranma said.
"So your hands can move faster than I thought they could… you've been holding back."
Ranma shrugged, not bothered about being called out for it. "I'm almost always holding back in one way or another. Same as you, I bet."
Peter smirked, something he didn't tend to do, but it felt appropriate here. "Yes, some by circumstance and others by choice."
Ranma nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. He rocked back and forth on his heels as he waited for Peter to continue.
"You're right, I didn't learn how to punch from an expert. Maybe I'll have to look into that," Peter said as he lowered himself and prepared to charge forward. "And you're wrong about the points for ranged shots."
"And how's that?" Ranma asked while raising an eyebrow. A part of him was getting nervous and figured some sort of sneaky move was in play.
"My ranged points can't be counted because while I didn't spend years learning how to punch, I did learn something super important. I learned chemistry," Peter said as one of his fingers traced a circle and then a line down the length of his web-shooter, leaving the finger there, "which means my shots haven't finished."
Peter's finger released, and Ranma's world was suddenly filled with gray.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Oh! Look at that! Parker has unleashed an attack on Saotome, leaving him trapped like a fly caught in a web!" Present Mic yelled into the microphone as the audience roared at the sudden turn of play. "Parker's gone on the attack now!"
Aizawa watched with interest and was more than impressed by Parker's ingenuity and forethought. Like most people, he assumed those balls of goo splattered all over the arena from their exchanges had been one-shot attempts since they didn't do anything else until now. The goo balls near Saotome had gone off around him, sending an explosion of webbing into the air.
When it had settled, Saotome was revealed to have attempted to get away but had been caught, which left him struggling to pull against the powerful strands. Even with most of his body at least somewhat captured in it, Saotome was still gaining traction against the strands, getting progressively further and even cracking the concrete as it began to give before the webbing did. He might have even been able to pull it off if he had been given the opportunity.
Parker pressed the attack. With Saotome unable to maneuver as well as before, he was forced to block or tank the blows. The tables had drastically turned against the Martial Artist, who was now taking a horrible beating. He had been forced into a dilemma of escaping or avoiding the beating Parker was now dishing out.
Aizawa was focused, putting as much effort into it as if he was fighting for his life as he absorbed and learned as much as he could about his two students. Like the attack at the U.S.J., Aizawa was learning that the depths of their strengths, skills, and experience were greater than anyone had guessed.
As Aizawa silently watched, his friend rapidly narrated the fight as it continued. Gradually he felt himself caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between two emotions, with every second increasing the strength of the pull from both sides. The two forces were equal in strength in the absence of additional knowledge. Those two forces were Hope and Fear.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"– on the attack now!"
"Goooo, Peter! You can do it!" Melissa yelled out, jumping off the couch in excitement. Her long blonde hair bounced while her eyes didn't leave the screen.
Peter was using the advantage he had given himself, hitting the other boy with a punishing barrage of blows. It looked like Peter could win. That excitement explained why Melissa was punching and jumping about as Peter did the same.
David smiled as the match turned in his ward's favor. Since he had reviewed the schematics for Peter's current web-shooters, he had caught several of the features he had used so far in the Festival's events. The hidden interface, earbuds, micro-machine launchers, tasers, and now the explodeable web balls were all designed to work without Karen's presence. Peter wasn't a fan of giving himself that unfair of an advantage, but it also provided plausible deniability about Karen's existence.
However, David tempered his excitement. He had spent more time researching Peter's opponent than his daughter and knew not to underestimate him. He didn't have just a single Ace, but several bags of tricks up his sleeve and likely had only revealed a fraction of them.
They watched as the two fought, with Peter continuing to show the world how vital a grounding in science could be.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Ranma was on auto-pilot as he turtled up, Saotome style. He bent and moved his body with the blows he couldn't dodge or push aside. Very few made full contact, and the rest were significantly reduced in the damage they did. His toughness ensured that whatever did get through was minimized while his brain focused on countering his predicament.
From observations and experience, Ranma knew that the webbing was strong, especially with how much of it he was covered in. This made it difficult to put the needed pressure on single strands to force something to give. He knew he needed to cut it.
Blocking one of Peter's punches drove him a few meters back, giving him a fraction of a second of breathing room as his hands glowed slightly and blades of Ki formed. He flung his arms sideways and cut a large mass of the silk strands. He moved to– the punch from Peter to the gut made him spit and took his breath away for a moment. The following two punches to his head drove it one way and then the other, almost causing him to lose concentration on his technique before he evaded the follow up exchange.
Ranma focused on freeing himself, cutting as many strands behind his back as possible. He accepted ten jackhammer blows to the chest as payment, trying to free up his legs as he twisted the blades around to the front before he dropped the technique and blocked the trio of blows to the head he couldn't dodge.
Ranma tried to avoid as much as he could, but the webbing was ridiculously strong, and his legs still couldn't free themselves from the limited webbing attached to himself. Especially since they were attached to him from nearly all angles and it was difficult to fully free himself. He was making progress but at the cost of taking some punishing hits.
Deciding he needed to change it up and hopefully free up a bit of room, Ranma sidestepped to the outside of another punch, before diving inwards as he grabbed Peter by the elbow and brought his knee up to hit Peter in the gut. It didn't work because the webs made the attack slow enough for Peter to block it with his other arm before sending that fist into his gut.
Ranma grunted as the blow landed. Even after reducing the number of strands attached to him, they slowed him down enough that he had lost the edge in speed. The strands he hadn't severed close to his feet were sufficient to serve that purpose. This was bad.
Ranma took more blows to gain some space before forming the blades again, twisting to get as many strands still connected to him as possible in a single attempt. He had succeeded in cutting most of them, especially as Peter hadn't chased after him. Ranma's grin halted mid-formation as he saw what Peter had done instead.
More balls of webbing were launched in his direction. The speed of the attacks meant that he would barely be able to evade. Then Ranma's expectations were once more proven wrong as the balls exploded mid-air on top of him. The webbing did as before as it adhered to him anywhere on his body, as well as the ground and the previous strands he had just recently cut.
"Shit!" Ranma yelled. He was back where he had started.
"As the Good Captain once said: 'Language!'" Peter mocked.
Ranma blunted as much of Peter's assault as he could, but he knew this was bad. He was taking far too much damage for almost no return. He was hard-pressed to even hit Peter before this trap had sprung. Now, with him in it, he couldn't overcome the other boy's reflexes and that danger-sense of his, not to mention he was nearly as tough as Ryouga. And that would be assuming the super-nerd didn't have contingencies for the gunk, which he obviously did.
Ranma still had options, but most of them invited their own problems. He needed it to be guaranteed to work. Most weren't practical because he would need more time or space to use them, at least the ones that would drive Peter far enough away to finish freeing himself. He had already tried adapting Happy's escape technique, but it didn't work against the webbing, something to do with how it stuck to him.
He had a few other techniques that could cut, but they were as bad or worse than the Ki blades he had already tried. Two techniques might work, but they were both riddled with problems. One was potentially far too dangerous to use in this environment, even if Peter's danger sense prevented him from being injured. It was harder to control and was too risky with Midnight and Cementoss nearby, not to mention the audience. It was a forbidden technique for a reason, after all.
The other was more plausible, but it was also a forbidden technique. The main upside was that it was more controllable than it had once been, especially after working so hard to refine it. Ranma decided to try one more alternative, but he would use it if that failed.
