Another Hero Academia: Out of Time

by NewMystery356

Died while getting a pre-order video game? Check. People discriminated against for being born without a special "power"? Check. People discriminated against for being born with an "evil power"? Check. People discriminated against for not looking "human"? Check. Yup, it's official: I've been Isekai'd. Now if only I knew where the hell I was. [SI & Mass-Multi-X-Over]

55. Run for the Money

To GreedEman, I though the whole "trouser snake" chasing a snake-headed lady thing was kinda obvious, perhaps even on-the-nose. Ryukyu was in on it because she seemed like the most-obvious lady Hero to hang out with Uwabami if they were in the same area and some Villain wasn't out and about making a complete jackass of himself.

To The Viking Stranger, if a story doesn't have its Slow Burn, no-one will really notice when I put the temperature to High. And as for Mero's offer, I'd like to think the path to the Harem Route was at the least more-inventive than all the girls sitting down and unanimously deciding to share him quote/unquote "just because". Especially since at this point, they're all still in middle school, so there aren't the outright sexual connotations as there are the emotional ones, with the prospect of physical romance on the horizon in a world where Villain attacks can happen at any moment.
In other words, an actuary's worst nightmare.
As for what he "inherits" from Tohru when he's in the Dragon Form that Elma hand-crafted for him… maybe a willful disregard for certain rules~ I actually have something along those lines planned a while after "Run for the Money".

To LoamyCoffee, I feel like the utter lack of an undersea kingdom founded for and eventually maintained by aquatic Heteromorphs was such a missed opportunity. I mean, you have anti-Mutant villages in the far countryside where Neo Nazis would cream their pants on every street corner, and the whole "Mutant War" thing happened far too late to have any real buildup beyond the spectacle of Shoji throwing lots and lots of hands with a quasi-Noumu.

To grx1318, always happy to give someone that nostalgic "Saturday morning cartoon" vibe~
I get a really similar vibe when reading an update of a really, really good fanfiction.

*AHA*

Something I took with me when I Reincarnated was the idea that if I was early to bed, I'd be early to rise. Unless you Reincarnate, "time" isn't something you can get back, so I make a concerted effort to make the most of the time I do have. Unless I'm cursed to perpetually suffer the effects of the "Lightnovel Virus", I'm going to treat this life as "the last one".

Today, this proved quite useful because the Run for the Money staff came at our rooms at an ungodly hour to get us all up, well before the crack of down. The exact time that filming would begin wasn't really specified, only that we should get a good night's rest. And it wasn't like we'd know for certain that we'd be kicked awake at the ass-end of yesterday; plenty of episodes of Run for the Money began at completely normal daylight hours if only to mix things up, or because they could only get daylight hours for the venue, or any number of reasons in the two centuries this show has been running on and off.

So here we all were, standing in one of Huis Ten Bosch's open plazas at such an ungodly hour, the skies above us pitch black. The representatives from Murakami Chugakko were all wearing what I would later learn were Shiketsu tracksuits, whereas those of us from my school had clothing of all colors and styles, all pre-approved by the staff. Half of those in attendance looked well-rested, while those who weren't would either be kicked into high gear once the adrenaline started flowing, or they'd be the first to lose out. And sure, a quick power nap in a corner somewhere was also a possibility, but unless it was played up for laughs in post, that shit would follow you for weeks if not months after the episode's initial run on television.

Seeing the thirty competitors all gathered up like this, in the park, reminded me of the scale of what would be occurring. "Nineteen soccer fields" might seem like a big number, but considering the amount of ground that's non-traversable given we can't go into the buildings or touch the water, things could get claustrophobic pretty quickly in this over-the-top game of Hide & Seek meets Tag.

My cat-like ears picking up the rumbling of heavy automobile tracks on pavement, equally cat-like eyes already well adjusted to the light caught sight of massive party vans covered with eye-gouging LEDs and neon lights. There were five in total, two pairs going left, two pairs going right, with the fifth at the front pulling perpendicular to them, the side emblazoned with the "all-seeing-eye" insignia of the show.

After letting us stew in anticipation, the side of the perpendicular van angled itself upward, revealing a cargo hold filled with suit-clad men of various shapes and sizes, futuristic-looking visors on their faces and cyberpunk-era facemasks that made them resemble futuristic Oni, the interior lights rising and falling in response to their breathing.

Some of my peers expressing the unease they felt as the Hunters stood motionless, a moment later in front of the building off to the side, a massive holographic screen came to life, revealing the plague mask wearing announcer from the night before in some kind of control room.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Run for the Money. We will set twenty Hunters out into the area. Let us begin."

"Twenty?" Itsuka blinked.

Yes, that's what the announcer just said.

"I'm scared…" Kyouko whimpered, even though she literally towered over all of them.

"This nightmare will continue until three of you are caught," the announcer continued, numerous mutterings of discontent sounding from my own peers before the announcer declared- "Let us begin." -with a dramatic swing of the hand, a Time Until Release timer measuring 60 seconds appearing in big red LED letters.

The big 60 turning into a 59 had the intended effect of sending everyone scattering into Huis Ten Bosch.

Everyone except myself, and the Robin expy who smirked over his shoulder at me challengingly.

Oh? You wanna play chicken?

Tough. I'm gonna make you regret that.

*AHA*

Elsewhere at "Mission Command", in a setup not too dissimilar from the Yuuei Entrance Exam's admittance board, sponsors and already-ousted competitors watched the goings-on from countless monitors. There were a smattering of aerial drones for high, wide-angle shots, a number of on-foot cameramen to get you really down into the thick of it, and even a few first-person displays courtesy of the Hunters' cyberpunk visors.

The competitors from Murakami and Damoto both scattering into the park, after a few moments all eyes fell back onto the two remaining competitors in the plaza, one from each school; the defacto "leaders" of each faction. One was infamous for his frequent participation in Villain attacks, while the other was renowned for his prowess on the martial arts circuit, even able to trump those with Mutant-type bodies who were still able to retreat.

Mero watching worriedly as the two boys leered at one another, seemingly playing a game of Chicken as the timer ran down, Takei began to unbutton the raincoat he wore out into the night for some reason.

The young man then throwing it up and away from himself in a dramatic flourish that she was sure was going to look extra-amazing in post-production, as the yellow coat fell to the ground, Takei put an orange visor over his eyes, the cameras capturing that, instead of wearing the Yuuei tracksuit he'd been seen wearing at school and on social media, he was instead wearing his Mon Squad regalia, the breast of his flak jacket zoomed in to reveal the added bullets that signified each "kill" like on the side of wartime fighter planes.

Takei giving his contemporary a two-fingered salute and a parting smirk, a moment later he rounded on his heel and was off like a shot, his departure actually causing his discarded raincoat to whip back up into the air.

The garment smacking the Quirkless teen in the face, fighting the garment cost him a few more seconds before he too was off into the park, his posturing backfiring in the wake of the twenty stationary Hunters, and eventually, the whole of Japan's viewing audience.

*AHA*

The timer for Run for the Money was 200 minutes, or three and one-third hours.

Every second that passed added 100 yen to the prize pool, with a potential per-second jump to a full 500-per-second somewhere in the middle stages of the game.

The ultimate goal of this "large-scale runaway show" was to either to out-last the Hunters until the very end, which few rarely ever did, or make it to the "Surrender Booth" with an adequate amount of cash on the timer, which few also rarely ever did.

Immediately adjacent to the plaza where the game started was a bridge across the waterway, and a footpath running alongside. Not all students from each school chose a singular path in a united front, resulting in an intermingling of roughly 15 each way, which further spread out as everyone sought to distance themselves from as-many of their fellow competitors as possible. Two Runners were more likely to be spotted by the Hunters than one by themselves.

All the competitors had a smartphone that'd allow them to communicate across their respective School, but communication was text-only; no live communications allowed unless it were Quirk-related.

It was why, only mere minutes after the Hunters had been unleashed, that Mitsumi was caught completely off guard as the Cyborg expy came around the corner, wrapping a blindfold around her third eye before throwing her over his shoulder, the cybernetically-enhanced representative of Murakami intent on throwing her right at one of the Hunters; a perfectly viable tactic as previous seasons showed.

Apart from the sub-personalities that came with her Quirk, even with her martial arts prowess, against an opponent who was largely mechanical, she may as well have been Quirkless.

Of course, Mitsumi was hardly alone in this, as a moment later Hiroyoshi came around the corner, bellowing a tiger-like roar as he struck the Cyborg expy across the face, instigating the first actual "fight" of the competition.

The cyborg's grip on Mitsumi weakening enough for the tiger-like Heteromorph to pull her away before galloping into the night on all fours, the cyborg expy cursed under his breath before his mechanical eye panned the darkness for a more-vulnerable target.

One he found a moment later in Hanako Yukimura on the other side of the river.

Right as he calculated an intercept, however, two students from his rival school rounded the corner directly in front of him, bouncing against his armored torso.

*AHA*

The phone strapped to Kuromi's forearm chiming loudly, the gloomy girl hissed-

"Shut up. Shut up."

-as she accessed the notifications.

Misao Torase has been captured.

Takeshi Kotake has been captured.

According to the timestamp attached to the message, the two had been ousted at roughly five minutes into the game.

Though she wouldn't admit as such to Shiori, who likely intended to leverage every advantage she had to go home with a fat chunk of change, her own meta-awareness had let her know that the "Cyborg expy" had captured the two students, before tossing them at a nearby hunter "off-screen".

"Yeah, he seemed the type," the gloomy girl hummed as mechanical footfalls came around the corner, the glint of a cybernetic eye and an ugly smirk sent her way.

*AHA*

For two of the Hunters, it was just another day at the office. Non-speaking roles didn't pay well, even in the Paranormal Age, but the hazard pay from being in the firing line of Quirks was arguably higher than being an ordinary stunt man. Not only that, but their work let them travel to all sorts of places on the company dime, so suffice it to say, the two once-Hero-hopefuls took some measure of joy in their work.

By sheer coincidence, the two also had younger cousins who were fans of Takehiko Tokei, whether it be from his IRL exploits or on GGO, so the possibility to get them autographs after shooting for the day was done was also an added benefit.

Of course, there was a certain persona they had to project, and thankfully their visors and masks gave them excellent poker faces as they played the roles of two "cyborgs hunting down rogue fugitives".

Their night vision-bolstering visors catching sight of some huge half-robot kid from behind in the middling distance, saw that he in turn had locked sight on some gloomy-looking girl from Damoto, who looked almost frightfully similar to Sadako from Ring.

Two students from Damoto had already been thrown to the proverbial wolves, and it seemed like the representative from Murakami intended to make it three for three in these early stages of the game as he ran at the girl. The gloomy looking girl in turn stepped back into the dark alley, half-robot teen in tow.

The two Hunters, continuing their fast walk and elevating into a jog, momentarily stumbled on their feet as a panicked- "HUWAAAAUUUUUGH!" -pierced through the night air, the half-robot kid from Murakami scrambling out of the alleyway in a backwards crabwalk before he scrambled onto his hands and knees.

Before he could flee in earnest, a massive black appendage that only passably resembled a human arm shot out of the dark and snared him by the ankle, the teen letting out a horrified wail filled with anguish and regret as he was dragged back into the dark like something from a horror movie.

The two Hunters similarly stopping short as they watched the half-robot teen dig furrows and wrench masonry out of the ground, momentarily contemplated whether to get involved. They were still getting paid by the hour, and the soft rule was that if they saw someone, they pursue them at full tilt until they broke line-of-sight for five or more seconds depending how many competitors need to be pursued or left alone so the game wouldn't end too early.

