My Hero Academia: Aura Farming

[The Synonym]

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[Target]
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…

"... What the heck was that?"

"Right? What kind of speed is that? He covered kilometers in just a few seconds!"

"I thought he looked pretty powerful in the video from a few weeks ago... but this completely blows that away."

"What speed was that anyway? Mach 1?"

"No, no. The sound barrier didn't break... but I don't think it was that far off from doing it either."

"This is crazy... And they say he's 15? This kid might as well become the new All Might already."

"I don't think even All Might was this impressive at his age."

With conversations of similar astonishment spreading across the crowd, mixed with awed cries, the stadium became the loudest it had been all day.

As it got rowdier, three more figures emerged from the tunnel and stepped onto the field.

Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo—in that order.

Upon reaching the light, all three looked briefly disoriented, probably from having pushed themselves hard in that final stretch, trying to get to the finish faster than Taka, but clearly having failed—and now having to adjust to the roaring crowd and bright sunlight hitting them immediately upon reaching the end of the race.

Still, they recovered quickly. Once they'd caught their breath, they looked up at the agitated stands, jumping and cheering—before their gaze settled down on the victorious figure of Taka standing not far away from them, brushing his hair back as the sun hit his face directly.

'He moonwalked us,' was the collective thought among the three the instant the result of the race dawned on them, recalling the last thing they'd seen before Taka had blown past them and shot into the light at the end of the tunnel.

And to their dismay, it seemed that memory wasn't staying between just the four of them.

"What is that?"

"Did they record the last stretch?"

"Hold on, what the—?"

Before they knew it, the big screens above had already begun replaying what had happened inside the tunnel... Including the moment Taka moonwalked past all three of them through the ceiling—at nearly sound-breaking speed—while they watched helplessly.

And of course, all in slow motion. Otherwise, it would be hard to catch the astounded look on their faces as Taka moonwalked past them.

Baffled outrage and laughter erupted from the crowd almost immediately.

"... They were having such fierce competition, like destined rivals... Only for the walking cheat to ruin that!"

"Hahahaha! Look at their faces—well, not like I'd look any better if I saw someone stealing victory from me in such a way."

"Why even moonwalk? Wasn't running on the ceiling enough?"

"Clearly not, and thank god, I think I've truly seen everything now."

Away from the crowd's laughter and chatter, plenty of pro heroes in attendance were also looking pretty baffled, but entertained by the stunt Taka had pulled—and the trio's astonished faces as they could only let it all happen.

"...That bastard..."

Watching it play out again on a screen that size, and feeling the secondhand embarrassment radiating from every direction, the three each reacted differently.

Midoriya looked almost betrayed.

He'd never expected Taka to pull something so openly mocking. He'd always come across as the silent, composed type.

Not only that, but he'd also helped him grow tremendously before this festival. He had thought he was a cool and generous class rep with no bounds to his thoughtfulness.

—But today, he had learned not to trust his heroes.

This was so not Plus Ultra.

Meanwhile, Todoroki's eyebrows furrowed as he observed the sheer disrespect on screen.

This was what he had meant by lessening his moderation?

To mock them so openly? To show his superiority in such a clear manner?

The weight of the war declaration he'd handed Taka earlier pressed down on him harder now.

He had declared his victory just like that. But now, he'd seen what a not-holding-back Taka actually looked like. And the more he saw him beat them in such a ridiculous manner, the less likely his chances of victory felt.

At this rate... could he genuinely win?

His fist tightened as his gaze drifted to the stands, where a certain figure watched him with a stern expression.

'No. It's not about whether I can or not. I must.'

Huffing, he turned around and walked away. No longer paying attention to the screens or the crowd.

Bakugo, on the other hand, was shaking.

Not only had his victory been snatched away from him, but the culprit hadn't even moved for 99% of the race, then covered the whole thing in seconds the moment Bakugo was about to clinch it—and then, to make it even worse, when he passed them, he had the absolute audacity to do it in the most ridiculous way imaginable, as if to rub it in further.

"You... damn attention whore!" Bakugo stepped forward, small explosions crackling from his palms. Whatever composure he'd been maintaining in front of the entire country was long gone.

But then Taka turned his head toward him. Slowly.

"...!"

The next instant, Bakugo froze as a wave of pressure washed over him.

It doused his anger cold—like a bucket of ice dumped over him, cutting straight through the rage.

Deep inside, he refused to yield, gritting his teeth in order not to let his rage get scared away.

But as he met gazes with Taka, the meaning in there became clear.

'Do better.'

He took a step back instead, gritting his teeth in frustration rather than actually lunging.

With the confrontation defused by nothing more than a look, Bakugo clicked his tongue and, just like Todoroki, walked off to rest for the next game.

Meanwhile, Taka just snorted and turned back to face the stands.

More specifically, toward a very particular section of them.

'I see that wasn't enough.' He thought wryly.

There, in the front row, sat Eri alongside Seiji in VIP seats that Nezu had arranged.

She looked surprised, yes—but she wasn't smiling. Even after all that.

Taka let out a sigh under his breath. 'Well. No one said brotherhood was going to be easy.'

He ignored Seiji's enthusiastic waving the moment the man spotted him looking, and simply waved back at Eri—who raised her own hand once Seiji pointed out that Taka was looking at her.

Then his gaze dropped back to his competitors.

Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo.

...And the others who were beginning to arrive now.

'I hope that was enough to make my intent clear.'

Today, for Eri's sake—and for his own aura farming too—he'd be setting aside his usual restraint.

He'd let his instincts dictate how he showed off, not his calculations.

