Hey, author here!
Well, this took a while… and it is a small chapter at that…
In my defense, I was very busy with the start of the college semester and real-life stuff, and this chapter got divided and rewritten twice. Originally this chapter had around 7k words and it was done somewhere around a month after chapter two but it was very rushed and many events happened without me going much in-depth into anything that was happening, just to give you guys a notion of how bad it was, everything that happened in this chapter was only 2k words worthy of content and next chapter is going to be around 9k.
Because I duplicated the length of the chapter and because both parts of it lost any kind of resemblance to a single chapter, I decided to divide them into two chapters instead of keeping them as one unnecessarily big chapter.
Now with my excuses given and with nothing else to pledge my case…
I hope you enjoy the chapter!
*Chapter start*
Standing at the starting line of the villain circuit Artoria can't help but notice just how detailed the circuit is. It is clearly designed to resemble some kind of mountain terrain, with several artificial peaks and natural-like platforms. Being part of an I-Island project made it share the same proportions as most of the other projects on the island, in other words, it is immense, having its own river system, trees, and waterfalls. Just the stands surrounding the starting part of the circuit have the capacity to support hundreds of people.
"So, how does this work?" Looking over the villain circuit, Artoria asks Sam, standing by her side, working on a small computer screen by the side of the starting line.
"Hmm, it's not that hard to understand. Once I give you the signal, you'll try your shot at destroying all the robots around the terrain in the fastest way possible." Sam explains while testing the functions of the circuit.
Artoria looks over to the screen and sees Sam typing her name in an empty scoreboard.
"We use this system to accurately measure the speed at which the heroes end the circuit, once all the robots are destroyed your timer stops." Seeing Artoria's interest, Sam explains.
"I see, humm… Sam, before I start I think it would be better for you to take some cover somewhere, once I start things will get pretty windy." Artoria says while looking around.
"Gotchu, let me activate the voice options then." Sam doesn't think much of Artioria's request, after all a lot of heroes have destructive quirks that when used at their maximum potential get out of the hero's control. There were a lot of instances of heroes participating in the circuit taking the test again, once they are alone in the testing field.
"And it's finished. I've set the countdown at one minute, get ready." Giving his thumbs up to Artoria, Sam leaves the area.
"Huhhh…" Seeing the countdown running on the screen by her side Artoria breathes out loud. Doing a basic stretching routine Artoria's body tenses with power ready to leap into combat.
10 seconds
The ground beneath Artoria cracks silently as she gets into combat posture. She observes the ten or so robots randomly placed around the terrain in front of her, with no optimal route of engagement in sight. The architects of this circuit clearly favored a brute-force approach to this one over any form of strategy.
5 seconds
Artoria hears a rhythmic sound loudly coming from her chest, as the beating heart frequency increases a bluish aura slowly leaves her body, then converges on her skin, giving Artoria's entire body a blue hue. Lips threaten to turn up on the girl's face as a seemingly infinite amount of energy flows through her body, bringing her immense satisfaction. The power courses through her body and the air around her, creating a vortex of bluish wind.
1 second
"Huhhh… let's see what I can do."
"CIRCUIT STA-"
"BOOOOOMM"
With a loud boom, Artoria disappears from her previous location leaving only a giant still spreading crack on the ground, her speed completely overshadowing any application of the laws of physics. Blitzing through the starting line, Artoria runs like a blur, the computer screen by the starting line was sent flying into the air long ago, but to Artoria, it barely moved from its original spot as if it is frozen in place.
Taking all the new sensations invading her body with an excited glee. She can feel it, the changing winds, the ground cracking apart beneath her, the clenching muscles in her body screaming happily with the power it had long forgotten, and even every single ray of sunlight hitting her skin.
Artoria knows that the shackles created to bind everyone, now are a mere suggestion to her, the natural limitations of every single human being, mass, wind resistance, gravity, and every other law of physics were rendered useless in front of her power.
The power to tear the world apart, that's the feeling coursing through her veins. The power she had yet to use one time in this new world, forgetting just how good it felt.
Approaching the first robot at the base of the circuit, Artoria notices its scanner moving at a slug's pace, trying to find the target that disappeared from its senses, but even if she were to stand in front of it for an eternity it would never realize her presence, right in front of it.