When the two saws the shadows in the alleyway start to move like something from H.P. Lovecraft, one Hunter turned on his heel with a mechanical flair, while the other turned left and crossed the waterway, both washing their hands of what they just saw.

*AHA*

"AAAAAAAHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh…!"

Takei looking up to see the Cyborg expy flying -read: flailing- through the air after something massively powerful chucked him into the wild blue yonder, the Lombax-like boy followed the giant robotic pre-teen's flight before the nearby buildings got in the way.

Running a little light math and cartography in his head to calculating where he could've landed, a moment later his phone chimed, the pre-teen ducking down into the dark and checking the notification.

Shouri Iwa has fallen out of bounds.

'Hmmmm…' Takei hummed, counting out how the third person to be disqualified at roughly the 9 minute mark hadn't triggered the end of the first Event. 'I guess "until three of you are caught" is taken literally.'

*Ffffwwwww!*

The sound of some kind of air-based rocket sounding through the air, Takei leapt out of cover and from what sounded like some kind of concussionary projectile. Perking up his ears which were getting a real workout, he heard the mechanical whirring of pneumatic drivers well before he saw the Gizmo expy coming towards him on metal arachnid-like legs -numbering six instead of the non-expy's four-, a missile pod sticking out of his backpack with a built-in laser sight pointed right at him.

"Heh! Figures that clod would bite off more than he could chew!" the little midget cackled as he manipulated a handheld controller, missile pod angled at me. "You want something done right, you do it yourself~"

Firing off another missile at him, Takei leaned away from it and turned to the left, the missile letting off a small airburst behind him, doing minimal damage to the masonry. The Gizmo expy clicking his tongue, he fired off two more airburst rockets, Takei dodging them both because, compared to all his other sparring partners, they might as well have been thrown soda cans.

"So that's how you wanna play it, huh, wise guy?" the Gizmo expy chuckled menacingly -or so he thought- as another missile pod extended from his backpack. "Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya-"

*Whooshwhooshwhooshwhoosh*

"OW! Safety glasses! Why have you betrayed me?!" the Gizmo expy cried as Takei in his best Wonder Woman impression threw his visor through the air like a chakram, catching the tiny terror in the face and giving him all the latitude he needed to close the distance, climb up two arachnid-like legs, and mount the barely show-legal non-licensed Support Item.

All without letting his orange visor hit the ground.

Powerful Lombax-like fingers peeling back a primary panel like Batman in the "Arkham Universe" ripping an air duct cover out of the wall, he punched his fist into the mechanical innards. Pulling back with his best Mace Windu impression, circa Star Wars: Clone Wars 2003, adjusting his grip on the tiny terror he assumed some modicum of control.

"OW! HEY! QUIT IT!" the Gizmo expy cried as his harness sparked around him, his arachnoid legs whirring angrily as he was carried down the street on his own invention.

"Oh my, this looks expensive," Takei hummed as he ripped out what looked like some kind of custom-tooled component. The Gizmo expy's backpack letting out a stereotypical 'shutting down' sound, the little guy let out an indignant- "OOF!" -as his arachnoid legs went boneless, the little guy shielding his face with his arms as he bodily flopped onto the pavement.

"Razin', frazzin'…" he muttered in a self-censored sequitur as the weight of his genius, at least as he would call it, pinned him to the ground.

A second later, the looming shadow of a Hunter closed in on him dramatically, causing him to cry out- "CRUUUUUUUD!"

*AHA*

The sun beginning to rise just as the third victim was "caught", moments after the notification for the Murakami tinkerer's capture sounded out, another bulletin sounded from on high.

As three players have been captured, two Hunter Elimination Buttons have been placed in front of the Stadhuis. If pressed, 15 Hunters will be gone. The time limit is 10 minutes.

On the surface, it seemed like a no-brainer; turn 20 active Hunters into 5 and your chances of victory went up 4-fold.

The catch of course was there were still 20 active Hunters patrolling the park, and the Stadhuis was located roughly in the park's center. Didn't matter how high the chances of victory were for those that were caught. Anything times zero was still zero.

All that in mind, Takei's phone chimed with a text from his school's APB.

Usui: I'm going for one of the buttons.

Takei texted back-

Takehiko: I've studied the map, you'll be completely exposed until someone comes to press the second button.

Shiori replied-

Usui: Don't worry about it~ Murakami wants to win this as much as we do. They'll send someone~

*AHA*

And the 2D Girl was not wrong on that front, for representing Murakami was the raven-headed girl who I would learn in-post did not look happy to be there at this ungodly hour in the morning.

Also, if I had the hormonal cocktail necessary to be sexually interested in girls and there wasn't all this "Rival Schools" nonsense happening, I'd definitely ask her out because she was a real cutie. And I didn't think that just because Raven was my "Best Girl" of the Teen Titans franchise; I genuinely thought she was a real cute girl with glossy black feathers.

And no, these sorts of feelings didn't count as "Furryism" as Kuroko told me when she decided to give me "The Talk", because it only counted as being a Furry if it was an animal anthropomorphized into a human-like shape, not a Human "de-anthropomorphized" with animal features.

Didn't stop certain Heteromorphs from basically becoming real-life fetish bait…

Moving on!

"Oh look! A big red button!" Shiori beamed, having used her Quirk to become functionally invisible to every Hunter she encountered along the way.

"Joy," the raven-headed girl hummed as she unceremoniously pushed the button in comparison to Shiori's aplomb, the two spaced far-enough apart that you needed either two people or one person with a stretching-arms Quirk.

*Whoosh-CLANG!*

An instant later, a large Capture Item that looked like the cage used for cage matches dropped down on them via quadcopter, trapping them inside.

"Well…" the raven-headed girl said as one of the quadcopter camera drones flew on by and started blasting the space with strobe lights. "That's mildly unpleasant."

Not just because of the strobing lights, but also because her [Shadow Travel] was completely useless without a "stable" shadow to slip into.

Then again, these shows had to do something to stop too many people from making it to the final minutes.

"Gotta love these 'widely-spaced jail bars'~" Shiori chuckled as she flattened herself out like paper and walked right on through.

*AHA*

With the Hunter Elimination Buttons pressed halfway through the allotted time, the game continued with renewed energy. While in-post it was made to look like the 15 now-surplus Hunters were teleported away like something from The Matrix, in actuality it was just a bunch of guys in black suits walking into nearby buildings to wait out the next three hours and change.

That or just bum around for however long it took the event organizers to begin trickling Hunters back into the game.

The sun was beginning to rise in fulll, and thus-far, no-one else from Murakami outright attacked me like the Gizmo expy. In fact, the Starfire expy was quite sociable and actually wished me a good morning before flying across the river and leaving me to break line of sight of the Hunter that'd rounded the corner.

That said, all the research into Run for the Money wasn't done solely by me. Kuroko, Tio, and Zombina at one point or another wanted to compete and compiled their own research, so I knew from their own dedication to the craft that the best way to break line of sight was to turn the same direction twice instead of a left-right, because that extra second of exposure could make or break you in a pursuit.

Not that it would help if you ran head-long into a Hunter, but an obvious benefit of my Lombax-like anatomy was my phenomenal hearing. The park was still pretty vacant, so it was easy enough to recognize the "measured" strides of the suit-clad men walking the grounds. Compared to that, my fellow competitors were more cautious, jogging, or outright running.

18 minutes into the game, and my phone chimed inside my flak jacket, the thick ballistic material muffling the sound just a little.

Mission 1: Four teams of androids have appeared in the area. Each of them has one letter on its body. When the letters are combined, it will spell out one word per team. When you text the word, the prize money for your school will increase by 100 Yen. If you complete four words, one second becomes 500 Yen. If you're successful, the total prize will be 5.04 million. Furthermore, these four words represent your emotions.

"So that's how it is… The Rival Schools caveat mean twice as many people will be active during this mission, doubling the chances of people getting caught," I hum as I take a knee, stroking my chin contemplatively as I talk aloud.

I normally wouldn't do… this, but I figured I should give the cameraman following me something to work with, and I wanted to give the Mon Squad uniform as much media exposure as possible.

*AHA*

The deadline for this mission's completion was 160 minutes hence, or at the 40-minute mark since the start of the game. That meant we had a little over 20 minutes to get this done.

Pooling together intelligence from the 12 other Damoto Chugakko representatives remaining, we were able to determine that one of the teams of androids were 3 flying units above the Garden, there were 5 on BMX bikes in Attraction Town, there were two pairs on two trikes armed with smoke guns in Amsterdam City, and there were three androids riding motorized surfboards through the waterways bisecting the park.

As far as initial reconnaissance could tell, they did fixed circuits through their singular assigned areas, meaning it was possible to reallocate resources as specific areas were cleared. However, even though there were 15 less Hunters than before, that still left 5 on patrol, and these men weren't slouches. If anything, they were either pro athletes looking for a little extra change, Hero washouts, or active Pros looking to pad their resumes.

Honestly, coordinating with everyone felt like a Raid Event in GGO, and while from where I was sitting it all felt like a bit of a chore, I'm sure that in-post all of us running around scrambling for answers would be made to look a lot more entertaining than it felt.

Already I could see those with mobility-boosting Quirks from Murakami collecting letters, and while I was sure Elma would frown upon me using capital-m Magic for this, I'm sure Tohru would argue that I was following the spirit of the game if not the letter.

Also, since Elma and I loved one another to death and I could easily bribe her happiness with food, I decided it was prudent to cheat just a little bit.

So, considering the Garden was the most-exposed of Huis Ten Bosch's areas and had the least amount of androids, I got into a good position, put a monocular to my eye from my flak jacket -once I got it cleared with the game admins- and used a bit of [Clairvoyance] to collect the three letters. Figured getting this out of the way early would free everyone else up to flood the other areas, but just in case…

"Tobita… Leave the Garden to me... Hit up the Waterway…" I read the text I was sending out aloud.

Of course, so it wouldn't be too obvious that I was doing something "suspicious", as in, someone analyzing the footage frame by frame and determining that there was "no way I could've" seen this or that letter at this or that time, I made a show of doing recon from three separate points while dodging around the two Hunters passing through, Metal Gear-style. After three minutes of putting on a show for the cameras and my fellow teammates/competitors, I crouched down low next to a couple vending machines and muttered-

"Reconnaissance complete. Forwarding intel to mission command."

-with a serious expression, playing up my role as a future Pro Hero.

I was certainly dressed for the part.

Texting the word JOY up the chain, almost immediately we received the notification-

The flying team's word has been answered. There are 3 teams left.

-which meant that at the 40-minute mark, at the very least our prize pool would go up by 200 yen per second.

While I could just as easily "carry" my school through this event using some carefully disguised fits of [Clairvoyance] , I didn't want to make anyone look bad, nor did I want to "take away" the opportunity to participate in this wacky domestic gameshow.

So with this in mind, I let everyone know that I was getting a light snack from one of the kiosks that gets cut out in post-production.

*AHA*

Usui: Come on, everybody! We can't let Take-chan have ALL the fun! Let's do this thing!

Manaka: She's right. Everyone, split off into teams of 3 at the minimum to cover Attraction Town, Amsterdam City, and the Waterways. Once you finish up a word, divert to other areas.

Yukimura: She's right. At 500 yen per second, even if you surrender, that's a big chunk of change.

Tobita: I'm trailing the androids in the waterway, but I can't keep up with that speed by myself.