Just like just now.

'Although maybe the moonwalking was a bit much...' He thought wryly, rubbing his chin as he took in the main trio's very unhappy expressions.

What could he say, though? It had felt genuinely cool in the moment, and he'd do it again without a second thought.

"Really, Takahashi?"

One of his eyebrows lifted as a familiar voice called out to him. He turned to find Jiro had walked up beside him, still looking a bit out of breath.

'Didn't even notice when she got here.'

His eyes briefly swept the field—a mix of his classmates and Class 1-B students had gathered. Not everyone was present yet, but going by how things were shaping up, only the two hero classes plus Shinso and Hatsume were the likely candidates to make the next round, just as in the show, given their eccentricities.

Satisfied with that read, he turned back to Jiro.

"Really what?"

"Waiting until the last second and then blitzing everything?" She deadpanned—before shaking her head and massaging her face. "No, forget that, I don't even mind it that much—but moonwalking?"

Taka didn't back down, crossing his arms. "Wasn't it cool?"

"..."

A brief silence fell between them, with Jiro's expression being that of someone who really didn't want to say what she thought.

In the end, though, after a little groan, she spoke anyway.

"It was a little cool..." She admitted begrudingly—before pointing a finger at him. "... But it was also pretty foul! I wouldn't want to be Midoriya, Todoroki, or Bakugo right now."

She glanced over at the three, who had each retreated to their own corners of the field but were all clearly still processing what had happened.

"They'll pull through." Taka snorted coldly.

"You're merciless." She laughed.

"Yo, Taka, that was insane!"

Kirishima jogged over to them, looking pretty winded as well but equally fired up.

"When Present Mic said you hadn't moved from the start, even though everyone was already at the last obstacle, I honestly thought you'd given up or something." He made a quick rocket gesture with his hand. "...But then I heard this huge boom, followed by something that sounded like an actual rocket heading my way, and before I could even process it, you'd already passed everyone and crossed the finish line. Just how fast were you going?"

After seemingly calculating it for a bit, Taka answered. "I can reach up to roughly 700 km/h right now," (A/N: about 400 miles/hour.)

"You're so busted," Jiro deadpanned.

Kirishima nodded slowly, the sheer gap in power sinking in all over again.

But then his eyes landed on the screen above, which was replaying the moonwalk footage, and his expression shifted into something wry.

"Still, Taka—was that part necessary? I feel like you did those three dirty."

"Are you kidding?! The class rep pulled those moves clean!" Mina's voice cut in as she appeared alongside them, grinning widely. "Who would've thought he had that in him? That was hilarious!"

Kirishima nodded slowly. "It was a bit shocking. I didn't take Taka for someone who'd pull something like that... but I have to admit, that backwards walking was manly."

Jiro rubbed her chin. "Yeah, what happened to the broody silent act?"

All eyes shifted to Taka, waiting.

He shrugged.

"I just felt like it."

"Well, you sure did those three dirty because you felt like it," Jiro said flatly.

Taka gave her a look. "Don't feel too bad for them. By the time I'm done with this festival, everyone's going to end up in a similar shape."

The three went still.

Taka smiled faintly at their reaction.

"I did say it, didn't I? There won't be much moderation on my part today."

A heavy silence fell. Then—

Jiro smiled, though it was a little shaky. "Takahashi, we've been friends since before coming here, haven't we? You wouldn't do that to a friend, would you?"

"Come on, class rep... have some mercy." Mina pleaded.

"...B-bring it on. I'm not scared!" Kirishima declared, pumping a fist—though with slightly more bravado than conviction.

Before Taka could respond—

{"It seems our 42 participants have arrived! To all those still on the course—I'm sorry, but you're eliminated!"}

Present Mic's declaration snapped every student gathered on the field out of their rest. Once he had both the crowd's attention and the students', he continued.

{"Now that we're done with such an amazing—and honestly baffling—start to the festival, it's time to move on to the next game!"}

Everyone's head turned toward the center of the field, where the remaining students were being called to gather before Midnight.

"Let's go," Taka said, already walking.

"Come on, class rep...!" His classmates kept complaining all the way.

A few moments later, all students were assembled.

Taka's eyes swept the group.

Skipping past the Class 1-B students, his gaze went straight to the two outliers.

'As expected.'

Hatsume and Shinso.

In some ways, it wasn't surprising. Shinso's Quirk was well-suited to a general field event like this, and Hatsume was the best inventor in her year, so clearing the first round wasn't beyond her. Still—

'I can't say for certain they'll make it past the next game.'

Not only were his classmates considerably better prepared than they'd been in the show, but he himself was cutting loose today.

Things were bound to diverge from canon. That was certain.

And in the next game, he already had something specific in mind.

Whether Hatsume and Shinso survived past it would depend on their own abilities—actually, scratch Shinso. His power was literally built on leaning on others.

Whether that'd be enough to get through the next round though, was still an open question.

Taka's attention returned to Midnight, who was already tapping the microphone.

{"Well done, everyone! With that, the first game of the first-year stage is finally over... Now then, let's take a look at the results!"}

The big screen above began displaying the portraits of all students who had passed, in order of arrival.

Taka was, of course, first.

Todoroki second, Midoriya third, and Bakugo fourth.

Judging from the earlier footage, it looked like Todoroki had thrown up an ice wall in the final stretch to buy himself second place. Midoriya had gotten through it first, landing him third, and Bakugo fourth.

After them, the rankings weren't quite as monopolized by Class 1-A as they'd been up until then.