Ranma bounced backward again, using one of Peter's punches to give him the distance he needed, wheezing slightly as his breathing got harder. He wasted no time as he stepped backward, straining against the multitude of strands as he entered into a crouched position while raising his fist. Before Peter could reach him, he brought it down.
The arena floor shattered as the ground developed a new crater several meters wide beneath him. Most of the concrete in the crater turned into dust, freeing the webbing from the ground. The ground outside the crater cracked and splintered into thousands of broken chunks, the strands connected to the loose debris began to pull those chunks towards him. In all, the damage impacted a quarter of the arena's size, but it had disconnected him from the ground.
It slowed Peter down, but only by fractions of a second, as he had already started adapting when Ranma had raised his fist. Before Ranma had time to do anything else, Peter's legs impacted his chest with a powerful kick that sent Ranma flying towards the other half of the arena.
Ranma was launched, dragging the debris behind him in his sudden flight as it acted as an anchor. He corkscrewed through the air, twisting the webbing into a cocoon around most of his body that tightly constricted him. The debris' combined weight and the process of being ripped from the ground like they were countered the momentum from Peter's attack, causing the webbing to stretch before Ranma was dragged backwards to smash into the ground.
Knowing he only had seconds before he would be set upon again, Ranma formed his blades of Ki to cut his way out. It was a slow start since his arms were pulled tightly near his body and he had to exert tremendous force just to get them to move. By the time he could stand, he saw Peter was already flying towards him again.
Feeling his feet were free enough, Ranma jumped backward to put a little more space between them and to give him time to cut more webbing. He only got a few meters when he felt the webbing slow and then reverse his direction. He was shocked at the unexpected occurrence until he caught sight of the additional webbing that Peter had put down that anchored him to more solid ground once more. His classmate had defeated the purpose of shattering the ground in the first place!
The unexpected renewal of being anchored to the ground brought him on a collision course with Peter's fist. He had no time to curse as he couldn't raise his fist or move his head enough out of the way as the punch landed.
Ranma was still rebounding, but that acceleration was halted as he unintentionally backflipped a few times before landing ungracefully. He wouldn't have been able to correct himself anyway since the blow had badly disoriented him and definitely hurt him.
His head turned to see Peter land before turning and leaping back in his direction. Ranma had to give it to Peter; he had severely underestimated his nerdy classmate just because he wasn't trained in hand-to-hand fighting. Ranma could also tell that that last blow had ruptured a blood vessel as he felt a trickle of blood escape his nose, and he could now taste the copper on his lips. The thought caused Ranma to smile, even closing his eyes for a full second as Peter sailed towards him.
Hopefully, the other guy wouldn't stick around too long to ruin his fun!
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Peter landed after delivering that punch, grinning as he felt Ranma take the blow. He sprinted and leaped after him once more. Near his peak he pointed his web-shooters and launched more webbing to reinforce everything, trapping him further once more while he was starting to get up off his knees.
But he was a little confused as Ranma began acting oddly. The pigtailed boy smiled, looking happy for a moment before closing his eyes and lowering his head. Ranma seemingly ignored his predicament as he fell onto his hands and didn't finish his attempt to stand.
Peter didn't let it distract him as he reared a fist back to land another haymaker. He'd end the fight soon enough, then find out what crazy– his spider-sense screamed at him, causing Peter to panic and shoot a web-line at the ground behind him just in time to stop a couple meters away. He pulled himself backward to gain some space.
As Peter landed, he tried to figure out what had happened. Ranma finally looked up. His eyes seemed different, reminding him of Norman Osborn. The dichotomy between the kind man his Aunt had tried to help and the one who had killed her rushed to mind seeing the difference in Ranma.
Ranma opened his mouth and said something that both utterly confused him and created an absolute chill down his spine.
"Meow."
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Kitty!" Kota said in excitement.
"Uh oh," Katashi said before chuckling and knowing another bet had been won. Tomoko would have fun looking for something to buy that Ranma would love and hate, depending on their current state.
Sorahiko, on the other hand, reacted like everyone else around them. "What the–"
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"– hell?"
Sakura chuckled at most of her classmates and the audience's reactions. She also wondered what Ranma was doing now.
If she was home, she would think Ranma was a member of the Inuzuka or a similar clan that relied on mimicking beasts. Where Ranma would take it, she didn't know, but it was certainly unexpected. And entertaining!
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Peter remained still, watching as Ranma sat down, his knees bent and his front hands touching the ground. Part of him wanted to call out Ranma for his odd behavior, but the eyes told Peter it wasn't so simple. Due to the warnings from his Spider-sense, Peter remained stationary.
Ranma seemed to ignore him, his eyes turning to the webbing coating him. He looked on with disgust, trying to pull against the webbing for a moment before he raised a hand and–
Peter jumped backward as Ranma's hand flickered with a speed he couldn't perceive. The most concerning part was that some of his webbing was in tatters, looking like shavings. Ranma repeated the process for all the webbing that had trapped him, freeing himself in no time.
Ranma did a few circles while on all fours, ensuring he was no longer tangled up. Once Ranma seemed satisfied, he began stretching and arching his back, then sat and started licking the back of his hands and swiping it through his hair several times. Peter would have found it amusing if they weren't in the middle of a fight and his Spider-sense wasn't constantly going off whenever he thought of attacking.
"Well, well, well… this is fascinating!"
Peter backed up a few steps and turned to look at the referee who had entered the ring. Midnight's sultry voice could certainly pull at one's attention, even when facing something as odd as what Ranma was doing.
"Ummm, do you have any idea what just happened?" Peter asked, hoping one of their teachers might explain.
"Not a clue!" Midnight gleefully said as she turned to address Peter, finding the situation absolutely amusing. She then turned back to Ranma, her eyes sparkling, and ignored Aizawa's voice in her ear telling her to get out of the ring. She wasn't going to turn down an opportunity like this!
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty!" Midnight said, holding out her flogger-style whip to tease the cat-like student. Her smile widened when Ranma sat before her like a cat and swiped at the whip with his fists. She pulled it back, teasing the cat-like student. "Oh, you are just so adorable!"
After several seconds of this, Peter relaxed just a tad. He could hear the audience getting over their surprise at Ranma's change in behavior; many were now laughing or cooing and awing. Since it appeared he had a bit of a breather, he pulled more items off his belt to recharge and reload once more, especially since he had used most of what he had left.
"I almost want to take you home and never let you go!" Midnight said, her giggles were unnerving to Peter.
He was about to ask Midnight what they should do about their fight when Ranma's behavior shifted once more. Ranma's eyes widened, and his face became flushed before he appeared to teleport to a spot several meters away, unwilling to look at either of them in the eyes for a moment while he fiddled with his pigtail. "Sorry about this."
Midnight's smile dimmed before she laughed in amusement. "Hohohohoho!"
Ranma grimaced and backed away even further, making it even more enjoyable for the woman. Unfortunately for Midnight, the show must go on. "Saotome-san, are you alright?"
"Ummm, yes," Ranma answered, still looking nervous and eyeing her carefully. This made her lick her lips, then giggle when Ranma gulped.
"Well then, let me get out of your way, and you can resume beating each other to a pulp!" Midnight said as she sashayed away. Both boys refused to watch her retreat for good reason. Once out of the ring, she yelled, "You may resume your match!"
Peter shook his head before getting his mind back on track as he looked at Ranma. "What the hell was that?"
"Sorry, she… reminds me of someone. Especially that laugh of hers," Ranma said before shuddering. "Okay, I'm good to go!"