Staring at the robot for a brief moment Artoria backhands its chest, she feels her arm tearing straight through the robot and exiting on the other side, noting how easy it is to crush it, without stopping to see the effects of her attack she moves to the next robot in her sight, leaving the about-to-be two robot behind.
Looking over to her right at a section of the circuit with four robots on it, she quickly approaches the base of the rocky terrain and considers for a second if she should continue with her previous thought, but soon the adrenaline in her veins overwritten her rationality as she throws a quick jab at the side of the rocky hill leaping onto the soon to be destroyed wall, she jumps once more to the nearest robot taking it by its leg and throwing it at another two robots perfectly lined up.
Turning her attention to the two last robots she sees, the first one near the middle section of the circuit dozens of meters below the last robot at the very top of the circuit. Looking at the first robot a few meters below her she leaps from the high ground, landing directly by the side of the robot, but instead of taking action Artoria decides to ignore it, instead she directs her gaze to the robot above her.
Flexing her knees slightly she jumps, soaring through the air, in an instant she arrives in front of the last robot to be taken down, but instead of slowing down she directly flies past it. She lands a few meters behind the last robot at the peak of the circuit just as it falls to the ground without a head.
Just as she throws away the decapitated head she hears the loudspeakers of the arena announce the end of the run.
Congratulations
You are in first place
1st: Artoria Pendragon
Time:3.4 seconds
2nd: none
Time: none
3rd: none
Time: none
Feeling the power running through her body subsiding, Artoria exhales loudly, her eyes fall onto her hand as she sees the bluish glow leave her body along with all the adrenaline coursing through her veins. The small signs of excitement disappear from her face as a weak but present wave of tiredness crashes through her body. She frowns slightly, mildly irritated by her performance.
"I'm pretty rusty, huh…" Despite being known to fight for entire days without any rest or food here she is starting to feel the pull of fatigue on her body. Turning her attention away from herself she turns to look at the villain circuit, but what she sees makes her eyes widen in worry.
Not a single place of the circuit could be seen without some kind of damage, on one side it seemed as if a meteor had just crashed on it, on the other side footprints stretching from the starting line followed by giant fissures on the ground like someone carved it with a massive sword, an entire section of the stands is buried by boulders that flew away from the circuit, following the direct of which it flew, an entire chunk of the rocky hill is missing.
After years of never using her real strength all the adrenaline and power pumping through her body clouded her judgment, making it so that she forgot to restrain herself, causing much more damage than what someone was supposed to do in the circuit.
"I've messed up…" Face-palming Artoria mutters."I hope they don't ask for compensation."
"tap tap tap"
Hearing the sound of frantic footsteps approaching, Artoria turns her eyes to the starting line of the circuit, where David runs to the nearby screen with a half-crazed smile on his face. Approaching the cracked screen that miraculously survived the onslaught, typing on the screen he goes for the details tab for Artoria time.
"No, it's impossible with that amount of destruction and the sheer speed… she has to have a much better time than this..." From the top of the circuit, Artoria hears David muttering to himself as he tries to operate the broken screen." Three seconds is too little… I still remember… it is just too similar… definitely."
Finally opening the detail tab below Artoria's name, David's smile widens as does his crazed look. Approaching hesitantly, Artoria tries to speak to the man."Are you okay?"
Hearing her voice David turns his eyes to Artoria with that crazed smile plastered on his face, pointing excitedly at the screen he motions to Artoria to look at it."Look here."
Heading his words she looks at the results written on the screen.
Villain circuit destruction details
1st robot elimination: 0.0000000000…00005 seconds
2nd robot elimination: 0.0000000000…00006 seconds
3rd robot elimination: 0.0000000000…00007 seconds
4th robot elimination: 0.0000000000…00007 seconds
5th robot elimination: 0.0000000000…00008 seconds
6th robot elimination: 0.0000000000…00008 seconds
7th robot elimination:1.3 seconds
8th robot elimination:1.7seconds
9th robot elimination:2.5 seconds
10th robot elimination:3.4 seconds
'Seems about right…'
Looking at the time displayed on the screen Artoria finally realizes what could have caused David's weird reaction.
'Was the time too good? I'm not sure how good it is for this world's standards. Well, I do know that covering that much space in such a short time is crazy no matter where you go, but isn't this supposed to be one of the best places for heroes to test themselves? Surely many impressive people already used this place before and had crazy records.'