Iida managed fifth, then two Class 1-B students claimed sixth and seventh—Ibara and Juzo—followed by Tokoyami, Sero, and Kirishima rounding out the top ten.

The places after that were mostly held by Class 1-A, at least among those with decent mobility, with only a handful of Class 1-B students woven in between, while the rest sat toward the bottom.

Shinso and Hatsume were there too, as expected. The former was somewhere in the thirties, while Hatsume had barely scraped into 42nd place.

Taka didn't know how close the 43rd had been when Hatsume crossed the line. They might have been right on her heels, or they might not have even cleared the minefield. Hard to say.

'As for Jiro...' Taka's eyes searched the board for a moment, then his eyebrows lifted slightly upon finding her at 17th.

Better than in the show, or not? He honestly couldn't remember anymore.

Still, a solid result, considering her lack of exceptional mobility.

He gave a small nod of approval. Jiro, feeling his gaze, shot him a flat look in return.

{"The 42 students shown here move on to the next round. To those who didn't make it—don't worry, we have other activities prepared so you can still shine!"}

Midnight's whip cracked through the air, and the slot-machine display reappeared on the screens above, spinning quickly.

{"Now then, let's get to the real heart of the competition!"}

Everyone tensed as the display cycled through game names in a blur, the stadium going quiet again.

Midnight smiled at their nerves.

{"The second game of this year's stage will be—!"}

The display slowed.

Then stopped.

'As expected.'

{"A Cavalry Battle!"}

Gasps rippled through the students and the crowd alike.

Murmurs broke out—many students weren't thrilled at having to form teams, especially after all the mental preparation to stand out individually and the war declarations from earlier.

But the chatter died as Midnight began explaining the rules.

In short, the students would have to form teams of two to four members, with only one carrying a headband whose point value would be the combined total of every team member's finishing position from the last round. Last place was worth five points, 41st was ten, 40th was fifteen, and so on. The headband had to be worn and defended, while other teams tried to steal it—and you tried to steal theirs in return.

Everyone was already strategizing before she'd even finished listing the point values. Thinking who they could team up with.

Then Midnight dropped the last detail.

{"Beyond that—and to make sure you all live up to our motto, Plus Ultra, to the fullest—the point value assigned to the student who finished first in the last game, Takahashi Fukumoto... is ten million!"}

"..."

A long, stunned silence blanketed the field.

'Ten million!'

Then, every head turned sharply—and in near unison—toward the person in question, who stood among them with a completely unbothered expression.

Suddenly, Taka found approximately forty pairs of greedy eyes boring into him, so intense they might as well have been knives.

—Until he turned around and looked back.

Every gaze immediately dropped or cut away. A chorus of whistling commenced.

Snorting, Taka faced forward again.

Then Midnight cracked her whip, giving the final instruction.

{"You'll have ten minutes to form your teams—get moving!"}

Every student immediately scrambled to find their partners.

Taka stayed where he was, hands in his pockets.

After a moment, he glanced around.

No one was approaching him.

'I guess I did too good a job of intimidating their greedy asses.' He thought, eyes closing stoically. 'Whatever. If necessary, I'll just run the whole thing on my own—'

-Pat-

"...?"

A hand landed on his shoulder.

He glanced sideways, only to see Jiro right beside him, watching him with a smirk.

"You look a bit lonely, Takahashi."

He looked away, eyes closing. "Being the strongest is often a lonely path."

She deadpanned.

"I can leave if you want."

Taka snorted with a smile and shook his head.

But sent a hand out to catch her shoulder before she could walk away.

"Please don't."

…

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-To Be Continued…-

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(A/N: Sorry for the wait, I was stuck with creative block for a bit, and couldn't bring myself to come up with anything.

I think it has passed though.

Anyway, double release)

 

[The Synonym]

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[Cavalry Battle? More like Raid]
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| Nine minutes later... |

...

"In the end, no one else volunteered to join us."

Jiro stared flatly at the already-formed teams around them before turning to Taka with a raised eyebrow.

"...But I guess that's fair. You've got one big target on your head. And after all those war declarations in the waiting room, probably no one wants to be seen mooching off you either."

"So you want to mooch off me?" Taka asked, giving her a look.

"I'm pragmatic..." She said with a grin, before it faltered slightly. "Though... with everyone's eyes on us like this, will we really be okay, Takahashi? I know you're strong, but forty people might be a bit much, especially since this isn't a fight to the death."

Taka closed his eyes.

"The question isn't whether we'll be okay. It's how far you want to go."

"What?"

A shady grin crept onto his lips. "I mean, I could just take everyone's headband now and hold onto all of them until time runs out. Then we'd be the only ones with points and win by default."

A pause followed, during which Jiro stared at him with a flat gaze.

"...Please don't. I need my internship offers, and I don't think winning by default will help me with that."

"It would have been fun," Taka said, shrugging.

"Maybe, but I need internships, Takahashi."

Taka let out a faint sigh. "Fair enough. Then I suppose we do it the other way."

"Other way?"

Taka leaned closer and murmured something to her.

Her expression grew progressively more horrified the longer he talked.

"...You can do that?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Takahashi... is your Quirk really telekinesis?"

"I can walk you through the specifics later. Now's not the time."

"..."

Jiro didn't look satisfied, but in the end, she gave a reluctant nod.

"... Alright."

And as if on cue—

—HOOOOONK!!!—

The alarm signalling time was up rang out.

With the start of the game upon them, all teams began moving to their respective spots along the borders of the circular arena. Taka and Jiro among them.