Osanai: Don't expect much from me and my tiny legs.

Oogi: Don't worry! I've got long strides! Let me do my part!

*AHA*

As I would learn after watching this in-post, at around 175 minutes remaining, Kyouko Oogi got captured after one Hunter chased her toward another while she was trying to collect letters.

Two minutes after that, the second word, SAD, got texted up the chain from the two trike teams.

At a little before the 167-minute mark, the Void-Faced Anna Okubo was captured, also as a result of trying to collect letters.

At just a minute after, the third word, ANGER, got texted up the chain from the five androids on LED-lit BMX bikes.

At three minutes before the deadline, the fourth word, FUN, got texted up the line from the three androids on motorized surfboards.

"Pretty sure 'fun' isn't an emotion, but, you know, whatever," I stage-sighed.

So ultimately, Damoto completed the first real mission with only minutes to spare. As we would learn after-the-fact, Murakami was far more coordinated, and thus had completed their task with at least twice that to spare, having only lost one person to our two, leaving both schools with 11 runners.

*AHA*

Right on the 40-minute mark, a sense of collective avarice worthy of a capital-d Dragon washed over the two schools' representatives as the count-up timer began to add 500 yen to the pool every second, instead of the initial 100.

Of course, the men and women manning Run for the Money weren't content to make things easy for us just because the sun was up and we could appreciate the foreign architecture.

The phone chiming at the 45-minute mark, I looked down to see the message-

Acquire the phone number card in the area. If you tip off another runner's location and have the Hunters catch them, you will receive 100,000 yen for each Rival School runner you betray; and 300,000 from each fellow runner you betray. Only the first two Runners can be Traitors.

"So, they're incentivizing us to turn on our own, and not just the other school…" I muse aloud, stroking my chin as I let my racing thoughts show on my face.

Assuming the letter of the new rule was to be taken literally, then it was even possible for two Traitors to be from the same school. Anyone smart-enough to realize this on either side would scramble for the cards in earnest, which I was doing right now; two runners from Murakami having the power to call in "drone strikes" would be the worst possible outcome for us.

As I would learn in-post, there were 20 cards scattered through the park, a little more than one per soccer field-sized plot of land. Moving carelessly would, of course, result in your disqualification, card or no card. And if a Hunter caught you before you could Surrender, even if you betrayed other Runners, you'd still go home with nothing.

Since the idea of Traitors was sure to incite an uncontrolled panic or "chaos" among the competitors, I decided to use a smidgen of [Clairvoyance] behind my orange visor to help me find the nearest phone number card. At the very least, I was sure that Elma would agree that one Traitor per school was the most "harmonious" of the two options.

Watching the Mammoth expy rip the Photo Spot placard from the ground in front of me, his phone angrily chiming, I assumed he was getting some kind of warning; I was sure if he'd been outright disqualified, he'd have definitely shown it on his face.

The phone in my breast pocket chiming aloud at the 52-minute mark-

The first Traitor has been decided.

-and not revealing who, obvious, was the Traitor, nor which school they were from, caused a sense of dread and urgency to wash over all of us.

Thankfully, my [Clairvoyance] let me see the phone number card in the middling distance, and making a show of spying it with my monocular, I sent the number up the chain.

They never said you had to have the card in your hand to become a Traitor; something the game promoters agreed with, because a second later-

The second Traitor has been decided. The recruitment is now closed.

Making a show of rubbing my eyes under my visor, as if using my Mutant eyesight and a monocular was a measured strain, the cameraman that was following me inquired-

"So, do you plan to sell any of your classmates out? 300,000 yen per head is a lot of money."

-for a soundbite, his own words being edited out in post-production.

"Nu-uh, not gonna happen," I said shaking my head, giving the area a quick once-over for any Hunters before turning my attention back to the camera. "It might be big money, sure, but I still have to go through the rest of middle school with my peers. And some things are more valuable than money."

A little sappy on the surface, but also pragmatic because it was true. Unlike other seasons of Run for the Money where it was mostly strangers, after this season, us Runners would still have to go to school with anyone we potentially betrayed, and there was no way that wouldn't be shown in post-production.

In most seasons of this game show, it was "every man for himself", but the Rival Schools aspect drew a very clear line in the sand; hence why they made the prize money for betraying one of your own so-huge.

All that said, Elma probably wouldn't appreciate me using the magic she taught be to be a "spotter", so I'd use my own eyes if anyone from Murakami fell into my sights.

*AHA*

The addition of Traitors added a level of uncertainty to the game, even after I texted out-

Did anyone else grab a phone card?

Reading between the lines, it could be seen as me admitting I was a Traitor without actually admitting it aloud, but it could also be taken as just an inquiry about if anyone else found the card.

Even if some of my peers were too thick to read into it, that no-one else was willing to admit to it either meant they had but weren't going to admit it because the 300,000 per-head bounty got to them, or because one of Murakami's students got the card.

The over/under was 50/50, so it hardly warranted thinking about.

What's more, while the Hunters' backs were a small safe zone from the beginning of the game, that they could suddenly pull an about face meant you couldn't carelessly follow behind them any longer. Something I witnessed from the other side of the river as the Kitten expy got captured after using her silent feline grace to follow a little too closely to one of the Hunters at the 60-minute mark.

Also, it was a bit amusing to see Ueto Naname use her [Slug Girl] Quirk to trip up one of the Hunters with a viscous, mostly water-based slime trail. Even if it did push the bounds of PG with how it made her clothing cling to her skin…

My phone chiming a few minutes after the hour-in mark…

Mission 2: Ten Hunter Boxes are placed within the area. When there are 100 minutes left, they will be released and you will run from fifteen. In order to prevent the release, the box has to be put in the cage. You need two runners at most to carry it.

While that part would likely be cut out in post-production, mere minutes before I saw crew members scrambling to erect gated cages and place wheeled boxes around the park. A little recon on my end revealed that the boxes had two clutch levers on them, telling me that if you didn't have a strength-boosting Quirk to just lift the box, you'd need one other person to get them moving.

Of course, the significance of the number 15 was not lost on me, since that was basically what we opted out after hitting the Hunter Elimination Button at the beginning of the game.

And, once again, following the letter of the law instead of the spirit, while it was implied to be a team effort, there didn't seem to be any sort of penalty for working with someone from another school; more Hunters being released would be everyone's problem, after all.

The only ones I could imagine would have any sort of problem with inter-school cooperation would be Bort-sensei, assuming she was that much of a "bad guy". And sure, maybe I was being slanted because Picar-sensei was my principal, but the Borg from Star Trek were usually a bad thing.

That aside, as I looked for an untended box, I noticed the Fang expy grabbing both the clutch levers and using his giant spider legs to push one of the Hunter Boxes solo. Something I'd learn in post-production was that each box was 90 meters, or 295 feet from each cage, and by himself it was slow-going, so I decided to throw my weight in.

"What the hell are you doing here?" the Fang expy asked through his mandibles as I pushed from behind.

"If this Hunter gets released, it's going to be both our problems."

" . . . Fine," he huffed, the two of us doubling our efforts since, even in the process of locking away a Hunter Box, we'd still be leaving our asses exposed for the still-active Hunters scattered about, as well as the two Traitors.

Sure, one of those Traitors was technically me, and maybe Murakami's own Traitor was a bit more transparent about their status than I was, but that was beside the point.

I wouldn't start calling in drone strikes until after this Mission.

*AHA*

"Hnnnnngh! This is one heavy box!" Shiori whined as she held one of the clutch handles.

"Well, there is a dead guy in this thing," Kuromi hummed pointing a finger at the unnaturally still Hunter inside the box.

"After this, I'm gonna bounce," the 2D Girl hummed, showing that the prize counter was now at 1,037,500 yen and climbing.

"I mean, you aren't wrong…" the Shadow Girl admitted. Now that it was daylight, it was harder than ever to use the Shadow Walk aspect of her Quirk that'd kept her safe through the ass-end of the morning.

A little under halfway to the cage, a Hunter rounded the corner in the middling distance, Shiori's eyes glinting before she screamed-

"Every girl for herseeeelf!" the 2D Girl cried as she abandoned her quarry and ran toward Adventure Park.

"Tch, fine, this is someone else's problem!" Kuromi huffed as she too abandoned her box, heading for the Harbor in case the surrender booths had any sort of 'cooldown'.

"Nudge, nudge, wink~" Shiori grinned.

*AHA*

30 minutes from the deadline, Osanai Chisa was caught after helping Hanako and Itsuka carry one of the Hunter Boxes into the cage. This was moments after Shiori and Kuromi both bowed out, netting them a not-insignificant amount of Yen at 1,120,000, but also leaving Damoto Chugakko with only eight runners left.

Elsewhere across the park, the Wildebeest and Mammoth expies each caried one Hunter Box into the cages, cutting the number of potential Hunters released down by half.

While those moving the Boxes around were most-definitely sitting ducks, that none of the active Hunters made any sudden about faces told me that whoever on the Murakami side was the traitor, prioritized keeping the number of released Hunters to a minimum over eliminating our school. In games of Run for the Money where too many Hunters got released back into the wild, things usually ended quicker as runners got overwhelmed, resulting in more content padding like inter-competitor drama. Obviously, the most-hyped seasons were the ones where someone was able to make it to the final minutes, if not win the pot outright.

"Takei…! Takei!"

Looking up from my musings, I spotted Haruna waving me over from around a corner. That she was hoofing it like the rest of us meant she'd likely neared her limit for the time being.

"Takei, I see a Hunter Box, right over there," she said pointing to a fenced-off area right on the water, the only way across for normal people being a tiny one-person paddleboat.

It was a kill zone if any Hunter showed up, but the tradeoff was that the box was closer to the cage than the others I'd seen.

"I guess it's too much for you to fly me over there too?"

The white-winged girl didn't want to admit it, but it showed on her face.

"Here. For energy," I said tossing her a protein bar from one of my flak jacket's pouches. "You take the paddleboat, I'll watch our backs," I said making a show of perking my ears.

Haruna nodded at this, making sure to tuck in her wings as she stuffed the protein bar into her mouth. The chicken-hearted girl making her way across the water with the hand cranks, almost let out a startled squawk as I landed beside her with feline grace.

"Wh-When the heck could you do that?!" she squawked before covering her mouth, eyes darting between me and the other side of the river "Can you fly!?"

Hey, try not to sound so offended.

"Not fly. Jump good."

"You mean 'jump well'."

"That was a reference, not bad grammar," I sighed. "Come on, let's get this cage before a Traitor spots us."

"Y-Yeah…" the white-winged girl said, casting one last look between the other side of the river and here before putting her back into it.

*AHA*

Around a minute after we started, since I couldn't exactly move my half of the cage faster than her, my ears perked up moments after we locked the fifth Hunter Box away.

"We've been made," I said interlacing my fingers. "Get ready to jump."

"Hey, I can at least do this much," she said scooping me up in a princess carry, visibly -and audibly- straining before she flared out her angel-like wings and lifted us up away from the river and back onto the pathway right next to us with three mighty wingbeats. "Good luck, Takei!" she said as she ran off.

I was about to tell her not to go "that way", but it wasn't like any of the other options were much better, and I still had my own ass to worry about.

*AHA*

At the 83-minute mark, it seemed like my suspicion had been correct, because Haruna, unable to actively fly away after being at it since the ass-end of the morning, had been captured.