As David's eyes stay glued to the screen Sam comes near with wobbly legs, despite not being directly assaulted by the collateral damage that occurred in the circuit, he still heard the sounds and felt the ground tremble, just remembering the shockwaves traveling through the air sends shivers down his spine.
"David." He tries to get his coworker's attention, but his words fall on deaf ears as David continues to mutter to himself.
Being ignored Sam then turns his eyes to Artoria."You caused quite a bit of destruction here."
Looking awkward, Artoria says."Sorry. I should have held back."
Looking at the dilapidated circuit Sam mutters."Yeah, you should have, but I guess this is not the first time we've done repairs on it. I'm going to call the staff, we should start cleaning this up soon if we want it to get ready for the I-Expo."
As Sam leaves David and Artoria, Morgan approaches followed by the clicking sounds of her high heels. She looks around with a complex expression before talking to her sister.
"What made you change your mind?"
Looking at Morgan's eyes intently staring at her, Artoria knows that there is no way to divert or trick this woman. Much like in her past life, she didn't have many favorable interactions with her, but they still understood each other's conditions enough. Having this much power and being in the same family as that man is in itself a sin, but not telling him about it is an even worse one.
"Nothing major, there is just one thing I wish to confirm."
'That's the truth if Shirou is in this world or not, once I get my confirmation I will just drop out again. I don't see any meaning in being a hero or in going to a hero school. If it weren't for this person named Shirou Emiya's incapability to use social media I wouldn't even be enrolling at that school to begin with.'
"That's to be seen…" Releasing Artoria from her stare Morgan says." I'm sure you know what will happen if that trash of a man discovers your strength and quirk. The peaceful life you had will quickly become hell."
"Yes, I'm aware of his obsession." Replying curtly, Artoria ends the conversation.
"Okay then…" Nodding at her sister's words Morgan then says."I still have to show you where you will be staying."
Several minutes later, Sam comes with the clean-up staff."David, you're still here David?"
As if waking up, David raises his head from the computer screen and looks around, noticing the absence of Artoria."Where are Artoria and Morgan?"
Sam replies somewhat dejected."Definitely not here."
Nodding briefly at Sam, David takes his phone and calls Morgan while waking out of the villain circuit.
Looking at the departing figure of his friend Sam's face contorts for a second as if he is looking at something dirty."There is no point in following this man anymore."
*Scene break*
Looking through the car window, Artoria couldn't help but admire once more the architecture of this place, even the ordinary residential area of the island is incredibly beautiful to look at.
'Maybe only the center of some megacities could look like this, maybe that's what the entire world would look like if it weren't for financial and political constrictions.'
"I assume your purpose in going to Japan is pretty important, I heard you were doing well at Orleans." Morgan starts talking much to Artoria's surprise.
Morgan isn't very talkative by nature, especially so when dealing with Artoria's side of the family, her feelings towards Artoria always seemed border on extreme dislike, and most of the time she doesn't even want to look at her. Making the entire situation of her accepting to help her extremely weird and if that is not weird enough now she is trying to make small talk.
'What is this? Is she just curious?'
"It is nothing special. There is just something I wish to see at that school. Regardless of the outcome, I will drop out as soon as I find out." Saying rather vague Artoria answers Morgan's question.
'If she is acting suspicious or not I will not go around talking about how I flew to another country just to find a boy.'
"And what do you pretend to do after that? It would be the second time you would drop out of high school, I certainly didn't take you for an idiot." Morgan says with lips slightly curled up as if she is secretly happy with what she said.
"There is a reason why I also applied for citizenship on top of my student visa. No matter the outcome, once things are over I plan to stay in Japan for a while, and don't worry I don't plan to stay there at your expense." Artoria explains somewhat succinctly, ending the conversation.
After a while, Morgan stops the car in front of a small apartment complex."Here it is, you will be staying at the 708. Here is your key."
Not reacting at the lack of courtesy from her older sister Artoria merely nods before getting ready to leave the car with her things, but she stops her actions for a moment with a conflicted look on her face she says without turning to look at Morgan.
"Say Morgan… how is our-"
"Just get out of the car." Before Artoria could even finish Morgan interrupts her rather coldly with an unfiltered annoyed expression adorning her entire face. "I have nothing else to discuss with you."