Once in position, all teams took their formations. Jiro, for her part, ended up on top of Taka's shoulders, her face turning slightly sheepish.

"Did I really have to be the one getting carried?"

"If you'd rather carry someone who probably weighs twice as much as you, be my guest."

"...Never mind."

Rolling his eyes, Taka swept his gaze across the field, taking stock of the teams.

'Things ended up more or less the same as the show, huh?'

He couldn't pinpoint every exact combination, but from what he could see, they looked the same or close enough to what he remembered.

Though one thing did catch his attention.

Hatsume had still gone to Midoriya.

In the show, that was because he'd taken first place, making him the ideal showcase for her inventions. But first place belonged to Taka this time around, which made the choice stranger.

He shrugged faintly.

It didn't matter. Whatever her reason, good for Midoriya.

Besides, if she had asked to join him instead, Taka couldn't have known what to say. Her inventions were a bit redundant with his aura powers already there.

'Maybe that's exactly why she went for Midoriya.' He huffed.

Moving on, his eyes shifted to another side of the field.

'So he's still there.' He noted as he saw yet another equal team to that of the show.

Iida had also remained on Todoroki's team—again, despite the fact that Midoriya hadn't taken first place.

Though perhaps it's just that the rivalry between the two that had driven that choice in the show was still present regardless of whether Midoriya ended up in first place or not.

'But... that guy,' Taka's gaze lingered on Iida for a moment, eyes narrowing slightly.

After a beat, he snorted.

'Today would have ended badly for him. Luckily for him, I'm here.'

He looked back ahead, smirking.

'Or maybe not so lucky. This game is going to be a massacre either way.'

As those thoughts settled, the countdown began.

{"Now then, let's kick things off! Three..."}

The instant the countdown started, every single team on the field turned toward them. Their intent couldn't have been clearer.

{"Two!"}

Jiro tapped his shoulder, glancing nervously at the other teams as they converged their gazes on them.

"Uh... you sure your plan won't fail?"

"It won't."

{"One!"}

She swallowed nervously, but gave a firm nod. "I'll trust you, then."

Taka nodded back.

Then—

{"START!"}

The instant Midnight's voice fell, a stampede erupted.

The hammering of near-hundreds of feet, all converging on a single objective.

"Uh, Takahashi—they're coming."

"I know."

The ten-million-point headband.

"Gyahaha, Taka, that headband is mine!" Hagakure's voice rang out from one of the teams—Koda and Sato carrying trousers with no shirt above them.

Shame was not a word in Hagakure's dictionary, it seemed.

"Come here, you damn attention whore!" Bakugo announced himself as well, wide grin already in place, small explosions crackling from his palms.

Todoroki said nothing, but his cold, locked-in stare said plenty—as did the focused expressions of everyone on his team.

Shoji's team rushed just as silently, eyes fixed entirely on the headband sitting on Jiro's head.

Several others from class 1-B could be seen amidst the multitude of teams rushing in. Taka couldn't remember many of them, but he did recognize a certain blonde with a manic expression on his face.

"Let's see what the leader of class 1-A has to offer!"

And lastly, there was Midoriya and his team.

"Takahashi-san... here we come!"

Who, of course, had to deliver a shonen-ass line.

Suppressing the urge to simply flatten him and his entire team with a single aura hand, Taka glanced up at Jiro.

"All yours."

"Took you long enough." She grinned, then acted quickly.

Her earlobes shot to the ground.

And then—

—BZZZZZZ!—

—CRACKLE!—

The earth cracked apart and erupted in every direction, hurling approaching teams back and breaking their sight of Taka's team in an instant.

Plenty of teams nearly lost their footing entirely. But plenty of others were harder to shake.

"Iida," Todoroki said.

"Oh!" With a shout of determination, Iida's propulsors kicked in. Using a large piece of upturned rock as a ramp at a diagonal angle, the entire team launched into the air, clearing most of the broken terrain cleanly.

Midoriya's team adapted just as quickly. Hatsume's rocket boots, combined with Uraraka's Quirk stripping the team of their weight let them hover briefly above the chaos, bypassing it entirely.

Bakugo's team had no such finesse—but with quick thinking and a few well-timed blasts, they kept their balance and kept charging through the wrecked ground.

Other teams stumbled, had to fall back, or very nearly toppled.

In the end, though, the move had only bought a few moments of breathing room.

But that was all they needed.

"Damn, that barely worked," Jiro clicked her tongue.

"We only needed the time. Now focus—I'm about to start."

She tensed slightly at the pace of it all.

"H-hold on, how did you say I was supposed to control—"

Her words cut off as raw aura began bubbling off Taka's body like a crimson liquid, seeping into the air around him.

Then it expanded, washing over Jiro as well. In moments, both of them were completely enveloped in a pulsing, crimson glow.

"This feels weird."

Taka ignored her and closed his eyes. "Here it comes."

Then—

—BOOOM!—

An explosion went off, wrapping both of them in a thick dust cloud and cutting off the view of every rushing participant.

But that didn't stop the three teams on the front lines. They continued rushing in, planning on pressing ahead regardless of the blockage of vision.

What came after, though, did stop them pretty well.

"...!"

"W-what is that?"

"What is this bullshit?!"

The three nearest teams ground to a halt—the eagerness and bravado drained out of them in an instant as they saw what was waiting on the other side of the dust.

And not just them. Every student in the field turned, eyes widening, mouths falling open.

Taka and Jiro stood exactly as they had before.

With one difference.