"I wasn't talking about Midnight-sensei! I was asking what was happening with you acting like a cat!" Peter asked in annoyance. He had noticed that Ranma tended to focus on the wrong things. Maybe a distractionary tactic but maybe his priorities and perspective were genuinely that skewed? Another useful data point in either case.
"Oh! Yeah, sorry, he stuck around longer than I expected," Ranma said.
"He?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow in concern.
"It's… complicated. Really, really complicated," Ranma grimaced at the thought of another set of explanations he would have to give. He was half tempted to accept Shino's suggestion of writing a pamphlet or a book to just hand out in situations like this. "Mostly, I forgot to do something, and it became a mess. But I'm good now!"
Peter raised an eyebrow at that but accepted the explanation for now. He had some ideas about what may have happened, but he'd check it out later.
"Ready?" Peter asked as he lowered his profile to be closer to the ground, low enough for one hand to touch while his legs were spread wide.
Ranma grinned, glad that things were back to normal. "Definitely! Let's finish this!"
Peter narrowed his eyes before aiming his hands at him and launching more webbing. His eyes widened when Ranma's hands swiped through the air before they reached him, causing the web balls to flay apart before the chemicals could cause the webbing to explode outward.
"Crap!" Peter cried out as Ranma sped towards him, forcing him to jump away to another part of the arena that might prove beneficial to him. As Ranma turned and tried to intercept him, he touched a part of his web-shooters again before more unexploded balls of webbing went off around Ranma.
It was for naught. Ranma's hands swiped through the air before they could intercept him, cutting it all into confetti. Once that was done, Ranma dived forward, pushing Peter further back. The web slinger wasn't done yet and let loose another barrage.
Ranma was concentrating on intercepting the ones that were being shot at him, so when the balls near his feet exploded this time, it caught Ranma off-guard since Peter hadn't attempted to touch his web-shooters. They captured him once more. Ranma twisted and swiped at the strands to free himself, making it a temporary win for Peter. One he capitalized on by diving forward while he was distracted.
Ranma freed himself as Peter's fist made contact with his head; he couldn't dodge it in time or brace himself before he saw stars and flew through the air. He regained his senses in time to realize he was about to leave the ring. He was nearly parallel to the ground, high enough that his fingers could barely touch it. He acted quickly, his fingertips piercing into the cement, but the inertia he had to bleed off was intense and the maneuver would be extremely delicate. He couldn't risk doing anything more, so Ranma's fingers dug a line in the cement until his fingers were just on the inside of the white line, denoting the boundary when he came to a complete stop.
Ranma hung upside down, his fingers dug into the ground while much of his body mass was past the line. He sweated at how close that had been, giving him a few seconds to catch his breath before flipping himself forward and back into the ring.
Peter was shocked at how Ranma had saved himself before determination set in. The two leaped forward so quickly that most of the audience was treated to a scene similar to the one from Ranma's first match. Instead of the fight ending in a moment, the two of them sustained their all-out brawl, sending more shockwaves to those nearby.
However, it was short-lived as Peter soon found his web-shooters shredded. The metal and everything connected to them fell apart into many pieces, even as they continued to brawl. Without his tools, even with his Spider-sense, Ranma broke through his defenses and landed a series of powerful blows that staggered Peter.
Peter tried to back up and find some way to recover, but Ranma didn't let him go. The punches continued to connect, blurring beyond Peter's ability to perceive them before a powerful right-handed punch sent him flying. Because of his daze, Peter realized too late what had happened when he impacted the stadium wall. He grabbed the wall and prevented himself from falling, but it didn't matter.
"Saotome wins!" Midnight called out, her whip held out towards them.
He had lost.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Ahhh," Melissa whined as her lower body pushed further toward the couch's edge and her upper body sank into it as far as she could. "And he was so close, too!"
"He was," David said before emptying a good portion of his current drink. "Saotome's strength and speed are at least as good as Peter's, so being able to alter his position and dig into the concrete to stop himself like that was impressive."
Melissa nodded, turned to her mobile screen, and fiddled with some of the fight recordings. She picked the one with the best view that showed that exact moment and had it perform a quick replay of that part of the fight. The statistics and estimates were completed as she watched, displaying the required strength and agility. Once she had that, she compared it to tests they had done for Peter at various times and found that her father was correct.
"If Peter had been able to hit him on a higher arc, he would have won," Melissa said, looking over the punch.
"Probably," David noted as he looked at the statistics, "however, Peter was in a time crunch and had to close the gap quickly to even hit him, so landing the blow in the first place could have been thrown off by fractions of a second to make sure the hit had a higher arc."
Melissa sighed.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"That was an impressive fight," Sorahiko said, his hands gripping the railing as he looked down at the two boys. He noticed that the Saotome boy was talking to his opponent about something, but they were just exiting the arena. At the same time, Cementoss started to clean and repair the stage, which had become a common sight in this tournament. The poor man had to do that for nearly every match.
"Parker is one of the people in his class that Ranma's had his eye on and had been looking forward to a spar or a fight like this. In fact, I've never seen Ranma pushed this far. It seems that having to rely on some of his higher techniques has put him in a good mood," Katashi said. He smiled at how happy Ranma appeared to have been when the fight had finished.
"Good mood?" Sorahiko asked, raising an eyebrow, slightly worried he was one of those fighters that got off on fighting. The boy didn't appear to be someone who got battlelust. That kind of behavior could lead to trouble, but he wanted clarity to be sure.
Katsuki understood Sorahiko's concern, so he addressed it directly. "While Saotome is happy to fight and spar, he does not lose sight of himself. Well, usually," Katsuki chuckled as a few stories he had heard called that into question. "There have been incidents where Ranma's pride is damaged, driving him to resolve it, but he's never lost sight of the big picture."
Sorahiko smiled, glad to hear the boy had a good head on his shoulders. He had seen those who did get lost, and it typically resulted in disaster of one sort or another somewhere down the line.
"But he's so happy because he hasn't been significantly challenged in a fight for some time. While he doesn't often show it, it has depressed him significantly and has driven his need to train others."
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Wow!" Etsurou said as he finally turned away from his camera. "That fight was amazing! I don't know if our cameras could even pick up some of those movements. Probably end up a blur when we slow them down."
"Yes," Chihiro grumbled. She had recently clicked her phone off for yet another set of updates from their bosses. He would never tell her, but her pouting tended to cause his blood to heat up, almost enough to force a blush.
Etsurou sighed, unsure of how he should treat her. Chihiro's mood had been all over the place ever since they called her out. She was torn between her eagerness for the news and the possible drama, but she didn't like how they were reining her in, telling her not to cause any more problems.
He knew she gleefully targeted possible drama and controversies related to Pro-Heroes, with their bosses usually giving her a lot of leeway. After all, controversies often led to improved ratings, which was his job security, so he didn't raise much of a fuss. However, losing access was the one thing their bosses hated more than any blowback from those dramas. They were worried about U.A. revoking any access for now or in the future, so they were leashing her.
For once, the bosses looked at the long-term rather than the short-term benefits. They argued that they wanted to keep all potential access to these new heroes that were likely to be the next generation of top Pro-Heroes. Especially in light of All Might teaching at U.A. this year.
He decided to do what he usually did - leave her be and let her handle it on her own.
"I'm going to powder my nose," Chiyiro said as she walked off.
Etsurou sighed as he returned to inspecting his cameras for the next fight.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"I sooo want her at my agency!" Mt. Lady squealed as she watched the fight end on the big screen outside the stadium. She wished she could have been inside to see it in person, but this would have to do for now. "She'd be perfect!"