Whoever the Traitor was on Murakami's side, allegedly, was either confident-enough in their own abilities they didn't mind potentially releasing additional Hunters on the rest of the park, or they were a "patriot" who wanted to make sure Damoto Chugakko "lost".

Thus-far, six of the ten Hunter Boxes had been sealed away. In post-production, I'd learn that some people had to abandon their boxes mid-push when a Hunter rounded the corner, maybe because this Mission was added to the Hunters' patrol patterns. As such, not every box would be sealed even though on-paper with so-many Quirks in circulation, it should've been easy.

Not to mention, everyone had been playing high-stakes Hide & Seek x Tag for more than an hour straight after getting up (read: being gotten up) at an ungodly hour in the morning, so some of the competitors were more-interested in pacing themselves, likely because Surrendering part-way through the game would be easier than trying to survive 200 non-stop minutes of this hell.

Well, it wasn't really hell for me, not after training with two capital-d Dragons, and a literal Pro Hero, but I had to put on a show of being a quote-unquote "ordinary twelve-year-old".

Sure, I was a Young Ward and at an "elevator school" to go to Yuuei, but these were still grown men at their physical peak we were all running from; this was harder on us than if we were grown adults doing the same thing.

*AHA*

At the 100-minute mark, halfway through the alotted time, everyone's phones chimed.

Three Hunters have been released. There are now eight Hunters on patrol.

It was only a small consolation that the number of Hunters didn't jump up to the double digits.

Still, now that we weren't competing against the clock, it was only fitting that I evened the score. Even though two girls from Damoto had surrendered and made off with a big chunk of change, discounting them, Murakami had still lost fewer runners up to this point, and at least one had been eliminated by the hand of the Traitor.

Of course, it was also around this time that Huis Ten Bosch was opening itself to the public, adding more bodies to the midst. And it was even possible that catching them up in a Quirk-related incident could result in immediate disqualification; a right that the show runners had in reserve.

They couldn't actively conspire against certain players, but the pretense of hitting someone with a Quirk was a perfectly valid reason to hedge the numbers.

At 95 minutes remaining, moments after I called in the location of the Jinx expy, our phones chimed.

Mission 3: In the last 75 minutes, 100 Hunters will be released in the area. There is no way to prevent this. To escape, you must get a ticket from the guests and find shelter in the tower, Domtoren. Four of the current eight Hunters are disguised as guests, so watch out for them.

I suppose if there's one thing fortuitous about the timing, it's that the pink-haired girl with what looked like a probability-altering Quirk might be too-distracted by the APB to notice the Hunters coming for her until it's too late.

"T-Takei-kun!"

"Hanako?"

"The Hunters! They're right behind me! Run away!" the 'Quirkless' girl cried as she ran toward me, hemmed in by two Hunters.

The girl looked positively exhausted, and if left to her own devices, there was no way she could get away from them. Not without blowing her cover at least.

I guess it's a good thing I've got energy to spare.

"EEP!"

"Hang on!"

Scooping the girl up in my arms, I hauled ass for the Harbor where I remembered the phone booth to be, my classmate letting out a frightened squeal as she wrapped her arms around my neck, my scooter-like speed shocking bystanders and competitors alike.

The wind whistling through my hair and over my ears, while three Hunters had been left in the dust, there were still more closing in on her -now us- from the sides. A hand going to her face to stop her glasses from flying off, Hanako asked me-

"W-Why are you helping me?"

"Because I can. Do I need any other reason?" I asked giving her my best 'Everything Will Be Okay' smile, her face exploding into a blush on national television.

A minute later I'd taken her to the Harbor, the waves lapping against the dock. Setting her down in front of the phone booth, before she could protest I said-

"You were dead on your feet the moment I picked you up. You've done more than enough. Take your prize money and go, I'll be fine."

"O… Okay…" she nodded. "But you should too," she said as she opened up the box and picked up the specially-marked phone. "This is Yukimura Hanako, and I'd like to surrender."

" . . . "

"Yes."

" . . . "

"Yes," she repeated. "I'm out! I… I made it…!" she panted as all the tension left her body and she went boneless at my feet.

I would learn that in post-production, at the time Hanako's surrender was accepted by the show runners, the prize pool had gone up to 2,239,500 yen.

"Takei-kun… Thank-"

"Hey, I know you!" a guest spoke up, cutting her off. "You're Wild Tiger from Gun Gale Online, aren't you? The guy who killed that evil football?"

"Yes, I am," I replied, scratching my cheek and a little upset that this rando had cut my classmate off.

Still, though…

"Hey, you didn't happen to get a gameshow ticket from one of the show runners, did you?"

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

"Hm? Oh!" the young woman blinked as she reached into her purse, taking out a plastic laminated card with the show's insignia on it. "You mean this?"

"Yeah. Can I have it? I kinda need it to advance to the next round," I said rubbing the back of my head.

"Can I get an autograph?" she asked with a bit of cheek.

"Yeah, sure, why not," I hummed as I drew a sharpie from my flak jacket.

"T-Takei-kun-!"

"Yeah, I hear them," I cut her off as I signed the woman's Mon Squad phone case, which showed she was a woman of class, before taking the laminated card and running from the Hunter rounding the corner.

*AHA*

Hanako, escorted from the premises off-camera by some of the staff, was brought to a break room with a barred fence around it that just screamed "time out". Inside the area were everyone from both schools that'd been eliminated, an invisible line drawn in the middle segregating the two schools, with Shiori and Kuromi waving her over cheekily.

Well, Shiori was. Kuromi was off in a corner reading a manga on her phone.

"So, how'd you enjoy the princess carry?" the 2D Girl grinned.

"Y-You saw that?" Hanako blushed.

"Sweetie, the entire viewing nation saw it," Chisa huffed. "Or at least they will in post-production."

At this, Hanako's blush deepened.

"So, how does it feel being a millionaire?" Kyouko asked nervously, disappointed she'd lost but happy she'd been able to compete.

"I… I don't feel like I deserve it…" Hanako said dejectedly. "As soon as I surrendered, a timer appeared on the phone booth."

"For thirty minutes?" Kuromi asked. "Yeah, same as us."

"Probably to stop too-many people from running off with a cool million and cutting the gameshow short," Haruna huffed, and a not-insignificant percentage of Murakami's representatives shot the three girls the stink-eye.

"Takei-kun… Did he make it?" Hanako asked, remembering how she'd left him.

"Only view we have is of Domtoren," Misao said pointing to the room's singular monitor in the back, showing the entrance of the tall tower overlooking the park. "Oh look, there he is."

Hanako's expression brightened as she watched Takei slip a plastic card into what looked like a ballot box, the gated doors opening and allowing him inside along a few other competitors, the cat-eared teen collapsing into a boneless heap on the floor now that he was in a "Safe Zone".

"He made it… I'm so glad…~" Hanako sighed, eyes moistening a little behind her glasses.

"Takei's probably going to have a bunch of fangirls after this…" Takeshi hummed with crossed arms.

Not that he disparaged the guy for it. He too had very confused feelings for his childhood friend.

Especially because unless he were flat-out told, he'd never know if Misao was on a "boy day" or a "girl day".

*AHA*

After breaking line-of-sight with the Hunters sent after Hanako, if not also me… I doubled back to the Domtoren, punched my "golden ticket" and joined everyone else that'd been able to get into the "Safe Zone" to wait out the combing "carpet bombing" in the five minutes since the mission began.

There was Itsuka and Mitsumi from Damoto, while from Murakami, there was the Beast Boy expy, the Terra expy, and the Pantha expy.

Almost immediately after greeting my friends, I collapsed bonelessly against the wall, Itsuka passing me a bottle of water, half of which I drank, the other half I dumped over my head.

"Dude, you look like hell," the Beast Boy expy hummed as I laid on the floor after downing my water.

There was a slight mocking edge to it, but the mocking in of itself sounded fake.

Of course, the Terra and Pantha expies still turned up their noses at me, so, you know, fuck 'em.

"Dude, this is a domestic gameshow: eff dignity."

Censoring costs money, and I don't want the Mon Squad to get sued.

Especially since I'm wearing their full regalia, sans my gun.

*AHA*

In the fifteen minutes until the proverbial timer hit zero, as runners from both schools slowly trickled in, Takei learned exactly how half the Hunters were being disguised.

That all which was done to disguise them was to drape blankets over their bodies, latex masks, and wigs to make them look like grandmothers, was something Takei wouldn't take seriously until he saw this video in post-production.

He had thought that Loony Tunes-grade disguises weren't the sort of thing people could fall for in real life, but boy was he wrong…

Or rather, boy would he be wrong.

As for who else managed to make the cut before zero hour, on Damoto's side of things were Toura Hiroyoshi, bringing their remaining numbers up to 4 safe. On Murakami's side of things, only the Robin expy came in, also bringing up their remaining numbers to 4 safe.

As soon as the timer hit 75 minutes hence, it was complete pandemonium.

Like an avalanche, 100 men and women in black suits with cyberpunk masks and visors poured into Huis Ten Bosch from Adventure Park, spreading through every pathway leaving no stone unturned. Those without flying abilities, like Ueto Naname or the Wildebeest expy, were overwhelmed like something out of a zombie movie, with only the Starfire and Fang expies safe from the rolling wave of black-clad bodies.

Of course, I would later learn in-post that despite her emotion-based flying power, the red-haired cat-like girl was still taken out by someone who looked suspiciously like Gran Torino but in a black suit. While the girl's flying power was impressive, the fact that Gran Torino had been doing his thing for longer than she'd been alive, meant it was no contest and she was kicked down into the water.

The Fang Expy for his part had managed to escape notice by scuttling up the side of a building, not technically breaking any rules.

Five minutes after the 100 additional Hunters had their run of the park, the gates opened after we received the message-

All remaining Runners have reached Domtoren. The 100 Hunters are gone. The game will resume with 8 Hunters.

With only 70 minutes remaining in the game, we were ushered out by an employee standing off-camera.

Having gotten a modicum of rest, I was better prepared for the remaining hour and change of this wacky domestic gameshow.

*AHA*

"Hasumi?" Takei blinked upon meeting a familiar face a minute after leaving Domtoren. "How the heck did you avoid those 100 Hunters?"

"More like 108, but who's counting~?" the Octopus Girl giggled.

Though Domtoren was well out of the line of fire, just hearing two-hundred feet stomping about like a living wave triggered a primordial fear in him; likely from the days where entire barbarian hordes would wash over the horizon and abandon pre-Medieval settlements.

"I stuck to the underside of a bridge~" the Octopus Girl grinned, her tentacles waving. "Of course, after they passed, the show runners told me I couldn't do that anymore…" she said tapping her fingers together, her pupils turning bar-shaped.

"I mean, they never said you couldn't do that… until after you did it," I said scratching their ears. "No way I could've hidden from a living wave like that."

"Well, don't sell yourself short just yet. We've still got…" she paused looking down at her phone. "65 minutes and change left. How many of us are left?"

"Five from Damoto, five from Murakami."

"So things are pretty much even, huh?"

"For now, but if I know anything about wacky domestic gameshows, it's that they'll throw another wrench in the works, just you wait," I hummed as I walked alongside her, ears running sentinel. "Of course, there's still the traitor in Murakami's midst. I'm pretty sure he spotted off at least one of ours."

"Wonder how many of his own he sold out. 300,000 yen is a big payout. You send three up the river, that's almost a flat million."

"I'm sure we'll find out in post-production," Takei hummed, taking a protein bar from his pocket and holding it out. "You hungry?"