Without acknowledging Morgan, Artoria leaves the car quietly. Hearing the engine of the car distancing from herself, Artoria turns around to look at the departing figure.
"Hah… maybe I should just give up."
*Scene break*
Walking to the center of the room Artoria hears David's excited voice by her side."Now all that you need to do is grab those metal handles and push up with all your strength and that will be enough for this test. Oh and in case of it being too light for you try to keep the weight up as much as possible."
"Just so that I know. How many of these tests there are?" With a slightly annoyed face, Artoria says.
"Around a dozen." David answers with a bright smile.
'I'm starting to regret agreeing to do this.'
"Well, I had to repay them for breaking the villain circuit." Artoria approaches the metal handles. Surprisingly she feels a small amount of resistance while taking a firm hold of the handles, turning her head up, she looks at the three massive metallic wheels connected to a cylindrical tube on which the handles are. Mounted on the ceiling the three circular wheels or weights are supported by four mechanical arms each placed in one of the four cardinal directions giving the dome-shaped building a very sci-fi look.
Taking a deep breath Artoria gathers her strength and grabs the metallic handles. Just as she starts to lift the cylinder by a few centimeters the first and smaller of the circular weights above her head turns, flinching with the sudden increase in pressure Artoria looks up in surprise.
"So that's how it is…" Muttering to herself Artoria puts all her strength into lifting the handles above her head, making the second metal wheel turn, increasing the pressure even more.
"Not… enough…" Pushing herself further a bluish glow appears around her as wild currents of winds start circling her, creating a small hurricane inside the room. With all her power concentrated in one place, the final wheel, and the heaviest of them all turns, increasing the weight above Artoria's head for what it seems like a hundredfold.
"Yes, just a bit more you are almost there, keep going." David excitedly cheers from the side ignoring the wind pressure threatening to lift him off the ground.
But contrary to David's excited cheering Artoria feels the pressure on her decrease greatly.
'I wasn't conscious enough to notice the other time but it seems I still have some kind of dragon core in my body. Weirdly it didn't show up in the scan results I did more than ten years ago… is it because my quirk developed since then or maybe it doesn't have a physical shape?'
Giving it the final push Artoria perfectly lifts the handles above her head and positions herself to better support the weight above her. As she stabilizes herself the hurricane in the room subsides, letting David approach her.
"So, how are you feeling? Do you feel like letting it go already?" David says while looking intently at a digital clipboard in his hands. Taking a peak several values change constantly on it as if trying to gauge with precision something.
"I think I will be fine for a while." Replying calmly Artoria notices how overexcited David gets every time she performs any kind of impressive feat.
'He is looking over me, projecting someone's image on me. During the villain circuit, I noticed his fanaticism but now I'm sure he is comparing me to someone. But how did he know I was this strong? No, before taking that test I didn't know the extent of my power, him asking me to go to the villain circuit was just a coincidence then? I find it weird that he wasted all that time on me when he is a very busy man. Even now he is giving me a lot of preferential treatment and wasting a lot of time. It is like he doesn't care what is happening around him at all.'
As Artoria momentarily loses herself in her thoughts several minutes pass and her arms start to feel the pressure of holding all that weight above her, representing this, wind currents start to wildly form around her, fearing hurting David by her side she immediately releases her quirk and lets go of the handles.
"Huh… huh…" Taking deep breaths Artoria massages her shoulder feeling slightly uncomfortable but at the same time surprised, she never imagined that someone would be able to create a machine that would be able to measure her in any form. Although the machine couldn't push her to the limit of her strength it definitely tested her endurance.
'It makes one wonder how far someone with a powerful quirk would go if he or she had the full support of a place like I-Island. If I had something like this facility in my past life I feel like I could have gone further than I did.'
"That was great Artoria you were able to hold that for ten minutes, it is the second-best record we ever had." David says while showing her the data on the digital clipboard."You might not know but all those weights together are just as heavy as a small mountain, by lifting and holding them above your head for ten minutes you reached a level that only one other person did."
Looking at the clipboard for a second and seeing all the data displayed there, which is a number fifteen followed by an ungodly amount of zeros, she then turns and asks David.