Typically, Kamui Woods or Death Arms would shoot down her inflated desires to make her think more realistically and rationally, but they were too distracted from seeing the fight on the screen. They had felt a few vibrations sent out by the fistfight from outside, where they guarded the primary walkway to the stadium.
"Cute girl and a hot stud, great for getting into smaller environments, and I wouldn't have to worry so much about stepping on them! I must figure out how to entice her to intern with me…"
Kamui Woods was a rising star amongst the upper echelon of their profession, having witnessed and fought his share of strong villains. His record and popularity had been growing significantly after his debut just a few years ago. It was predicted that he might enter into the top ten by the time the next hero rankings were evaluated.
"Oh, I know! I'll bribe her with free treats! Whatever she wants while she's there!"
After their previous fights, he had been amazed at how powerful the First-Year's Quirks were. Both boys were skilled fighters, meaning they could quickly and easily enter the top ten in a few years.
"... but that would eat into my agency's budget sooo hard…"
But that fight told him something different. He needed more to be sure, they needed to see how the students handled different scenarios, but the impression the two of them gave him told him that they could be in the top ten now.
"Oh, to hell with it! It would be worth it!"
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Toshinori smiled softly as his two students walked off to one of the exits, appearing to be in good spirits. The two had a fantastic fight, one that he had extreme difficulty tracking while in his weaker form.
"I didn't get to see much of it during the Villain's attack, but those two boys are something else," Thirteen said from beside him.
"You said Saotome had fought the one they called Nomu in hand-to-hand. Even with the speed you described, I didn't want to believe they could be that good," Vlad said as he stared at the arena. "It is more than just his strength or speed; his skill and technique set him apart. Combining all of it together makes Saotome an extremely dangerous individual."
"Don't make it sound like he is someone we should be worried about, Vlad," Toshinori grinned at Class B's homeroom teacher while his eyes smiled to show it was in good humor.
"I'm not, but all of them are still young," Vlad said. "The world can chew you up and spit you out. Even the best of us. Saotome is robust, but we all have things that can break us. It's our job to prepare them for that inevitability."
Class B's Homeroom teacher turned back to the arena. "I'm honestly afraid to see what that will look like with him."
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Ranma sighed in relief as his body's complaints disappeared as he released the unnecessary liquids his body had stored. He ignored the stares he was getting, well used to other people's reactions to his presence. When he finished, he walked to the sink and washed his hands. After drying them, he then stepped out of the bathroom.
He had been somewhat annoyed when he learned the bathroom near the arena exit they used was out of order, forcing the students to go clear around the stadium or, in Ranma's case, use the ones available to the public. He didn't care about the whispers, pointing, or flashes of light from their phones that signaled a picture was taken.
After exiting, he took a moment to get his bearings to figure where his classmates were seated. He used his Ki sense to find them, picking them out of the thousands of spectators. Once he figured out where to go, he put his hands in his pockets and leisurely walked. He had made it a dozen steps before he was interrupted.
"Saotome Ranma?"
Ranma was surprised someone had called for him, especially a voice he didn't recognize. He turned to find a woman with brown hair in a ponytail wearing a blue business suit. She also had a yellow armband on her bicep, but he had no idea about its significance. "Yeah?"
The woman squealed with excitement before taking her phone out of her pocket. She repeatedly touched and swiped it several times before holding it near his face.
"Tomoe Chihiro, NHA News! So you are Saotome Ranma, one of U.A.'s new students from Class 1-A, correct?"
Ranma blinked a few times, unsure of how to react before eventually giving a reply. "Ummm, yes?"
The woman's grin widened as she continued. "Your class was involved in the large Villain attack at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint by the group calling themselves the League of Villains?"
"Uhh, yeah, we were," Ranma answered, tilting his head and confused about why she was asking him these questions. He had seen the reporters regularly outside the school since school started, but he had ignored them. He thought he remembered their sensei saying something about talking about the incident, but he didn't remember the details very clearly.
"What can you tell us about what happened?" Chihiro asked.
"Uh, well, they popped out of some portals that one of them created, like fifty of them from the first group, but there were at least a hundred to two hundred more spread throughout. Most of the Villains were crap, though, so we were just stalling until All Might could arrive. The only potentially dangerous ones were the warper and this big, ugly guy they had. But the guy was so dumb that it wasn't really a challenge. I didn't want to risk someone injuring one of my classmates, so I just delayed them until All Might arrived. They went down really fast after that."
Chihiro nodded, her practiced smile unchanging as he explained the basics. "So, how many of your classmates were injured in the attack?"
"None," Ranma replied smoothly, noticing her eyes widened at his declaration. "Even when they sent all the rest of the Villains at my classmates, they kicked their butts. Probably could have finished them off with a little more time before All Might arrived, but real fights tend to be chaotic, so it was good that he arrived when he did."
Chihiro's smile widened and she nodded before asking her next question. "So you are the current leader of the Freshmen at the Sports Festival. How do you feel about that?"
Ranma gave a broad smile, more than willing to speak about that than the other questions she had proposed. "Great! If I win the Festival, I'll be able to follow through on a challenge I gave myself! Probably end up with a crapload of questions in response and more people like you asking me about it, but I've already accepted that was going to happen no matter what I did."
Chihiro raised an eyebrow before asking, "What would you do if you won?"
"I can't say. Not until I win! But it's going to be awesome!" Ranma replied as he put his hands on his hips. His grin widened so much that his eyes closed.
"Why is that? Wouldn't winning the Sports Festival already be a notable achievement? How does it compare to that?" Chihiro pulled the phone closer to her mouth as she asked her question before sticking it back in Ranma's direction.
"Hah! It's going to be way more awesome! I didn't care much about the Festival until I learned it would be on National news!" Ranma said eagerly.
"Oh? So you wanted to be famous?"
"Nah, I was probably going to be famous anyways as soon as people learn about it, but I thought it would be awesome to reveal after winning!"
Chihiro nodded at that before barreling through to another question, giving him a subtle grin. "So, do you have a girlfriend?"
"Erk!"
Chihiro's grin grew slightly predatorylarger after Ranma's body language halted. "Hmmm?"
"Nooo! No. No, I don't have a girlfriend!" Ranma said, sweating as his eyes scanned the area for possible threats.
"Really? Are you, perhaps, not in a relationship with anyone?"
"Right, yeah, no relationships with anyone!" Ranma said quite a bit louder than needed.
"Interesting," Chihiro said, her grin disappearing as her neutral tone returned. "Then, does your outing as a groper impact your mood regarding winning the Sport's Festival?"
"Wha–" Ranma started asking before the memory of that incident from earlier in the day returned. His face flushed in embarrassment before he defended himself. "That– that was an accident!"
"An accident? How?" Chihiro asked as she tilted her head.
"Look, I was trying to help them get Mineta off her!"
"Mineta?"
"He was attached to her back by those balls," Ranma answered a little more calmly as he explained things. It had worked a second time, hadn't it? It could work a third!
"Hmmm, I had seen something about that. But that doesn't explain the accident, does it?" Chihiro asked.
"Huh?" Ranma was confused. He had no idea how it wasn't obvious. He had explained it, after all. Right?
"How could you coming up to help get this… Mineta, off of her lead to that accident? Even if the girl's were startled by your approach, you could have avoided it, could you not?"