A giant upper skeleton, built of crimson fire, loomed above them—its ribcage curving over the two like a cage, and its empty sockets staring down at the three teams with a presence that made the air feel heavier.

At first glance, it seemed completely motionless. Inert.

Until it suddenly moved.

The skull tilted. The arms began to rise.

Every motion mirroring Jiro's exactly.

Sitting on Taka's shoulders beneath it, Jiro looked up at the skeleton's movements and then back at her own hands with a complicated expression.

"H-how is this telekinesis, Takahashi?"

"It's complicated. Focus. The entire country is watching you."

"R-right..." She let it go and turned back to face the three teams ahead.

"..."

A long, drawn-out silence settled over both sides.

Then—

—SHAAAAA—

A wave of ice surged forward and engulfed the skeleton completely.

—SHATTER!—

Then shattered the next instant from a single movement of the skeleton's arms.

Another silence.

Then Jiro smiled, letting out a short breath.

"Well, Takahashi? Shall we put these people in their places?"

Taka nodded, eyes still closed. "Go on."

"RETREAT!" Midoriya shouted.

The other teams didn't even need to hear it.

All at once, they scattered.

Jiro reached for the nearest team—Bakugo's, who had the least collective mobility of the three to fall back on.

"You... YOU THINK I'M SCARED?!"

Seeing the giant hand descending on them, Bakugo launched himself off his team and shot straight at it, arm pulled back.

—BOOOOOOM!—

He drove an explosion directly into it.

-Tssssss...-

"H-how?"

But as the smoke cleared, his eyes went wide. The hand hadn't moved a little after the explosion, and had not even a crack visible on it.

Without support beneath him, he began to fall—eyes still locked on the hand he'd hit.

Sero's tape caught him before he could reach the ground and hauled him back to his seat.

Then, without waiting for his word, the team turned and ran.

Bakugo complained somewhere in the middle of it, but his team didn't listen and continued their tactical retreat.

"Gyahahaha, where are you all going?!" Jiro laughed, swinging her arms wide as the skeleton followed suit.

Taka, meanwhile, broke into a run after the fleeing teams, carrying Jiro and the skeleton with him.

-Boom!-

-Rumble!-

-Bang!-

Explosions rang out on all sides as the giant formation of raw aura struck the ground and surroundings with punishing force.

And through all of it—

"HAHAHA, THERE'S NO RUNNING AWAY FROM ME!"

Jiro had completely lost herself to it.

Taka sweatdropped as she forgot every word she'd ever said about moderation, flailing her arms without a care in the world and watching the skeleton throw itself into every swing with matching enthusiasm.

'I was going to use this myself, but... I suppose it's fine if she's having fun.'

Snorting, he kept running after everyone.

Soon, they hit the center of the field, and the full scatter began as teams bolted in every direction at the sight of the giant catastrophe bearing down on them.

Nobody wanted any part of it.

Up in the teachers' area, every instructor watched the carnage below with an identical flat expression.

All competition had ceased. No one was going for anyone's headband. They were just running from the giant crimson skeleton Taka and Jiro were piloting around the arena.

'You certainly are making history, young Takahashi,' All Might thought, sweatdropping faintly as he watched the sheer joy radiating from the skeleton's every movement, and by extension, from Jiro.

Whether the good kind or not, he still wasn't sure.

But one thing was certain. This festival was going to be talked about for years.

'I feel sorry for young Midoriya,' he thought grimly, watching Midoriya's team sprint for their lives. 'Trying to shine with that kind of competition around him is going to be extraordinarily difficult.'

Back on the field, Taka's team continued their rampage.

"Come on, fight back a little!" Jiro called out.

"You sure are enjoying yourself," Taka noted.

Her eyes snapped open. A blush spread across her face.

She cleared her throat and looked away. "Ahem. I was just... testing the range."

"With that laugh?"

"I got a little carried away, alright? Shut up."

Taka smirked. "So much for the moderation you're always preaching at me."

"Argh, shut up!"

{"Now, this is certainly an interesting turn the game has taken... but I must remind everyone: six minutes remaining!"}

Present Mic's announcement cut through the chaos and brought the field to a sudden standstill.

Six minutes.

Those two words were enough to snap everyone back to their senses.

Six minutes, and what had they done with it? Attempt to take the 10 million headband, fail, and then begin running away from the team they had originally ganged up on.

They had completely wasted the time so far.

That realization brought every team to eye each other instead, tactics shifting in their heads.

But as they began reconsidering—maybe ignore the skeleton entirely and start going after each other instead—

"That's no good," Taka muttered under his breath.

Then, every head turned back to the skeleton as something changed.

The crimson color was shifting, growing lighter—almost luminous. Like a lantern filling with pressure.

Then—

—Swoooosh!—

Like a porcupine shedding quills, the skeleton launched dozens of tendrils from all across its body simultaneously.

They moved like fired rounds. Nobody had a chance to react.

A blink later, they snapped back to the skeleton.

It took a moment of confused silence before the first person noticed.

"My headband... is gone?!"

That single cry spread like a lit fuse. Every student immediately reached for their own headband—and found nothing.

All eyes flew back to the skeleton.

Inside its open mouth, a dense ball of compressed headbands hovered, slowly rotating.

Then the jaw closed, as if it had swallowed them.

"IS THAT ALLOWED?!" Kaminari's voice cracked through the stunned silence.

Midnight and Cementoss, stationed on opposite sides of the field, exchanged a glance.

Then Midnight nodded and cracked her whip.

{"It's allowed!"}

"That bastard...!" Bakugo looked ready to foam at the mouth.