"Maybe a little," she said taking the bar and breaking it in half. "You know, you're going to look like a real darling after all this is said and done," she said before chewing it down. "Especially to a certain Goth loli princess~"

Takei for his part could only blink.

*AHA*

Elsewhile in the sponsor's box, Momo ate her vicarious nerves away, small ingots of metal, ceramic, and plastic spilling out of her forearms into trash bins that Mei "appropriated".

Mero for her part held a glass of cool mineral water in her webbed hands, her attention not turned on the competitors, but on those that had been disqualified.

No outright fights had broken out quite yet, not for any lack of trying, but after Kyouko lifted one bickering student from each side off their feet by the scruffs of their necks and accidentally planted them in the sub-ceiling, most of the tension evaporated because the gentle giantess was easily larger than anyone there. And in an enclosed space, it was all a matter of how you threw your weight around.

"I'm sure you'll be able to hang out with Take-chan after the game," Mako hummed.

"I-I'm sorry?" Mero blinked.

"Make every moment you have with him count, is all I'm saying," the royal guard hummed. "Those girls might have the surface, but I've seen the way he looks at you. You've cut yourself a nice little niche in his heart; and not just because he gets to have a soft harem~"

Mero for her part could only blush, happy the darkened room hid it from prying eyes.

*AHA*

With the prize money creeping toward 3,000,000 yen, everyone was feeling the pressure.

Takei for his part called in a "drone strike" on the Terra expy, if only because of how-versatile her suspected Geokinesis could be, but she was able to sand blast the Hunters in the visors and break line-of-sight long-enough to make her escape.

While his own hit failed to make a dent, the one put out on the Fang expy by one of his own was more-fortunate. The guy may've had superhuman agility thanks to his long spidery legs, and even his "venom blasts" were able to paralyze seven of them at range, but it only took one ignoring his main body and going for a spidery leg to knock him out of the game.

Takei had no idea how-long the paralytic shots lasted, but it was a moot point because the show runners simply swapped the seven downed Hunters out with some of the surplus from the previous Mission.

In the final hour of the game, the show runners sent out another APB.

Mission 4: We'll have you pick someone to eliminate. Go to Stadhuis to vote. The one with the most votes will have their location shared and captured. Those who do not vote will have one vote cast against them. You have until the timer hits 40 minutes.

"Okay, so it's not totally hopeless," I hum into the camera. "All you have to do is escape the Hunters. If the show runners were going to disqualify you flat-out, there'd be no point in sharing your location with the Hunters, they'd just leave you out on your butt."

"You aren't worried?" the cameraman who'd been following me since I left the Domtoren inquired.

"It's not like it's my life at stake, and I'm no stranger to having people after me," I waved off, giving a charming smile I'd normally reserve for my family. "Besides, how can I pay the first-years back with a nice barbecue if I don't get that five-million-and-change?"

Come to think of it, what is my net worth after the merchandising?

Thoughts for another day.

*AHA*

As usual, moving toward a fixed location in the park was sure to land you under the eyes of a Hunter; but that was basically the entire game, so it was nothing special to me by this point.

Sending a message out to my peers, I singled out the de facto "leader" among Murakami's students, Guremusuko Rura; the kid in sunglasses with the tacky haircut.

Damoto had five dogs left in this fight to Murakami's four, so if we were all able to vote in a single direction, that was basically a guaranteed elimination.

Of course, that was the thing. It may've been a team sport, but it was still possible for someone to be eliminated by a Hunter in-transit. Murakami may've been the sort of school where you planned to throw your own under the bus, but they were still very goal-oriented as far as Bort-sensei's whims were concerned. It was possible that they merely wanted to make sure we lost even if they lost as well. And it wasn't like the APB said anything about two squads of Hunters being sent out, so obviously all the votes from both schools were taken into consideration for a single "elimination".

"What would I do if they were real Villains coming after me?" I blinked at the inquiry ten minutes into the twenty-minute limit, stealthily making my way to the Stadhuis to conserve as much energy as possible. "I'd call in backup, and failing that, add a few insignia to my breast pocket."

Anyone with an internet connection would know I'd killed "things" as well as at least one person before; no point in hiding it.

And sure, maybe it was a little tacky playing myself up as the "unfortunate victim" of circumstance, but I'd always argue that the alternative was letting myself die, and then challenge anyone else to do different and still turn their noses up at me afterward.

Which obviously you can't do if you're dead, but, you know, some people choose to die on those hills instead of being in the wrong.

*AHA*

Okutou Hasumi was captured. It was the Traitor.

"And then there were four…" I hummed as the timer went down to the final seconds.

Between Shiori, Kuromi, and Hanako, there was around 4.5 million yen to Damoto's name. With Murakami pulling in around 3.36 million yen with its sole surrender mere minutes before, it wouldn't take much for them to pull ahead in the post-game unless someone from our school made it to the very end as well.

Of course, that didn't take into account how the Traitor on Murakami's side could also make it to the end with the grand prize and all the money from their scalp-hunting to boot.

Itsuka's Quirk was great for strength-based challenges, but was complete pants against the Hunters if they closed the distance. Mitsumi was in phenomenal condition all around with great kinetic vision, as was Hiroyoshi who was also good for strength challenges. And sure, I could try to use [Perception Dampening] to make the Hunters not notice me, only, that magic didn't work on cameras; I'd be ousting myself as some kind of cheater if the Hunters saw me without really "seeing me" on national TV.

That bit of [Clairvoyance] toward the beginning was the most I was willing to do. I was a man (read: pre-teen) of principle, after all, and not getting Elma in trouble was more important than any amount of money.

Call me a fanboy or whatever, but until I had enough testosterone in my system to be legitimately interested in girls, any attachment I had for Elma was strictly familial.

*AHA*

According to the results of the vote, the Runner who received the most votes was Takehiko Tokei. The Hunters will now chase him down.

"Yeah, that figures," I deadpanned as the metaphorical noose closed around my neck.

Bolting deeper into the park the moment I heard hurried footsteps coming towards me, though it was nothing compared to Tohru and that damned futon beater of hers, my neck-hairs were still raised.

The Hunters on my tail, a number probably possessing subtler speed-boosting Quirks, while part of me was sure the drama would be played up in post-production, the other part of me wondered-

"How the hell do I get out of this?"

*AHA*

As the pursuit went on, Takei failing to break line-of-sight for more than a second at a time, Mero's hands trembled as she struggled to not bite her nails.

Even in pre-production, the suspense was killing her, and Momo's eating speed had more than doubled since the chase began, the trash bins filled with ingots overflowing and her creations spilling out onto the floor.

Mei for her part wrung her hands as her eyes darted between all the monitors, trying to find something that would help her bestie out, even if there was no way she could actually communicate that without getting him disqualified.

Those that had been eliminated either cheered in Murakami's case, while everyone from Damoto was crying for him to keep running, Hanako's own cries downed in the tumult, tears beading her eyes.

Off to the side, Shiori and Kuromi looked at the monitor straight-faced, fingers drumming.

*AHA*

Five minutes of non-stop running into the chase, the Hunters rounded the corner like so many times before.

What they did not find this time however, was Takei rounding another corner up ahead. Instead, all that awaited them between the two buildings was a large cardboard box sitting in the middle of the path.

The eight Hunters moving to surround it, upended the box to reveal… watermelons?

Around a dozen modestly-sized Citrullus Lanatus spreading out around them once deprived of their container, rolling between pairs of legs or bouncing off black shoes, the sight looked quite comical, and it'd have shown on the Hunters' faces if their expressions weren't entirely covered by cyberpunk-esque masks.

The Hunters proceeded to search the alley, leaving no stone unturned.

After a full minute of searching, the Hunters began to disperse, retiring from their alerted state.

*AHA*

Takehiko's cameraman, who'd grown exhausted from the chase but unwilling to hand off the bonus pay to another, looked around the alley, wondering what he should do now since the show runners hadn't announced any sort of disqualification.

Hearing a sound like sand grains trickling down masonry, the cameraman looked up, bringing his camera alongside and was shocked to see Takehiko Tokei clinging desperately to the wall under the lip of the roof. The pre-teen completely frozen with his eyes darting to each end of the alley, after several seconds more he released the breath he'd been holding, everything except his fingers sagging.

Sliding down the wall and rolling on the dismount, coming to rest among the discarded watermelons, the pre-teen panted heavily, dripping with sweat, his large cat-like ears possibly working overtime to disperse the accumulated heat in his body.

"I literally… cannot believe… that worked."

*AHA*

Off in the breakroom of disqualified gameshow participants, while half of them groaned, the other half cheered, tears of joy spilling down more than one face as they watched Takei compose himself, even going as far as to rip a watermelon in half and refuel.

At the same time in the sponsor box, Mei whooped unashamedly, Momo collapsing in her own seat while Mero held her webbed hands to her face, a relieved sigh leaving her lips as all the tension left her.

Sure, his life hadn't really been in danger, but the sheer adrenaline of the chase was sure to make great television. The very reason Run for the Money had lasted as long as it did, despite how many times it'd been running off-and-on through the centuries, and across many countries.

"Takei-kun… Ganbatte," Mero prayed with hands pressed.

*AHA*

"Takei?" Mitsumi blinked, coming upon him by sheer chance, still in the alleyway surrounded by watermelons, three of which had been hollowed out; his hands and cheeks were covered in red juices, his flak jacket covered in seeds, and anyone with a watermelon-related Quirk would've thought they walked in on the aftermath of a triple homicide. "Holy crap, how did you escape that?"

"Sheer… dumb luck…" the cat-eared teen said as he finally rose to his feet, accepting the bottle that the triclops handed him and proceeding to clean his face and hands before shaking the seeds off his flak jacket. "How are the others?"

"You bought us five whole minutes," the pretty three-eyed girl replied, all three goggling but not causing her iconic personality change as she adjusted her sweatband. "But man, my stomach sank when I saw your name on the chopping block."

"Just shows that Murakami acted in a united front," he said looking down at the timer in his phone. "We're nearing the last half-hour, I'm thinking one, maybe two more challenges are waiting for us until the very end. No way they can saddle us with three."

"So. This is really it then…" she hummed looking down at the timer too, their phones suddenly chiming and almost making them drop them.

Itsuka Kendo was captured. It was the Traitor.

"Ohhhh. What the fluff, man?"

*AHA*

At the 30-minute mark, mere seconds after the seven runners were reduced to six, another APB went out to the remaining contestants.

Mission 5: There are 100 Hunters coming from the land, sea, and sky. For the last ten minutes, 20 Hunters will come from the sky, 30 from the parade train, and 50 from the ship. To avoid this, bring down the three balloons and then press the Hunter Elimination button.

By the look of things, at least to Takei's Lombax-like thought processes, the balloon marked 20 was 100 meters in the air, the balloon marked 30 was 150 meters up, and the balloon marked 50 was a whopping 200 meters in the air. A little guesswork told him that their mountings were scattered across the Adventure Park, the Garden, and the Harbor.

The time limit was 20 minutes, and this was infinitely worse than Mission 3 because once these Hunters touched down, they were here to stay for the final ten minutes with no safe zone to wait out the "Hunterpocalypse" in sight.

Takehiko: This many of us left, I'm sure the show runners will redistribute the Hunters into those three areas alone. It's the only way they'll avoid 6 payouts of 5-million.

Manaka: It only makes sense. Those 100 Hunters are coming at us from three directions, there's no safe zone, and they'll be here longer than five minutes. We'd be overwhelmed long before the final sixty seconds.