Ranma opened his mouth to answer but halted as he realized an important detail. A change that had occurred since he had made his earlier explanation. While he had no problems telling the reporter about Happosai and how he was a horrible pervert, he didn't want to acknowledge his existence any more than necessary.
However, Ranma's dilemma was that while he had no problem throwing Happosai to the wolves, he did have a problem with including one of his new students.
Mineta had talked about being treated as a pariah, something that had proven true during his match against Yaoyorozu. He could see how desperate he was to escape his personal hell. Telling this reporter why he reminded him of Happosai would likely destroy any chance he had and any trust Ranma had earned.
Ranma remembered the numerous times he had been thrown to the wolves by friends and family members to save themselves from the hardships they had created. The memory of his adoptive family calling him out for doing the same thing to others when it served his own purposes had been a far harder pill to swallow. He didn't like hypocrites, but he had been one as well.
Seeing the reporter raising an eyebrow as he remained silent brought him back to the present. Seeing how she was expecting him to answer, Ranma winced. "I– look, it's… it's complicated."
"Complicated? How so?"
"I—I can't say. It's private," Ranma said weakly. He turned to look away and wished she would just leave it at that. But Ranma was rarely that lucky and certainly wasn't now.
"So you refuse to provide a valid excuse?" Chihiro asked as she got a slight nod from the young man. "Would this excuse explain why a student who has repeatedly shown to be extremely fast and accurate with their hands could fail to avoid grabbing a girl on the chest?"
"Ummm… yes?" Ranma hoped she would accept it, but his wince destroyed whatever confidence he tried to instill.
"Does this excuse involve you turning into a girl? We witnessed that event occur twice today." Chihiro asked while her eyes narrowed just enough for Ranma to recognize that she dared him to use it.
"Uhh… no?"
"Why should we take your word? You refuse to answer the question. Your vague responses and telling us to trust you do not instill confidence in the public's opinion of you," Chihiro firmly said as she pushed the phone closer to him.
Ranma recoiled as he felt her increasing glee at his inability to answer her questions. He knew he wouldn't cleanly get out of this. Boxed into a corner as severely as he was, he did the only thing he thought he could. "Oh, look! The next match is about to begin! Got to go, sorry!"
Chihiro watched as Ranma faded away. She grumbled at him running away like that, but she still had more than she had expected to get. As she walked back to the section set aside for the media, she whistled while she secured the recording.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"The second half of the Semi-Finals is about to begin!" Present Mic said over the speakers. "First up, we have the explosive Bakugo Katsuki!"
Katsuki wasn't in the mood to grin. Instead, he focused most of his attention on Forehead as she stood casually across from him. He already knew this would be a tough fight that was not in his favor, unlike his previous matches.
"And this time, he faces the trickster, Haruno Sakura!" Present Mic said. The roars from the crowd almost broke through his concentration, but it was left at the back of his mind and only allowed the referee's voices to split his attention.
"Can Bakugo claw his way to another win, or will this be the end of the road for him? Contestants, are you ready?" Present Mic called out again, lengthening the time he sounded out the last word. "Start!"
Katsuki exploded forward to close the gap. Forehead didn't react at first, but when he was halfway across, her hands started flying through those odd motions she did when she began to make a more complicated move. She had performed a dozen of them so quickly that he couldn't correctly track her hands. He also saw her grinning at him.
With a few meters between them, Katsuki launched an attack with a single hand, intending to interrupt her while allowing him to alter his attack vector. The pressurized air slammed into her and did nothing but cause her clothes and hair to ruffle from the displaced air. Katsuki narrowed his eyes as that attack should have been strong enough to send her flying.
As his blast wave finished, she shoved her hand down to the ground without taking her eyes off him. Katsuki heard the sounds of stone grinding against stone before his instincts told him to move. Another explosion sent him flying to the side just in time as the ground rose up behind him, nearly enveloping him. Forehead had remained there with her hand on the ground, not appearing to do anything more, though she continued to track him.
He had seen enough of how she fought and how others talked about it that he couldn't necessarily trust what his eyes were telling him. But if she would use lots of illusions, then his best bet was to just blast away. Before he could do that, the ground beneath him shifted, and he was suddenly flung into the air.
Looking downwards, he saw that a concrete pillar had caused it. He watched as more concrete and earth moved around the battlefield, dozens of blocks of concrete rising out of the ground at different sizes, lengths, and heights. She had turned the open-field arena into one with dozens of barriers thrown about the field, some as tall as second-story buildings.
"Shit!" Katsuki yelled out as he realized the significance of what this meant. She was changing the environment to create hiding places and natural barriers against his explosions. With her ability to sneak, he couldn't rely on the open environment to help with keeping her in sight.
When Katsuki landed on one of the taller pillars, he cupped his hands in front of him, pointing in her direction, and released another explosion with more bite to the concentrated attack. The expanding air caused his arms to rebound upwards, even after bracing himself, but it cracked the concrete she had previously been standing on. His eyes barely tracked her movement as she was now adhered to the side of one of her new walls. She was kneeling on the wall, her hand making contact with it while locking eyes with him.
He had no time to attack as the cement continued to change the landscape, rising like mud as it morphed and nearly grabbed one of his legs. His perch wasn't the only one, as more, though much smaller, pillars rose in all directions and attacked him. He dodged to the side, his explosions causing some of the pillars to break apart. Unfortunately, he was slammed by a solid pillar growing horizontal from one of the walls he was near. Katsuki grunted as he was sent to his knees, but he rolled forward and bounced between the multiple walls and pillars, looking for more of the flowing ground.
He remained on the move to avoid the altering environment. It didn't always attack, Forehead likely trying to draw him into a false sense of security and dividing his attention, keeping him from hunting for her. But he had to change the parameters to regain the initiative. He had spent his time hunting for her and avoiding her traps to good success, studying the layout of the structures she had created.
Feeling ready and not wanting to waste time, he leaped to another pillar while his Quirk allowed him to rocket around. He bounced off of it as he redirected his path to dive headfirst into the epicenter of her structures with a burst of speed.
Katsuki shoved both hands towards the ground before he had made contact, the hands nearly flat with only a slight curve to them. Only a meter between him and the ground, he released the biggest explosion he could safely use without his protective gear. It completely halted his downward momentum just from the blowback.
Katsuki saw and felt the utter destruction of all the surrounding pillars in every direction and at least a dozen meters in radius. Pillars were blown away and launched outside the ring, crashing into the grass. Anything larger than a baseball never reached the lower stadium, and only a few pieces hit the audience enough to cause an injury. However, they were peppered with debris the size of pebbles, causing more than a few cries of shock. But the audience was used to such displays.
Katsuki didn't concern himself with that. He was focused entirely on finding Forehead, using this chance to end the fight in his favor. That concentration paid off, though not in the way he would have wanted, as he had to avoid the hand grasping for his head after it burst out of one of the pillars that had been knocked over.
His breath hitched, and his eyes widened as Forehead closed the gap between them before he could do anything but duck. He tried to roll to the side, but a hand intercepted him in the chest before he could escape. He had gotten a free hand to point directly at her face and set off his Quirk again in a desperate attempt to save himself, but it was for naught as her hand flicked him away.
Katsuki felt what it was like to be wrecking a ball as he smashed through a few of the remaining pillars before he came to a stop when he encountered one strong enough to withstand his diminished speed. However, it was still significantly damaged by the crater his back had created.
He screamed in pain as he fell to his knees. That single attack had hurt worse than anything he had experienced before, nearly causing him to pass out. But he willed himself to remain conscious, forcing his eyes to open and focus on her.