Todoroki and Midoriya weren't much better—both wearing grave expressions, genuinely shaken at how effortlessly their headbands had been taken, with no chance to fight back or even react.

But the shock didn't last long. Soon, it curdled into outrage.

And not just from them.

From all teams.

To steal every headband with six minutes left on the clock was a blatant provocation.

Taka wasn't just taking the game hostage—he was saying something with that action.

'Come at me.'

As that understanding settled, the field reorganized itself. Teams gathered at the far end of the arena, fixing their collective gaze on the pair with a new kind of focus.

"Oi, Takahashi, didn't you say you wouldn't do this?" Jiro asked, visibly panicking.

"Things needed spicing up."

"You turned the entire field against us to spice things up?!"

"Yes."

"HAH?!"

Sensing her panic rising, Taka glanced up at her.

"I'm not going to let it end like that. This is just to put on a better show." Then, he sent her a deadpan. "Besides, you already committed to the bit. There's no backing out now."

"You..." Jiro gave him a hesitant look.

Though ultimately, she simply clicked her tongue.

Her gaze settled back on the mass of students at the far end, readying themselves.

"Whatever. Let's do this."

Without realizing it, she was smiling a little at the end—even with a bead of sweat running down her temple.

Taka smiled, and did so as well, his eyes settling ahead.

Across the field, the assembled teams had found a new kind of unity.

No communication needed. Everyone understood who the enemy was.

This wasn't a cavalry battle anymore.

This was a raid against a single monster, to take back what they'd lost.

Teeth gritted, some swallowed quietly at the sight of that looming skeleton figure.

Eventually, they all mentalized themselves for what was about to come.

The tension stretched like a thread pulled taut.

Then—

"DIEEEEE!"

— it snapped... With Bakugo at the front.

The moment his team charged, every other team surged after. War cries tore across the arena as they threw themselves into it.

"Let's go, Takahashi!" Jiro shouted upon seeing the opposition make their move.

"You sure are going along with it now."

"Shut up!"

Without another word, they too moved.

The skeleton's giant form lurched into motion.

And on the opposite side, the army of furious students rushed against it.

… Until, at last, both parties crashed.

The crowd watched from the stands in stunned silence, then erupted. Baffled gasps, along with many recording with their phones, not about to let this moment be lost, could be seen on the stands.

Never—not once—had a Sports Festival looked like this.

In the VIP section, a wide-eyed Eri pointed at the skeleton.

"Seiji-san, why is Taka fighting everyone?"

Seiji looked briefly caught off guard, then snorted, a smile spreading. "He just loves getting attention. When he gets back after the festival, make sure to congratulate him a lot. I'm sure it'll make him happy."

"Hm." Eri nodded, eyes drifting back to the raging battle below.

Back on the field, the skeleton took everything the assembled teams had.

Bursts of electricity. Explosions. Waves of ice. A barrage of steel-hard scales. A smaller but no less vicious shadow formation from Tokoyami. Acid. Lasers. Horns. Razor slashes. Blunt force from every angle. Crashing vines. And more.

Somewhere in it all, a voice was shouting something at the pair—but it was completely swallowed by the noise.

Through all of it, the skeleton held.

It blocked, struck back, then blocked again.

"Jiro—push your Quirk through the skeleton's throat!" Taka said suddenly.

She didn't stop to question it.

"RAAAAAGH!"

The next instant, the skeleton let out a roar that shook the air hard enough to stagger teams outright from the shockwave alone.

"What kind of combination is that with my Quirk?!" Jiro exclaimed, batting back a close-range fighter with the skeleton's hands while her earlobes retracted.

"It's complicated," Taka answered.

"Argh!"

Brief as it was, the exchange ended there, with both going back to the battle right away.

The battle raged on for minutes after that.

Explosions hammered the skeleton's head, then its ribcage.

Enormous ice formations rose and slammed into it, only to be swatted aside moments later.

But the relentless volume of attacks was beginning to tell. The skeleton started to lag—flinching under an explosion here, lurching forward under a spike of ice there, unable to block sometimes.

Cracks began spreading through the aura formation.

Until Bakugo peeled off from his team, his manic grin stretched wide, already moving.

Midair, he began spinning, pouring explosion after explosion into the rotation until the air around him was a violent vortex. The concentrated oxygen fed his palms a dangerous build of heat.

"Eat this, shithead—!!!"

He leveled his palm at the skeleton.

"HOWITZER IMPACT!!!"

—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!—

The explosion was catastrophic, comparable to a missile, even.

The blast whited out the crowd's vision for a moment before dust and smoke swallowed everything.

Sero's tape reeled Bakugo back before he could reach the ground.

Then, the entire field watched the settling aftermath in silence.

"Did that do it?" Midoriya murmured.

Teams began edging forward, trying to close in and grab their headbands before the clock ran out.

But just as they were close enough—

—BZZZZZZ!—

Soundwaves detonated outward, tearing the already-ruined ground apart even further and forcing everyone back.

Then, through the disbelieving eyes of the assembled teams—

"You've got to be kidding..."

The skeleton rose again.

Bigger, with not a single crack in it, and with a second pair of arms, making it look almost divine.

It stared down at them from its full height, hollow sockets taking in the whole field.

Everyone's mouth and eyes trembled at the sight.

After everything they'd thrown at it… that thing had a second phase?

Despair settled over the assembled teams.

... And only deepened as the skeleton opened its mouth—and a dazzling and dangerous light began gathering there.

"Is that—?!"

"IT'S GOING TO SHOOT—RUN!"

Without question, everyone bolted.