Toura: I've seen the Murakami guys in action. None of them have what it takes to outlast 108 Hunters for ten minutes. Not without disqualifying themselves with collateral.

Takehiko: Same as us. To make things worse, there's still a Traitor in their midst.

Manaka: Speaking of which, how many did you get?

Takehiko: What makes you think it's me?

Manaka: It isn't me, and Toura would never lie to me if I asked.

Takehiko: Okay yes, it's me. I tried to eliminate that golem girl right before Mission 4 hit, but she blasted the Hunters in the face with pocket sand and ran like hell. Mission 2 was too important, no way was I gonna shoot myself in the foot like that.

Toura: We'll be sitting ducks the entire time we're under those balloons.

Manaka: Same with them. They know one of us is the Traitor too. Even if no-one calls them in, the Hunters can snag us all on their own.

Takehiko: I say we hit the 50 balloon. 20 Hunters we can possibly handle, 30 is a soft maybe, but half of 100 and we're screwed. No way we're getting to the phone booths with that many on every street corner.

Manaka: You know, if everyone loses out, Damoto still walks away with more money.

Takehiko: Mitsumi, put Top-chan away. We don't need a hooligan running around right now.

Manaka: No, that was all me.

Takehiko: Oh.

Toura: I wouldn't mind taking one for the team.

Takehiko: Of course you wouldn't, maso-cat.

*AHA*

"You know, a thought just occurred to me," I hummed as the three of us jogged toward the Harbor.

"What?" Hiroyoshi asked.

"Murakami's Traitor doesn't even need line of sight to call in the Hunters. They just have to notice the balloon sinking."

"Darn, you're right," Mitsumi hissed, struggling to keep her hooligan persona under wraps. "Well, that road goes two ways, at least, and I'd definitely notice."

"You mean Mii-chan would notice," I deadpanned.

"I mean, you're not wrong, but still," she said rubbing her third eye, closed behind a sweatband.

" . . . I think I see the #20 balloon dropping. I'm calling it in," I said pressing the phone to my ear.

Sure, it'd be a bit of a bummer losing out on the 5 million, but I also kinda wanted Bort-sensei to lose; even if only vicariously.

*AHA*

Siccing the eight hunters on whoever was at the Garden, Mitsumi, Hiroyoshi, and I were able to make it to the massive hand-cranked spool planted in the middle of the Harbor. With a line of 200 meters, any sane person would say that ratchetting that thing all the way down within what remained of the time limit would be sheer madness.

Fortunately for us, we were far from sane. I was… well, me, Mitsumi had multiple personalities, and Hiroyoshi was a huge masochist and was able to discover as such despite being a middle schooler.

No idea how that third one could really help us, but at least he was buff as hell for a boy his age.

"Kami, that sound's annoying," I groaned as the spool ratchetted loudly.

"At least we don't have to worry about losing our progress if we have to bail in the middle," Mitsumi hummed from beside me, Hiroyoshi manning the other handle by his lonesome.

"Shame that rope isn't bigger, or we could've just climbed it," Hiroyoshi hummed.

"All two-hundred meters?" I deadpanned.

"I mean, nothing in the rules says we can't," the huge tiger-like pre-teen replied. "Good thing there aren't any fliers around. Anymore."

"I'm sure the show runners slanted things for the best TV," I hummed, the #50 balloon noticeably lower before my ears perked up and I screamed- "CHEESE IT!"

*AHA*

The count-up timer continuing to rise, our window of opportunity continued to shrink as we two Traitors repeatedly sicced the Hunters on one another.

I'm sure it was quite humorous to the future viewers, but I was also fairly certain those Hunters were fucking pissed being yanked around by the chain like that ad infinitum…

It was a monumental pain in the ass on our end too, and we almost got caught a few times, but eventually we were able to bring the #50 balloon down to ground level. Mitsumi and I piling on top of Hiroyoshi's shoulders like a totem pole, she slapped her hand on the Hunter Elimination Button with mere minutes to spare.

Of course, it was at that moment that the Hunters returned.

"Go on…" Hiroyoshi panted, fur drenched in sweat as we slid off his back. "Get out of here. I'll hold them off."

"Hiro-"

"We'll always remember this sacrifice!" I said throwing Mitsumi over my shoulder and running like hell around the corner, Hiroyoshi letting out a furious roar and making a complete ass of himself as he drew the Hunters away in the opposite direction.

*AHA*

Despite the fact that it was the closest one to the ground, the #20 balloon was still up in the air by the time the proverbial timer hit zero.

As Hunters literally fell from the sky, touching down all around the park instead of just into the Garden, matters were further complicated by the fact that Mitsumi and I ran smack dab into what remained of the Murakami delegation; the Robin expy and the Terra expy.

As black-clad figures descended upon us like WWII paratroopers, I heard the fluttering of cloth to my right, Mitsumi's sweatband falling to the ground.

In that instant, her hooligan persona manifested itself as the girl's three eyes leered, the triclops cracking her knuckles as a feral grin spread across her face.

"Takei-kun, why don't you and bad haircut over there take a walk? Us girls need to have a little… chaaat~"

I was fairly sure that in-post, people would be screaming- "Ooh! Catfight!" -at their monitors.

I was also equally sure that someone saying that about two twelve-year-olds on an internet forum would get themselves put on some kind of list.

Of course, that was will-have-been, and this was now.

The Terra expy whipped out small rocks at Mitsumi as she ran to close the distance, while the three-eyed girl only grinned a feral grin, the Robin expy and I locked eyes with one another, obviously of a similar mind as we stepped out of the garden, leaving the two girls to their quote/unquote "chat".

Geez, that girl must've really cheesed Mitsumi off at the Domtoren, because normally she never let Top-chan out to play.

Or at least not for something this trivial.

Then again, this was probably exactly the sort of drama the show runners would encourage if they hit up other schools.

Doubly-so if they were able to get any of the Academies involved.

*AHA*

With ten minutes to go and our respective female peers intent on going out in a blaze of glory, neither of us were willing to let the other out of our sight now that we had close to 30 Hunters on our asses.

That being said, the only reason the Robin expy abstained from throwing hands with me was likely because he had no idea just what I was capable of. I mean, Mirko was basically "just a jacked bunny girl" compared to someone like Gang Orca, yet she was steadily climbing up the ranks faster than those whose Quirks were more obvious on their anatomy.

Our phones chiming a minute after we parted company, the two of us went to check our phones, on eye on the screens and the other on each other.

Manaka Mitsumi has been captured.

Cotta Terra has been captured.

Universe, you are a sassy, sassy bitch.

"And then there were two," the Robin expy hummed, narrowing his eyes at me behind his shades.

Which made sense in the broad daylight, but he'd been wearing those things since the ass-end of morning.

"What, you gonna call the Hunters on me?" he scoffed derisively, now that we were face to face, surrounded by cameras.

" . . . Yes, I'd like to report a Runner," I said without breaking eye contact. "Takehiko Tokei is making for Domtoren."

Suffice it to say, the Quirkless prick was completely flabbergasted that I'd called out a hit on myself.

Doubly-so once he realized he was right in the splash zone!

"Run, Barry. Run."

Wonder if anyone would actually get that reference, what with it being dated by literal centuries.

*AHA*

Not one to be outdone, as soon as the gathered tide of Hunters lost interest and he didn't feel like he were about to cough up a lung, the Robin expy called out a hit on himself and stuck to me like glue, sending us running once more.

Which was basically how it went for the next five minutes; two pre-teen hauling ass across what was essentially 19 soccer fields, fueled by nothing but adrenaline and pure, unrelenting spite both personally and professionally vested.

Of course, it wouldn't be a wacky domestic gameshow without a dinosaur.

But, unlike in the back-when times when it was a person dressed up in a few-thousand-dollars costume, this dinosaur was in fact a personal assistant to Detnerat's CEO, the albino woman that Takei would later recognize from the dinner party the night before. Using her Transformation-type Quirk, this woman basically looked like an albino T-Rex, but wearing size-matching yoga pants with a hole for the tail, and pasties where there were once nipples.

Though they knew it all to be a part of the gameshow, the sheer primal fear of something that big with teeth bigger than steak knives whose footfalls sent trashcans bouncing across the ground, sent the two pre-teens into a very real existential fear as she trailed behind them, and the Hunters trailed behind her.

Of course, all of this would change as they reached the Harbor, because right at the final minute as "Rexie" was about to catch them, a massive form broke through the water on their left, big as a yacht. The two sparing a look over their shoulders, adrenaline making the world move in slow motion, spied a reptilian shape bigger than the thing that was chasing them sink massive teeth into an adequately large neck. The massive shape taking "Rexie" to the ground, the transformed meta-human let out a pitiable whimper as albino skin turned red, everyone struck thoughtless and numb as the massive white shape was dragged into the water.

Even the Hunters were shocked at the development, but for Takei, his body moved on its own.

Cue My Hero Academia OST – You Say Run

"GIBLE! LET'S GO!" Takei shouted as he shed out of everything but his body glove, the Land Shark Pokémon's Dive Ball ballooning and unleashing its contents the moment it came free, the two diving into the water without a second thought a second later.

*Elsewhere...*

Takehiko Tokei is out of bounds. There is one more traitor.

-is the message that went out for only one other person to read in-game, but Rura was hardly everyone's focus even though he was a minute away from millions of yen and had broken line-of-sight because of how utterly stupefied the Hunters had been.

As Takei and his Fukamaru took to the water after the albino T-Rex in yoga pants being chewed on by what was basically a small Kaiju, Meroune Lorelai du Neptune proclaimed-

"I'm going for a walk!"

Turning her chair in an about face and making for the door, as soon as she was out of the building she punched the throttle and made for the fence, engine whirring loudly in protest.

Before Mako and the other guards could stop her, their crown princess abruptly hit the brakes, catapulting herself into the air where she discarded the bulk of her clothing, leaving the princess in a flattering if not somewhat-revealing Goth-loli two-piece swimsuit.

Her perfectly-designed body breaking the surface of the water, she was off faster than the motorized surfboards from that morning, Mako and the half-dozen massive killer whale Heteromorphs shooting off after her.

*Meanwhile...*

Back at the harbor, as the massive albino body flailed through the water, Takei held firm to Gible's torpedo-like horns, the little guy carrying them forward with deceptive power for something the size of a medicine ball with such stumpy limbs.

Takei, fighting off the slight discomfort of opening his eyes in briny water, felt his salt-burned eyes goggle at the sight of a freaking Mosasaur dragging an albino T-Rex in yoga pants into the water like something out of Jurassic World.

The water staining red as the transformed meta-human flailed futilely and to no effect, Takei gestured forward with two fingers, his Gible nodding as it shot forward like a torpedo. The distance closed in mere moments, as Takei dismounted from his partner and planted his hands and feet between teeth bigger than railroad spikes, Gible lunged at the thing's right eye. Comparatively tiny teeth sinking into the thick eyelid and pulling back, the Mosasaur let out a furious howl that let Takei pry open the jaws enough to release its prey.

Said prey tumbling through the water and changing back, Takei scooped the now human-shaped woman by the armpits and made for the surface as Gible battled a monster hundreds of times its own size.

The two breaking the surface of the water, the albino woman coughed seawater out of her lungs, blinking wearily as her hand went to her neck, the wounds thankfully staying proportional or her head'd've come clean off.

"You… You saved me?" she blinked. "But… the money-"

The water at their backs erupting as the Mosasaur leapt through the air with the Gible struggling furiously to hang on, with a powerful whip of its long head the Land Shark Pokemon was sent flying, blood running down the Mosasaur's face as it locked eyes onto its prey.