She stood in the same spot she had launched him from, calmly watching him. The only signs he had that his attacks had done anything to her was that her shirt now looked more tattered and burnt than it had before. And it had failed to wipe the grin off her face. He knew this was going to be a hard match, but seeing how calm she was just pissed him off further.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Ahh!" Kyoka cried out as she shielded her face from the small pebbles that pelted everyone. She had to wait a few moments until she no longer felt anything hitting her before she opened her eyes.
She hadn't expected to find a hand in front of her face holding a piece of debris the size of a golf ball. She followed the hand to see it was Ranma, who wasn't even looking at her but watching the fight continue in the arena.
"Thanks, Ranma," Kyoka said after a moment, "and welcome back."
"No problem!" Ranma chirped before tossing the stone into the arena with a casual wrist flick. "I'm glad I got back in time for that. Wouldn't want you to miss the fight due to an injury."
Kyoka smiled in thanks before turning her attention back to the arena. She saw that Katsuki was down on a knee and was breathing hard. He also looked like he was in pain, as the wall behind him had nearly shattered. "What happened?"
"She followed after him once his explosion went off, using it as cover to get close to him. She then threw him through a few pillars and into the wall. He'll be feeling that one for a while," Ranma said casually as he sat.
"Did his attack even hit her?" Sato asked, feeling he had the time to ask since Sakura was letting Katsuki get his breathing under control.
"Yep!" Ranma said, who seemed to be in an excellent mood. "She decided to just tank it entirely."
"She tanked that blast?!" Eijiro asked, his eyes widening as he turned to his classmate. "Holy shit!"
"She didn't tank the entire blast. Most of it was blunted from the ground she had already raised. But she did dive through that ground while still moving, so it is still impressive," Peter added.
"So those weren't illusions?" Toru asked, turning to look at them. She knew that Sakura could do many extraordinary things, but the more she watched her fight, the more she realized she could do almost anything.
"She's not using any techniques for illusions or messing with his senses," Ranma said.
"What? Why not?" Ochaco asked, surprised. She had been surprised about her fight against Izuku when so many things initially didn't make sense. At least until her classmates explained about her abilities in that department.
"I can't say for sure since I don't know if she has some limitation to her Quirk," Ranma said, "but I would bet she's doing it to see how he reacts. She's already shown some of her techniques, so she's testing how he deals with others."
"Testing him?" Shoto asked, turning to Ranma with one of his eyebrows slightly raised. "Why?"
"She's not feeling pressured enough to fight seriously for one," Ranma answered. "So she's just seeing what he's capable of and how he reacts. Personal interest or at least letting him show his stuff to the crowd."
"Wha—" Rikido started to stay, but he couldn't finish his question as it baffled him. After a few seconds, he finally asked a question: "She—she would do that?"
"Yes!" Said every classmate who had trained under her.
Izuku winced as he heard his classmates continue to talk. He felt very conflicted about who he wanted to win this fight: his kind classmate, who had healed him multiple times yet was extremely powerful, or his childhood friend, whom he had looked up to in many ways.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Katsuki rose to his feet, taking the time Forehead allowed him to rest. He was conflicted about how he felt about it but opted to deal with it practically.
Now that he was standing, he took some time to look over the results of his previous blast. Some pillars were left standing, nearly untouched, but they were few in number and mainly on the outside edges of her creation. The ones closest to the explosion were damaged, chunks taken out, partially intact, or toppled over. Yet in the center, his blast had destroyed most of what was there and had sent the debris flying away, as well as a decent-sized crater.
He had focused his explosion on the ground, causing it to spread to the sides and minimize the damage to himself as planned. But Forehead had waded through it and didn't appear any worse for wear. He hadn't seen her display her durability before, but she seemed tough. Simple explosions, even from nearly point-blank range, wouldn't cut it against her.
Luckily, simple explosions were not the only tool he had anymore. Of course he had to actually land a hit for it to be effective. It was time to make it happen. He would pay attention to what his body was telling him later.
Katsuki leaned forward before shoving his hands behind him to shoot forward on another attack run. Forehead widened her smile and brought her hands together, palms meeting while her fingers crossed.
Katsuki had decided he wasn't going to dive to the side like he normally did; instead, he was going to interrupt whatever she was doing.
Knowing that he needed something more powerful and focused than his usual explosions, he cupped his hands for another attack and–
Katuski was startled when an explosion went off on the ground before him, blunting his momentum and staggering him due to the surprise. He crashed into the ground a few meters in front of her, though he rolled with it and shot off in another–
Another explosion, this time from behind him, threw him forward. He went with the momentum, trying to get back onto his attack, aiming for her–
Two more explosions went off, one to each of his sides, though slightly forward as well. He decided to abandon his current attack plan and shot off further away to put some distance between the two of them.
After putting some distance between them, Katsuki tried to figure out what the hell was going on. All he had seen her do was that hand motion, but nothing else. She suddenly had an ability that reminded him of his Quirk but could set it off from almost anywhere around her.
He watched her hands go through more signs and slapped the ground with her palm. A moment later, he felt it as the cement and ground beneath them reacted. He prepared to dodge, but it didn't feel like whatever she had done was directed at him specifically. He watched as much of the debris appeared to melt and reform into the ground before rising again as she started to recreate her altered arena.
Forehead left her hand on the ground for several seconds before she rose to her feet, slapped her palms together, and crossed her fingers one more time. He also saw her smile morph into a nasty grin, her eyes twinkling at him. He was wondering what she had planned when he saw a pillar rise up out of the ground directly in front of him and just outside of arms reach, but it didn't attack.
Once she was out of sight, he noticed something odd on the pillar. There was some sort of sheet of white paper with the kanji for 'explode' in the center, surrounded by other symbols he had no time to discern. Immediately after seeing it, he knew he didn't want to remain where he was. He was just too late to react.
The pillar exploded in his face, throwing him back and knocking him into the pillar behind him. He had taken enough explosions near his head not to be too disoriented, but it still left him dizzy. When he was cognitive, he realized the explosion had come from the paper tag. That was how she had been creating all of those explosions!
He was trying to figure out how she did it when his eyes caught sight of another piece of paper on the wall to his side. He panicked as he shot away from it just in time before it went off, the blast pelting him with bits of debris.
He looked around and suddenly realized he saw dozens of those marks all around him. How the fuck was she doing that? He almost set it aside when he remembered he had lost sight of her for over a minute, allowing her plenty of time to move over the battlefield and easily place those tags. She had planned for this!
He needed to destroy them as quickly as possible.
Katsuki raised his palm to use his Quirk before they went off. Then his instincts kicked in, and he rolled backward, using his Quirk to give it more boost. Again, he had barely avoided her sudden attack as her fist blew through the pillar between them, destroying the pillar on his other side from her momentum.
He rolled to his feet and then dived after her, launching an explosion a few centimeters from her face when she twisted to face him. He was caught off guard when Forehead exploded with a puff of smoke, with no trace of her remaining. His confusion rapidly changed to fear as he realized she had suckered him closer to more of those tags right before they went off!
Katsuki was blasted backward, hitting yet another pillar with his back and being reminded of his previous injury. He forced his body to move anyway, barely staying ahead of the various explosions and moving as fast as his battered body would allow him.
He kept Forehead in sight as often as possible, knowing she would use more tricks to distract him if he let her. But she seemed to have put down dozens and dozens of the marks all over the arena. He needed distance from them to take them out and a clear way to see her. There was only one direction he could use for that.