But as everyone turned around and escaped, they failed to notice the skeleton tilting its skull upward.

And then—

-BAM!-

Shoot something that wasn't quite a laser.

As the enormous explosion everyone had been waiting for did not come, some turned to see what had happened.

And that's when they saw it.

"Those are..."

Headbands. Raining down across the field.

Present Mic's voice followed right after—his usual enthusiasm nowhere to be found, replaced by sheer bafflement.

{"... One minute remaining, everyone."}

Those words dropped onto the field like a stone into still water.

Teams looked at each other. Then at their teammates.

Then the understanding hit all at once.

The truce was over.

Chaos erupted.

Teams lunged at the falling headbands like starving animals. The ones with better positioning got there first—and were immediately cut off by others. Open brawls broke out as valuable headbands came into reach, teams colliding and clawing and sprinting through it all.

And through the whole mess—

"That was evil," Jiro said, watching the chaos from the sideline, the skeleton now gone.

"I know." Taka nodded.

A beat of silence settled while both watched the carnage unfold. Then Jiro turned to him.

"So now what, we just watch from the corner while hell breaks loose?"

"Pretty much."

"Damn."

She looked out at the raging battle for headbands with a wry expression, wondering whether she'd dodged a bullet by teaming with Taka and skipping all of that—or just put herself on every participant's permanent wanted list for everything that came after this festival.

Probably both.

Still...

"It was fun." She admitted, settling more comfortably as she watched. "No wonder you put on so much of a show."

Taka paused, then glanced upward.

'She sure is getting comfortable using my head as an armrest.'

Still, he didn't say anything about it.

At least she'd had fun.

{"Time is UUUUUP!"}

Seconds later, the game ended at last.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

Join my Patreon to get access to more chapters, and you'll help me make ends meet while doing so.

pḁtreon.com/TheSynonym (Change the a)

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(A/N: How was that? I had planned on having Taka do the epic Susanoo thing first, but then I decided to let Jiro have some fun because why not?)

 

[Sceonn]

Damn, not a fucking Susanoo!
Seriously, I've been wanting for somebody to do a Susanoo Quirk fanfic for ever. That and a Ben 10 Alien Quirk have always been something I've been on the lookout for.

 

[Kachellzz]

Eri, your older brother is an attention whore, be sure to compliment him.

 

[KingNecron101]

Amazing work as always. Always a treat to see this fic update.

 

[Wretcheddskyz]

Dope as hell I especially like susanoo blowing out the headbands like a surprise game. Reminds me of my childhood playing Elefun! Great chapter

 

[Lucia:Plume]

Damn, not a fucking Susanoo!
Seriously, I've been wanting for somebody to do a Susanoo Quirk fanfic for ever. That and a Ben 10 Alien Quirk have always been something I've been on the lookout for.

Click to shrink...

You should look into this

https://www.deviantart.com/mariiboops/gallery/all?order=newest

 

[Silverias]

I will be honest, I fear the story is kinda losing itself to the lack of stakes. There's no fight that the MC can't win and there's no task that he can't complete. He's not even really aura farming anymore, he's just kinda being an aloof dick to a bunch of kids.

AfO could crash the sports festival, The MC could beat him in a fight, and the story would be over and I wouldn't find it an exaggeration of the MC's power level at this point. It all feels kind of...rote. Like we're dancing across the stations of canon but not actually interacting with them except to say "Yeah, the MC is super cool." and not "The MC needs to maintain the image of being super cool and unaffected even when he doesn't want to, or can't."

Please understand, this criticism comes from someone who has enjoyed the story up to this point, I am just noticing myself slowly losing interest in something I previously really liked, and wanted to express why.

 

[K5P26]

I will be honest, I fear the story is kinda losing itself to the lack of stakes. There's no fight that the MC can't win and there's no task that he can't complete. He's not even really aura farming anymore, he's just kinda being an aloof dick to a bunch of kids.

AfO could crash the sports festival, The MC could beat him in a fight, and the story would be over and I wouldn't find it an exaggeration of the MC's power level at this point. It all feels kind of...rote. Like we're dancing across the stations of canon but not actually interacting with them except to say "Yeah, the MC is super cool." and not "The MC needs to maintain the image of being super cool and unaffected even when he doesn't want to, or can't."

Please understand, this criticism comes from someone who has enjoyed the story up to this point, I am just noticing myself slowly losing interest in something I previously really liked, and wanted to express why.

Click to shrink...

Fair, but then again, this is sort of like a power fantasy, and I wouldn't put it pass whatever entity gave him the system to even the odds just for entertainment's sake. Like buffing AFO just to make Taka's aura shine even more, after all the brightest stars shine the brightest in the void of space

 

[Asura]

I will be honest, I fear the story is kinda losing itself to the lack of stakes. There's no fight that the MC can't win and there's no task that he can't complete. He's not even really aura farming anymore, he's just kinda being an aloof dick to a bunch of kids.

AfO could crash the sports festival, The MC could beat him in a fight, and the story would be over and I wouldn't find it an exaggeration of the MC's power level at this point. It all feels kind of...rote. Like we're dancing across the stations of canon but not actually interacting with them except to say "Yeah, the MC is super cool." and not "The MC needs to maintain the image of being super cool and unaffected even when he doesn't want to, or can't."

Please understand, this criticism comes from someone who has enjoyed the story up to this point, I am just noticing myself slowly losing interest in something I previously really liked, and wanted to express why.

Click to shrink...

This is like saying One Punch Man loses itself to the lack of stakes.