"Ffffffuck," Takei swore under the auspices of an aerial drone that'd followed them out into the water as the massive aquatic reptile bore down on them.

The distance shrinking faster than the Gible could return to his side, the thing's massive jaws opened around the morsels, threatening to swallow them whole. The bleeding albino woman letting out a terrified cry as she held onto Takei, the pre-teen planting his hands and feet against the palate and tongue as the rows of teeth threatened to close around them, the cat-like teen mentally and physically exhausted as adrenaline and other things coursed through his body.

Before the middle schooler could lose that fight, a sharp bident speared into the reptile's gums and a pretty shark-like Heteromorph dove on in, tail coiled around the shaft of her weapon as she wrapped her arms around the two and flung herself out, her retreat covered by four bigger and more-muscular versions of Gang Orca that bodily tackled the thing with the force of a naval collision.

Another two such Heteromorphs coming in alongside a pretty pink-haired mermaid in a Goth-loli swimsuit, said mermaid took the albino woman and the cat-like pre-teen from the shark-woman's arms. Pulling the two's arms over her shoulders and giving the cat-like boy a relieved smile, a moment after she kicked off with powerful tail muscles, flanked by her royal guards.

*Meanwhile...*

"Keep fighting! We need to give Meroune-ohimesama time to get clear!" Mako shouted as she stabbed at the Mosasaur with her bident, the four massive Heteromorphs grappling with the thing as it raged furiously against them like a raging bull.

The Mosasaur powering forward despite the protests levied against it, like a torpedo through the water, Gible shot at the thing's face once again and began mauling its eyelid, causing the thing to circle furiously and abandon its initial prey.

"Neptune's beard!" Mako cried as the lot of them were whipped about. "What the hell are they feeding this thing?!"

"Fat tourists?" one of the killer whale men chuckled laconically.

*BOOM!*

"What the hell was that?!" another of the killer whale men blinked before a dot in the middling distance and high above dove out of a cloudy shockwave, shooting right towards them before releasing a cry of-

"SAN FRANCISCOOOO… SMAAAASH!"

The No.1 Hero coming down from on high and striking the water with tremendous force, summoned a massive whirlpool that dropped the Mosasaur down to the seabed, the sheer force behind the monstrous blow so-massive that the interior of the whirlpool was momentarily self-sustaining.

"ALL MIGHT?!"

-is what countless people in-person or watching from afar gawked as the man's muscles rippled powerfully beneath his painted-on costume.

"These humans are not part of the menu, foul beast!" All Might bellowed as he leapt forward with explosive force, Takei's Gible wisely abandoning the mutilated eyelid in its maw as the No.1 Hero cried out- "NEBRASKA SMAAAAAASH!"

The upward corkscrew punch he threw was so-powerful that it summoned enough wind pressure to create a tornado. The Mosasaur pinwheeling into the air and leaving the whirlpool behind, the No.1 Hero leapt up after it as it soared into the wild blue yonder, everyone nearby gawking behind their cameras and phones as he cried-

"NEW MEXICO SMAAAASH!"

This punch thrown with tremendous force comparable to a nuclear explosion, at least incorrectly, was powerful-enough to punch a hole through the torso of the massive aquatic reptile, his own flight carrying him free and clear of any viscera as the whirlpool imploded into a waterspout beneath him.

*AHA*

Suffice it to say, while Murakami's remaining representative winning the whole damn pie of Run for the Money was impressive, Takei, Gible, Meroune's entourage, and then All Might's actions in the minutes immediately after stole the entire show, and there was no way such mind-numbingly awesome footage would go unused.

As soon as Princess Meroune and her entourage returned to the shore, gameshow staff was already there with medical supplies in hand. Moments after the woman's neck was smothered in stitching, gauze, and bandages, Yotsubashi Rikiya himself threw his pinstripe suit jacket over her shoulders, the albino meta-human still shuddering in the wake of what had just occurred and blubbering words of gratitude toward the boy that threw away more than five-million yen to go after her, tears, snot, and a bit of blood running down her face and body.

Minutes after that, Takei was swarmed by his classmates and chaperones, the latter of which chastised him for diving in after a literal sea monster even if it was to save someone's life, while his classmates gushed over how-cool it was.

A minute after that, the No.1 Hero himself arrived on shore to share his account of the events as RDA hovercraft swooped in from a nearby base to take custody of the body and screen everyone for pathogens.

Fortunately, initial scans of the body showed that the thing was a clonated lifeform instead of the genuine article, meaning there were no worries about it carrying anachronistic pathogens from a prehistoric period like when legit dinosaurs came in through a Rift.

"Well, you know, better luck next time~" the Robin expy sneered after All Might shot off, kicking up a dust cloud in his wake.

Takei, about to return fire with some carefully-curtailed words of choice, watched everyone go slack-jawed and doe-eyed as the No.1 Hero returned to their midst, a T-Shirt clutched in his giant hand as he loomed over Takei.

"Young man!" the No.1 Hero said in his deep, booming voice, the sun reflecting off his perfect smile as he stood over me; and also everyone else with only one exception. "Duty calls elsewhere, but I wanted to leave you with some parting words, so here! Take this!"

All Might passing a large-sized T-Shirt to the recently-dried Takei, was off again mere moments later, kicking up a dust cloud before he soared up into the air and launched himself into the wild blue yonder off the force of his own punch, breaking the sound barrier as he went.

Everyone gushing at the sight of the No.1 Hero's departure, Takei inwardly sighed as multiple cameramen, women, and drones came up to him, electronic eyes staring inquisitively at him so as to learn what parting words "The World's Greatest Hero" had left behind.

Takei, bone tired down to the last strand of DNA, simply slumped against his chair before saying-

"Tatara-sensei, do you mind? I can barely move right now…"

The four-armed man choking back a cough at being put on the spot like this, reverently took the T-Shirt that was still warm from All Might's massive hand, two of his hands holding it up by the ends of the sleeves while the other two smoothed it out, revealing a Huis Ten Bosch souvenir shirt covered in navy blue sharpie.

"Young man, if there's anything I believe is fundamental for a Hero, it's that we should act without thought of glory or reward. Accolades and fortune should be a consequence of our profession, not the goal. Abandoning that five-million yen as you have, shows me that you understand this fundamental tenet quite well, and I hope to see this heroic spirit of yours cultivated at my alma mater. Go Beyond with best wishes, sincerely…" Tatara gulped as the true scope of what had just been said weight on him. "All Might…" he concluded with a shaky voice.

And though he was still starstruck by the presence of Japan's greatest Hero, he still had the wherewithal to present what had been left behind to the cameras, all of which honed in on the sharpie-marked cloth to record the powerful-looking strokes, proving that everything the off-camera chain smoker had articulated was well and truly penned by the No.1 Hero's hand. That the man himself had handed the message over on-camera made the origin of the message itself indisputable.

"DUDE! Do you know that this MEANS?!" Tetsutetsu gushed, still starstruck in the No.1 Hero's wake.

"I'm too-tired to fire off the neurons, so I'm sure you'll tell me."

"It means you're IN! This is your golden ticket to YUUEI! The best Hero Academy in the WORLD!" the steel-haired teen whooped excitedly.

Takei for his part blinked once, twice, and then passed out in his seat moments before Gible waddled over to him and waved at everyone to get back and give him some air.

*AHA*

"Takei-kun…?"

"Uuuugh…" I groaned as the artificial light stabbed at my retinas.

"Takei-kun!" Mero cried as she loomed over me.

"Me… Mero…?" I croaked, laid out on a bed in the nearest presidential suite.

"You were turning in your sleep," the mermaid girl replied. "Are you okay?"

"I'm bone-tired and I almost got eaten by a sea monster. Again."

"And boy is that a sentence," Sorahiko chuckled, still dressed in all black, sans the visor and face mask.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked, deciding to catch up with the elderly Hero later.

"Your ingroup are waiting in the living room. The others are walking around Huis Ten Bosch now that they aren't playing 'extreme tag' anymore," she said adorably making air quotes with webbed fingers.

"Honestly, I'll probably just… not, go back there again?" I blinked. "I'm just… maybe a little sick of the place. Not to mention that one Murakami guy's gonna be such a prick about it."

"Yes… you technically did go out-of-bounds while the clock was still running, so you were disqualified," Mero admitted sadly. "Still, you got a ringing endorsement from All Might, and I'm sure the other guy will get framed as some sort of money-grubber in post-production."

"I mean… yeah, the show runners tend to do that…" I hummed aloud.

"By the way, you have another guest," Mero said as she wheeled toward the door. "Send him in."

"Takehiko-kun, how are you feeling?" Yotsubashi Rikiya inquired with a smile and a raised hand.

"Only a little bummed about the money, but I'll get over it," I said looking over to the nightstand, the Huis Ten Bosch tee that All Might scribbled all over laid flat upon it.

And wait, did All Might pay for it with some kind of "Might Credit Card", or did he outright steal it and no-one wanted to stop him?

Questions for another time.

"Well, I know my assistant really appreciated it," the man replied as he sat down in a nearby chair. "The young lady hardly gets to use her Quirk in full, and what wacky gameshow would be complete without a dinosaur attack?"

"I mean, you aren't wrong…" I shrugged, since I saw several wacky Japanese gameshows with jump scares before Reincarnating. "Does this really count as a letter of recommendation to Yuuei?" I asked turning to the shirt.

"I mean, the wording can be a bit nebulous, but I'm sure a message sent to his agency would clear that right up," the man replied as he reached into his coat. "But anyway, I wanted you to have something."

The beak-nosed man handed over a thick Detnerat catalogue; one made of actual paper in an age where almost everything was browsed-for online.

"I mean, I appreciate a Lifestyle Support Item as much as any other guy, but I'm not exactly in the mood to be a big spender," I replied as I held the thing in my lap.

"Oh, don't worry about the money, I put my business card in the centerfold, so the person on the other end of the line should be able to cut you a very nice deal~" the man grinned, rubbing his fingers and thumb together in the age-old sign tied to capitalism. "Anywho, if you're up for it later, I'm going to host an all-you-can eat barbecue lunch for the phenomenal show you all put on. You should come by!"

"Well, I am pretty hungry," I admitted.

"Really though, I'm quite proud of this month's centerfold. You should really give the centerfold a look. It's right there in the center," Rikiya insisted almost creepily before getting up from his chair. "Have a pleasant day, Ohimesama," he bowed reverently at the waist to Mero before departing.

" . . . He was kind of insisted on the centerfold, wasn't he?" Mero inquired awkwardly after the man had departed in full.

"Yup. Kinda creepy," Sorahiko hummed.

Opening the thick catalogue to the center, if only to see what the guy was being so fucking cryptic about, my eyes goggled at the small stack of signed checks waiting for me, all of which were annotated as Fiscal Gift. After adding them all up, no single check totaling more than a million yen a pop, my jaw dropped when I realized the man had given me what was essentially the 5,040,000 yen I'd lost out on after going for a swim with his assistant and the thing that had quite possibly eaten the Indominus Rex before falling through whatever Rift brought it to the waters of Nagasaki.

I mean, sure, the guy was the CEO of what was essentially a megacorporation and he probably squeezed this much out of his couch cushions five minutes ago, but still!

"Oh my, how wonderful!" Mero beamed prettily. "Now you can afford that barbecue party for your schoolmates!"