Another series of dodges resulted in Katsuki landing on top of one of the taller pillars, but he had to abandon it after finding another mark. Instead of going for other pillars, he shot into the air, flying a few stories in height, well above all the pillars.
Before reaching the peak of his ascension, he found Sakura observing him and hanging out on one of the pillars. She took action as he reached the peak, diving to the ground at the base of another decent-sized pillar.
Katsuki's eyes widened in shock as he shoved his arm to the side to perform an emergency mid-air maneuver, barely getting out of the path of the pillar after it was torn out of its base and thrown like a javelin. He felt the air displacement from its passage as it ascended.
Feeling safe enough, he decided to voice his pain and frustrations. "Die! Die! Die! Die!" Katsuki yelled as he sent focused blast after blast at the ground below him in a shotgun pattern.
He then flicked his hands at the ground, letting the sweat be thrown all around the arena. These sweat bombs were even more effective at destroying the pillars since the epicenter of the explosions was near their base.
The combination of attacks leveled the arena once more. Many of the paper tags became damaged or disappeared after a few moments, with only a few of them exploding. This created more debris, though most of it wasn't sent flying like earlier. Plumes of smoke and dust rose and hid most of the ground beneath him.
Forehead had remained in the middle of all of this. The explosions fluttered her clothes and hair in every direction while she calmly observed him, even when the smoke and dust briefly obscured her from view.
Once he had done enough damage to the surroundings and was still high enough in the air, his hands came together again to form a sealed chamber for a particularly focused blast he had developed. His hands crossed each other to seal one end with one of his thumbs, creating a bowl pointing straight at her. His smirk formed once more as he activated his Quirk.
"Diiieeeeeee!"
When the explosions went off, the blast was as powerful as the one he had used earlier but focused. This attack was not one he usually would have allowed himself to use without gear since it had the risk of severely damaging his hands due to the feedback.
The sweat that coated his hands all went off at once. The shockwaves met in the middle, causing them to ricochet off each other and push outward. The strongest focal point of the blast was pointed straight at Forehead as it traveled faster than the speed of sound. The ground cracked as the concussive force smashed into the cement, creating another massive mark on the already heavily abused arena floor. Most of the rest of the area also suffered under that assault, though it was minor in comparison. The displaced air spread out and was felt by the audience, ripping more than a few hats away.
The air was filled with dust, obscuring the ground beneath him. He used a few quick bursts to slow his descent that stung his now heavily abused and bleeding hands. He landed, dropping to a knee as he took deep breaths and got what rest he could. His drooping eyes remained on the lookout, focused primarily on a plume of dirt settling down where Forehead had been standing. He took deep breaths, trying to regulate his sweating body while he ignored his shaking hands as some of his blood began dripping to the ground beneath him.
The smoke started settling down, revealing the area around him. The pillars were utterly destroyed, and the arena was devastated. He heard Present Mic, the audience, and even the referees going into panic from his attacks, but he ignored them. His eyes were locked on the spot where he had seen his attack smash into her, trying to see if she was finally down while trying to keep his senses open for any other possible attacks.
He heard exclamations from the crowds, wondering what had gotten their attention, but he couldn't see anything. He glared at the crater he had created to see if she was inside it. He wasn't prepared to hear Forehead land a few meters behind him.
He twisted around as fast as his battered and exhausted body would allow him. He saw her standing there, uninjured, with her arm casually holding onto a pillar that weighed several metric tons.
"Nice attack, Bakugo," Forehead said simply, smiling at him. "I definitely would have felt that if I let it hit me."
"Where the fuck did you come from, Forehead?" Katsuki screamed at her. "I saw it hit you!"
She pointed above him, her smile widening. He raised an eyebrow, trying to convey that her answer was complete shit, in his opinion. She got the message and answered him. "Kawarimi no Jutsu."
"Replacement technique?" Katsuki asked, clearly confused by her answer. How did that explain what she did?
"I left an illusion in my place while I moved to a safer location. Makes it look like you got me with your attack," Forehead said.
"Safer location?" Katsuki demanded with a growl, trying to muster the will to keep going. Anger had always motivated him, so there was no reason to stop using it now. "My attack hit the entire arena floor! There was no safe space!"
"Sure there was. Your attack missed this lovely pillar, didn't it?" Sakura said as she patted the object before dropping it. It smashed into the ground with an appropriate clank, followed by more as it toppled to its side.
His mouth opened, trying to call out how much crap she was spewing, but he couldn't find the words. His brain wanted to say it was impossible, but he had already seen her do so many, to his understanding, impossible things already. She seemed to enjoy his befuddled expression, smirking as he tried to figure things out.
He settled on resuming the match even with how abused his body already was. He let his anger burn away his growing dread as he refused to surrender. He didn't know what he would do or what another blast would do to his hands, but he considered it anyway. He refused to lose!
"Oh, don't get yourself so worked up. The fight is already over," Forehead said as her body relaxed. "Besides, another attack like that might permanently cripple your hands."
"Do I look like I am giving up?" He growled at her, his glare intensifying for the insinuation.
"No," Sakura said, followed by a slight pause. "But it doesn't matter since it's been over for a while."
That further confused him, wondering what the hell she was talking about.
"It was over from the moment I touched you."
That didn't explain anything. How would… her explosions. Her techniques. He saw her apply many of them by touching something, so what if when she pushed him away, strong enough to break pillars and nearly take him out, she had done something to him?
Katsuki panicked, realizing what kind of danger he might be in as he reached towards his shirt to attempt to rip it off of him when the spot she had touched suddenly glowed, revealing red cherry blossom-shaped marks on it before lines suddenly burst out and crawled over his shirt and body faster than he could act. He felt those lines constrict, squeezing him so tight that he lost his breath at the sudden change. It also caused him to faceplant into the ground with his sudden loss of body control.
"Gah! What the fuck!" Katsuki yelled after twisting his head and spitting out what dust his mouth had collected.
He felt her step up next to him, her fist casually resting on his head, indicating that he could do nothing. Yet he refused to say the words.
"Still not giving up?" Forehead asked him. He just glared up at her from the side of his eye.
"Referee, he refuses to give up," Sakura called out calmly.
"Bakugo, can you move or attack?" Midnight asked from her platform. Katsuki was silent, refusing to answer her question. "Bakugo, I want an answer."
"... no," Katsuki finally grounded out before his eyes drifted away to look at the cement and dirt he was laid on.
"Haruno wins!"
"... fuck," Katsuki said softly.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"That fight was getting dangerous," Thirteen said, her voice nearly cracking as she relaxed into her seat. She had been distraught since those large explosions the Bakugo boy used, blasting debris everywhere.
"Yes, Midnight and Cementoss should have stepped in after that first explosion," Ectoplasm said. "That last blast could have killed Haruno."
"I agree, it is concerning. Bakugo went a little overboard," Toshinori said, his eyes tracking the same things his co-workers were seeing before his eyes turned back to the contestants as he watched Bakugo being taken away on a stretcher by the school's robots. "But I don't think Haruno was in danger."
"Not in danger!?" Power Loader yelled. "That last attack was like the backblast from a jet engine, much like your fists!"
Toshinori sighed, knowing they were concerned since they hadn't heard Recovery Girl talking about her. This fight had opened his eyes regarding Sakura, having ignored her age for once and focused entirely on how she fought. "She was never in any danger," he said, "she had complete control of that battle."