"I suppose the only other person that did what I did is the first-place record holder." Artoria says half expecting the name that will come from David's mouth.
"Yes, you are right he was able to hold those weights above his head for over thirty minutes and only stopped because he felt that it would be pointless to keep going." David says with a nostalgic smile while tapping on the clipboard displaying someone else's data.
And unsurprisingly Artoria recognizes the name on it.
ALL MIGHT
"Nobody tested has come even closer to his record from over twenty years ago or that was until you came along." David says while looking intensely at Artoria's eyes, making her flinch and avoid him.
Feeling the intensity of David's eyes Atoria says.
"So… did you know him?" Artoris says, trying to change the conversation course, realizing who David is projecting on top of her and what implications that might have.
Hearing the question nostalgia flashes in David's eyes for a second, but only for a second as nostalgia is replaced by sadness and a sense of unconformity.
"Yeah… I do know him." Saying with a saddened tone David continues."I used to be his sidekick while he worked in America but once he started working in Japan and I on I-Insland we rarely had time to meet, nowadays he only comes around on Melissa's birthday."
Seeing that she hit a sore spot Artoria tries to change the flow of conversation again, even if her curiosity and instinct say to her that the reason for David's near-obsessive actions should be related to something that happened between All Might and David.
'It is simply not worth going there, I don't know the exact reason for David's actions here. Is he just curious after seeing someone who might reach All Might's level or does he have other intentions, like replacing All MIght's previous role by his side with someone else like me? I simply don't know and any wrong word or assertion I make could cause him to turn on me or get even bigger delusions about me. It is better for me to simply dance around the subject while I'm on this island, once I'm out I can just ignore him.'
"I see… by the way is Melissa your daughter?" Artoria says, trying to keep the conversation off her.
With Artoria's second question, a smile appears on David's face but contrary to the first time it genuinely stayed on it."Yes, Melissa is my daughter, and she is studying here at I-Island Academy, maybe one day of these days while you are still around I can introduce you two. Since you want to be a hero in the future having a friendship with someone like Melissa might be good for you." With a proud smile on his face, David praises his daughter. "Don't mean to brag but she is quite the genius girl, she is easily one of the smartest people I've ever met and her grades show that, all perfect across the board."
Hearing David's worries Artoria says with a polite smile. "We can see about that meeting but not everything is set in stone, so I would rather not give her the wrong impression, furthermore I haven't even enrolled at U.A yet, much less become a pro hero."
"Hahaha, I guess you're right let's not put the cart before the horses."
Sensing a much softer atmosphere around Artoria opens her mouth to continue their conversation but is interrupted by Sam suddenly entering the room.
"David, those guests I've spoken about just landed." Sam says curtly and somehow rudely, picking Artoria's attention.
David's brows furrow, and as his face contorts into a scowl he asks Sam."Why are they already here? Weren't they supposed to come in the next month?"
"There was a schedule change they said. I'm not really sure what happened but now we have more important things to worry about." Sam gives Artoria a side eye before exiting the room.
Turing to Artoria David says regrettably. "I'm sorry Artoria but we will have to interrupt our examination for now."
Looking at David's departing figure, Artoria can't help but grow a small frown of her own.
"Things on this Island are weird. I'm better off not getting too involved in it.'
*Chapter end*
Few at that's it for chapter three, as I said previously this one ended up being a smaller chapter than usual but worry not, the next chapter is coming next week, probably by the end of it or the beginning of the very next one.
Now for our little overview!
In this chapter, I wanted to show Artoria's power level by cleverly using I-Island and David's desire to see All MIght past glory as an excuse to do so. Furthermore, I wanted to show what kind of mindset Artoria has now in relation to her power which is to say she doesn't care much.
Next, I wanted to give Artoria a small moment with Morgan and show them how their relationship works. Despite being a small interaction, I had a lot of trouble with it, choosing the correct words they would use with each other, what kind of information they would give each other and in which amount, and putting the right amount of emotion in their actions and words, it was kind of hard I rewrote that entire section a few times before getting it where I wanted and several other sentences before that.
The last section was used solely to explain a bit about why David seems obsessed with Artoria and also to do a bit of foreshadowing. Anyone who watched the first My Hero movie would recognize why David is so interested in Artoria.
By the way, I will start answering some comments next chapter so give a lot of them!
And that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!