A moment later she faltered and admitted-

"No, wait, no-one can actually know about this or you'll both be accused of collusion," the mermaid princess then went on to say.

"Well, that is probably why he broke the five-mil and change into these easily-explainable pieces," I hummed as I leafed through the stack of checks.

"So. How're you gonna cash those?" Sorahiko inquired, prompting me to stare at all the 0s before closing the catalogue around them.

*AHA*

So in summary, while I didn't win the whole pie, getting a little over 5 million Yen under the table wasn't a bad haul, either. Though of course, like Mero said, I'd never be able to admit as such without implicating the Detnerat company in collusion, or something to that effect.

And sure, me making a spectacle of myself and Gible by saving a T-Rex girl from a Category 2 C.O. in the form of a Mosasaur like out of Jurassic World was sure to make the news, but at least it was legitimately because no other Hero or Taskforce had been around to "do better" until after-the-fact; if not during-the-fact.

A later investigation of the incident would reveal that the Nautical Hero: Coastal Guard, neglected to report the presence of the Category 2 after coming upon it on patrol because he wanted the glory for himself to finally surpass the Sea Rescue Hero: Selkie in niche popularity.

The audio recording of his "GoProHero" and the guy's mutilated carcass in the thing's stomach, as well as the testimony of a formally brow-beaten crew, were evidence enough to prevent the guy from being turned into some kind of martyr. While it was true that it made the Hero Industry look really bad, incidents where such was covered up and the whistle blown made the HPSC in various countries look even worse, so I suspected the Commission at the least picked and chose what got revealed to the public, allowing for some nebulosity as to whether a Hero suddenly retiring was because they were a criminal, just wanted to retire, or flat out died with no real amount of dignity.

As for what a Category 3 would be, apparently that was the level of something from another universe "strong enough to destroy an entire city by themselves". Category 4 are far rarer, apparently capable of threatening multiple cities at once; essentially, the difference between a Threat Level: Demon and Threat Level: Dragon from One Punch Man. Category 5, still theoretical as far as the Administration is willing to admit, can destroy "an entire country" single-handedly.

Category 6, once again "purely theoretical" as far as the Administration is willing to publicly admit, is the harbinger of an "extinction-level event". So basically, if something like Unicron from the wider Transformers universe were to appear nearby, we'd be pretty fucking screwed unless I-Island had a literal planet-buster tucked away somewhere that no-one was dumb-enough to point at… you know… the planet it's sitting on…!

And hey, if this whole incident gave me an "in" with the CEO of the Detnerat Company that I could mutually take advantage of later, all the better~

Even if this was another feather in the "Isekai Protag-kun" cap that Shiori and Kuromi insisted I was wearing…

*AHA*

"So," I hummed as I stepped out of the shower, getting the smell of bay water out of my hair. "You didn't tell me you were going to be here."

"The show runners called me on the off-chance you started doing anything too crazy," the old man replied as he put away his black suit.

"I guess that's fair," I shrugged. "Still, those show runners must be pissed they lost out on so much money."

"Eh, I'm sure all the All Might footage will make up for it," the Jet Hero waved dismissively.

"Yeah, speaking of which, how'd he know I threw away five mil'?"

"Who knows. Maybe his support staff told him while he was flying cross-country," the old man shrugged, turning away from me for some reason.

"Well... Guess I don't have any excuse not to go to Yuuei anymore..." I sighed as I raked my fingers through my hair.

"So what's this I hear about you getting a harem~?"

"Can we just... not, right now?"

"I'm not getting any younger, and I need to make sure you don't succumb to the usual pitfalls."

"I'm sorry, 'the usual' pitfalls?" I gawped incredulously.

*AHA*

True to form, Yotsubashi-san had decided to take all the show's participants out for an all-you-can-eat barbeque lunch on his own dime-er, Yen, and this was where the representatives of Damoto and Murakami found themselves a couple hours after shooting ended.

The venue overlooked the waves of the East China Sea, and not only had the CEO of the Detnerat Company been able to set the whole place aside for this private gathering, but Meroune's own diplomatic entourage formed an almost impenetrable wall of security, mitigating the need for local Pro Heroes to impose themselves on the festivities.

Something that was doubly-important because once again, I'd made the afternoon/evening news in the shadow of freaking All Might.

Oh, and Gible for his part was going to positively explode into internet fame once the videos of him on the barbecue grill hit YouTube, because during our camping trip together, the little guy learned that putting meat on fire made it more delicious than eating it raw.

"Takei-kun, I'm sorry you lost out on the prize money," Mero hummed sadly from her place at my left; or maybe it was more like I was on her right.

It was all an act, I realized, but a necessary fiction so no-one would connect my eventual windfall to the events of this afternoon.

"It's no problem," I returned, ignoring the fact that I had already deposited a check through a digital intermediary. "I'm just glad that girl Yotsubashi-san brought with him is okay," I hummed turning my attention to the man's table where the whitette was eating carefully beside him, clad in a neck brace and looking far better than when she'd been pulled from the water with a choker made of teeth marks.

"Yeah, that was a brave thing you did!" Mei grinned as she recorded my partner's antics on her phone.

"Umu. Indeed," Momo nodded in turn, though her blushing gaze was on Gible as he grilled meat for her.

"So… How much did that prick bring home?" I asked gesturing at the other side of the venue where Murakami Chugakko's reps were sitting.

While the Robin expy, Guremusuko Rura, was definitely the "returning hero" in this scenario, it didn't seem like everyone was pleased with him.

"Well, apart from the prize money, he got 400k off of Damoto scalps, and 900k off Murakami scalps," Kuromi hummed.

"Huh…"

In all honesty, if that's the kind of environment that Bort-sensei is cultivating, where it's completely normal to throw your own under the bus, I'm happy I got the "fun principal" instead.

"Yeahhhh. They did not take kindly to that~!" Shiori grinned.

"I mean, the guy does seem like the sort to piss people off," Hanako hummed.

"It's also pretty bed because the only one you actually eliminated was the Luchador over there, and you lost out on the prize money anyway," Kuromi hummed jabbing a finger at the Pantha expy.

"Hah, and man, those Hunters had to haaate you two~" Shiori grinned.

"Well, I'm sure it'll have some semblance of cohesiveness in-post," I hummed aloud as Gible nibbled on some of my meat before putting the rest on my plate.

"So if I may ask, what do you have planned after this?" Mero inquired.

"Well obviously I'm gonna get some good food in me," I said eating some skirt steak, and then passing a little more to Gible since all he really got to eat was a bit of leathery eyelid. "After this… probably gonna kick up my feet on the way home because my legs are killing me," I groaned rubbing my legs. "Seriously, three hours of non-stop 'Extreme Hide-and-Seek'…"

It wasn't actually "that bad", but I had to put on some kind of an act so I wouldn't stand out too much.

I mean, getting a ringing endorsement from the No.1 Hero probably made me a failure on that front, but it was the principle of the thing!

"I see," Mero hummed as she brought her tented fingers up to her face. "Would you perhaps… be interested in accompanying me on the trip back to Tokyo?" she inquired cutely behind webbed fingers. "I can easily have the presidential yacht brought in, if you're amenable."

" . . . I can never say 'no' to those pretty doe eyes, can I?" I sighed, a pretty pink blush gracing her cheekbones while she nodded happily.

"So you're not going back to the theme park?" Naruki asked.

He and the other non-Runners had to pay their own way, but they hadn't been barred from entering.

"I think I've had my fill."

"Fair enough," Togami hummed. "Hearing you guys get woken up at nothing o'clock in the morning, I definitely don't envy you."

"Well, at least the three of us made out like bandits~" Shiori grinned pulling Kuromi and Hanako into one-armed hugs.

"Perhaps, but I'm sure Bort-sensei wont' let Picar-sensei ever hear the end of it," the Shadow Girl hummed.

"Though to be fair, Takei-kun getting a ringing endorsement from All Might of all people probably slants things back in our favor," Hanako smiled.

"Honestly, I'm just glad all this drama is said and done with," I said getting back to my meal.

"Yeah. It's almost like we've been left in suspense for months on end," Shiori hummed matter-of-factly.

"Ignore her," Kuromi hummed.

"Too busy. Eating meat," I returned, Mero giggling in delight as she took in the ambiance, whereas the other school's atmosphere felt more like an obligatory gathering despite being the 'victors'.

"Takei-kun, about what I brought up yesterday."

"Yes?"

" . . . Would you like to come over to the embassy tomorrow and discuss it in greater detail?" she inquired after sharing a significant look with Momo.

"Um... Sure," I replied, my cheeks heating up as I did in fact, remember Mero's words from the other night now that I wasn't quote/unquote 'running for my life'

*AN*

OOF! That one took a while. Even as I played around with the formula, I still lost a whole weekend on this. Not that I regret it, but I'll probably avoid hours-long gameshow-type chapters for the foreseeable future on principle alone.

At least until the Yuuei Sports Festival, because that one just screams "Wacky Domestic Gameshow", assuming you're Japanese. But at least in that one, things are fixed to the ground in segments and not non-stop with a chance of dinosaurs in yoga pants.

And boy is that a sentence.

Anyway, the next chapter will be a lot more casual, and we'll get to see everyone's favorite OL Dragon Mama and Dragon Maid before too long, so until next time.

GOTTA BLAST!

But first, a little something extra~

*STINGER*

Elsewhile, in the depths of what may as well have been a dungeon, two people played an analogue video game of the most-recent variety, the bluelight from the separate screens the only illumination in the room.

The first figure was a young man in his middling teens clad in black pajamas, red sneakers, and artist's gloves. He was slim with pale skin, his grimace revealing yellow-tinged teeth surrounded by scarred and chapped lips, a great many wrinkles and irritated skin wrapping around his bright red eyes, messy grayish-blue hair spilling down over his face and obscuring most of it from view.

The second figure was a handsome man with a slender build clad in an all-black suit, not too dissimilar to those worn by wage slaves all across Japan. His hair was straight and waist-length, tied in a loose ponytail at the end, his bangs covering his right eye leaving the left, also red, exposed to the bluelight. Compared to his co-player who was grimacing, this man had a resting, gloomy expression.

"That damn All Might... taking Wild Tiger away from me...!" the middling teen raged through grit teeth as he brought the joysticks and buttons to their breaking point, the skin at his neck demanding to be scratched at.

"Shigaraki..." the man in the black suit spoke up. "What All Might said should be no concern of yours."

"And why not?!" the young man called 'Shigaraki' raged as he made to throw down his controller, but thought better of it at the last second.

"A man can be loyal to a cause, but the cause, will always betray him in the end."

"And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"What my esteemed associate means," a fatherly tone familiar to the young man said from a speaker mounted beneath the nearby security camera, "is that your own associate can join the Hero Society we both revile so much at his own leisure, but in time, he will see their hubris, and their foley. He will grow disillusioned with their hypocrisy and weakness. He will grow intolerant of their failings. And when that time comes, you will be able to call him to his true place with open arms."

"Sensei..." the young man called 'Shigaraki' hummed as the seething flames inside of him cooled. "Yes... Yes, you're right. Just like in Fire Emblem, it's simply a matter of waiting for the right Trigger enough Story Missions in...! To pull him away from the Mobs!"

"That's my boy!" the fatherly tone implied. "Now, return to your games. You don't want to fall behind, do you?"

"Tch, not on his life," the young man called 'Shigaraki' scoffed as his raging fingers renewed their feral dance upon his controller, the handsome man at his side simply scoffing before returning the effort in earnest, their versus game intensifying before them.