"He's right," Vlad Blood said, his eyes having never left the students below. "Haruno's far tougher than we've given her credit for, but so far she has only taken a hit when she let them. Those hits were for a reason; she is far craftier than any of us would have expected. Remember, she is the one who set a trap for the Villain's leader during their attack. When she executed it, she left no room for the enemy to escape."
Toshinori winced at that reminder. He had reacted quickly, but even he was unsure if he could have avoided that attack entirely if Sakura had not interfered.
"You are right, Vlad," Thirteen said, her voice sounding tired as her memories surfaced. "She was also the one that commanded that fight, not Eraser Head or I."
The other teachers nodded, acknowledging the points that were made. Vlad then grinned, showing off his sharp fangs.
"Who will win the finale?" Vlad said, his voice sounding excited for once, "I could see it going either way."
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Hold still, dear," Chiyo said as she gave the boy a peck on the cheek. He held still, not because of her request but rather because he was lost in his head as he stared forward at nothing in particular.
She stepped back, giving him a once over as her Quirk finished working. She inspected his hands more closely, glad they had healed nicely. The tremors and other signs of him overusing his Quirk had disappeared. Though it hardly seemed to matter to him.
She still completed her job, poking and prodding at the injuries she had noted. He didn't react like he previously had, so she was pleased with the results.
Chiyo silently stepped back, marking the paperwork before looking back at the boy. She was suspicious about what his mind was focused on, having had to heal many Pro-Heroes and civilians after a defeat or losing something precious to them.
"Don't work yourself up too badly, dear," Chiyo said. His eyes flickered toward her, letting her know she had been heard. "You did very well considering the circumstances."
She grinned as his eyes hardened with anger.
"While you might be upset now, understand that everyone's paths differ. No two people grow and learn in the exact same way. Not in everything. Some grow slowly, while others become strong in the blink of an eye," Chiyo said as she returned his stare. "The question becomes, what will you do?"
She said nothing else while keeping that eye contact. He eventually broke it, his features softening as he looked away. Happy that she had gotten through his anger, she gave him another smile before giving more advice. "Take a few minutes, work it through your system, and rejoin your classmates. Watch and observe them, acknowledge their strengths, and then work on yourself to close that gap."
Katsuki didn't verbally respond, but he did give her an almost imperceptible nod of his head. Chiyo smiled before she grabbed another small bag of gummy bears and set them next to his bed without a word. She had other patients to see.
While she didn't see it, she wouldn't have been surprised that he leaned back on the bed as his hands covered his face or the wet tears that leaked through those fingers.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Midnight sighed as she watched her colleague drag the massive hose that pumped in more cement to help him repair the arena. She had to shake her head at how destructive that last battle had been. Then she winced as she felt a few spots, most assuredly bruised due to flying debris.
"Midnight. Cementoss."
"Yes, Eraser Head?" Midnight asked as she touched her earbud.
"When Saotome and Haruno fight, do not interfere unless it is a danger to the audience," Aizawa said.
Midnight said nothing, her body refusing to respond. She noticed that Cementoss had also stilled and that she hadn't heard a peep from Present Mic.
"What?" Midnight asked when she finally recovered sufficiently from her shock. After a few seconds, she asked a more relevant question. "Why?"
"We want a clearer idea of their strength, and both have shown sufficient restraint," Aizawa said calmly. "At this time, I don't think we can properly judge what is too far. For either of them."
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
"Welcome back, Bakugo! Great fight, man!" Eijiro called out as the blonde boy reached their aisle. He noted that he seemed to be in a pissy mood, not even responding to his greeting with a grunt as he took his seat, slumping backward into it a bit. The rest of his classmates ignored him, having adjusted to his attitude over the last several weeks.
"So, Peter, who do you think will win?" Eijiro asked as he turned his attention to a more sociable friend. He was interested in his opinion since he was the only one to have fought somewhat evenly with Ranma or Sakura.
Peter hummed as he thought over his friend's question. He went over what he knew of the two of them, both public and what little Karen had been able to dig up, which was far less than his other classmates. This was understandable since they both appeared to have lived isolated lives. "My initial thoughts lean towards Saotome since I did fight him more thoroughly than Haruno, but that doesn't tell me enough to give an accurate evaluation."
"Haruno-san will win," Tenya said with confidence.
"Ranma!" Toru shouted in excitement, her body barely able to hold still. She was tempted to retrieve her cheerleader uniform before the match could begin.
"Sakura! I've told you what she did at the practical exam; one hit from her could take him out!" Mina said, grinning with her classmates as they looked forward to their class's two aces finally duking it out.
"I don't think a single hit will take him out," Ochako said, more mild-mannered than her other friends, though she, too, was getting into it. "He lifted that giant robot for twenty minutes! He took a beating from Parker-san, so he doesn't lack endurance."
"Don't forget Haruno-san's ability to create illusions or those clones," Fumikage said.
"Those may not be as effective on Saotome as the rest of us," Mezo said as he spoke up for the first time in a while. "Saotome's senses are stronger than normal, and his Ki sense may be able to bypass or interfere with whatever Haruno does."
"Shoji-kun isn't wrong about that," Izuku said, looking up from where he was writing and preparing his notebook for the coming fight. "Remember during the Battle Training? Ranma said he sensed her putting her energy into Jiro-san and Kaminari-kun, even from all the way in the training room. He's likely seen and felt her do that several times and saw what I did to counter them. He could probably replicate it himself."
"This fight could go either way," Shoto said. His calm and rational voice cut through the building fight about who would win. "Both are nearly equal in multiple areas, so it is hard to say who will come out on top."
Most of Class A nodded at that, especially their more experienced and heavily trained fighters. They agreed that it could go either way based on what they knew of them. But that didn't silence them from cheering on who they wanted to win. Especially as their two classmates started walking into the arena and the audience began to cheer, their excitement rising to a fever pitch.
"Go, Sakura!" Mina yelled, both hands cupping her mouth as she jumped out of her seat.
"Ranma! Ranma! Ranma!" Toru shouted from a few seats over, her arm shooting into the air whenever she said his name, evident by the way her short sleeve moved.
Tenya's grin widened as his growing excitement mirrored that of his classmates, though it was more muted than theirs in how he expressed it. His phone rumbled in his pocket just as Sakura's feet touched the arena floor.
He pulled it out and noticed it was from his family. Deciding he should dutifully answer it, he excused himself and nearly sprinted to the top of the stairs and inside the hallway, hoping to complete the call before the fight began. "Hello, Mother! Sakura's fight is about to–"
"Tenya!"
Tenya was startled by his mother's shout. He could hear the emotion in her voice, which worried him greatly, especially since she had only ever shouted when necessary.
"Yes, Mother?" Tenya asked carefully.
"It's… it's your Brother!"
Tenya felt a chill go down his spine at her words.
"He's been critically injured! Shuzenji-sensei said he was about to enter emergency surgery to try to save his life!" His mother said, sobbing into the phone as she told her youngest child the horrifying news. "It… it was a Villain! A Villain got your Brother, Tenya!"
Tenya's phone almost fell out of his hands as his strength left him. His body, more than his mind, reflexively grasped it in a fist before it could crash into the ground.
His legs weren't so lucky.
-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-
Chapter 19 - End
Author's Note - Once more, thanks to Boldish for all his hard work, as well as Iron, MsWiggles, and TheForgetfulAlchemist.
I am making progress on the next Arc's chapters, but it is slower going than I'd like. New med regiments don't help.