We're at the point in the story where the entire point of the story is showing off and being cool effortlessly. It was inevitable that the story would get here and it is just the natural progression of things. It's okay for you to not like it anymore and prefer the buildup stage, but this is a perfectly valid and important part of the story of an Aurafarmer.

Someone who can farm Aura as easily as he breathes.

Also, yeah, nah. Taka is nowhere near peak AFO or All Might level yet. And AFO is not sitting idle in all of this either. Shiggy is definitely getting more quirks pumped into his body along with a training regimine to "grind up his stats and defeat the intro-stage Soulslike boss".

I'm expecting the future Nomus to be vastly better engineered and the process upgraded in response to the threat Taka has shown himself to be. He's doing all of this on a public stage after already directly thwarting one of AFO's plans. AFO, Garaki, and Handjobber are 100% levelling up in the background with the time they've been given.

He's showing off publicly giving them info to counter him, while also giving them prep time. Just because you might not be able to imagine how the story goes from here doesn't mean the stakes are gone. It just means you're not giving the characters and writer the respect they deserve.

 

[K5P26]

talk about power couple

 

[EMP782]

I will be honest, I fear the story is kinda losing itself to the lack of stakes. There's no fight that the MC can't win and there's no task that he can't complete. He's not even really aura farming anymore, he's just kinda being an aloof dick to a bunch of kids.

AfO could crash the sports festival, The MC could beat him in a fight, and the story would be over and I wouldn't find it an exaggeration of the MC's power level at this point. It all feels kind of...rote. Like we're dancing across the stations of canon but not actually interacting with them except to say "Yeah, the MC is super cool." and not "The MC needs to maintain the image of being super cool and unaffected even when he doesn't want to, or can't."

Please understand, this criticism comes from someone who has enjoyed the story up to this point, I am just noticing myself slowly losing interest in something I previously really liked, and wanted to express why.

Click to shrink...

I think it was clearly stated that MC wasn't near All Night's full power so I don't know if he could defeat AFO or even the huge guy whom MC couldn't defeat but I agree that the plots kinda feeling not as much good as it used to be since it's almost always just one up ing the classmates.So it's been Slice of Life for a bit.

But personally I believe that it'd pick up once again after this event.Although it seems boring right now.

 

[Dradel]

Jiro is going mad with power

 

[Neondagger]

Always happy to see this fic get an update great work

 

[Silverias]

This is like saying One Punch Man loses itself to the lack of stakes.

Click to shrink...

If Saitama was the only one who fought in OPM then the manga would be bad. If it was about him and the other heroes competing in physical contests, it would be bad.

OPM's stakes come from things being at risk when Saitama isn't around to protect them. The Sea King incident, my favorite moment in the entire story, would be NOTHING if Saitama were there from the start, killing things in one punch.

Being super strong and cool is also not Saitama's goal. Saitama got that and got bored, so the stakes shift.

 

[The Synonym]

(A/N: Got my brain rebooted or something, because I suddenly lost all my habits, including uploading here. And whenever I thought about it doing it again, my brain just dodged the subject. Anyway, I'm building back all my habits, which weren't many, but still annoying to have lost them, and today I finally got over my brain and went back to uploading.

Imma be uploading up to ch 76, so two more chapters ahead.)

────────────────────────
[Talk]
────────────────────────

...

The moment Present Mic announced the game's end, all the frantic movement on the field died at once.

Some teams crumpled mid-desperate lunge, their last-second moves not making the cut. Others simply stopped holding themselves together and dropped to the ground right where they stood, exhausted. A few managed to disassemble more calmly, their formations dissolving without much fuss.

It was a stark contrast to what the field had looked like just moments before.

The determination and wild energy from that last minute of open headband hunting had drained out of most. Exhaustion had taken its place across the mass of students.

And no wonder. Things had gotten genuinely rough in that final stretch. The field had turned into something close to hell when the headbands were released—and with it, plenty of people had gotten a very honest look at the true nature of human beings in desperate situations.

It hadn't been pretty.

Taka and Jiro, of course, remained the exception to this. Having steered completely clear of all the chaos and simply watched it unfold from the sidelines, they'd come out without a scratch.

Which, naturally, earned them plenty of unhappy looks from the students around them—most of whom were in the state they were in because of the two of them in the first place.

Taka ignored it without effort. His poker face had been polished well past the point where a few disgruntled stares were going to make a dent.

Jiro looked a bit more uncomfortable.

"You made us public enemies, Takahashi..." She muttered, eyes darting around.

Taka gave her an unimpressed look. "Let's not put all of that on me. You looked like you were having a great time when you had control of the skeleton."

"..."

She didn't have anything to say to that.

So she changed topics.

"Speaking of the skeleton—will you explain now how your supposed telekinesis managed to produce a giant flaming skeleton that two people could control?"

"It's simple, really."

...

"Well? I'm waiting."

Taka smiled with his eyes closed, as if the answer were the most obvious thing in the world.

He still took far too long to actually say anything though.

"Well?!" Jiro pressed.

Taka cleared his throat. "You see—"

{"Now, we will announce the results for the second game! Let's see which four teams made it through to the final!"}

Taka let out a sigh. "What bad timing. I guess I'll tell you later."

"Takahashi...!" Jiro grabbed the hem of his clothes.

Taka pushed her face away, trying to get her to let him go. "Pay attention damnit."

She kept pulling at him, still trying to get her answer.

The two were still at it when Present Mic's voice came through again.

{"In first place, Team Takahashi!"}

The camera found them. Jiro immediately let go and snapped into a proper pose.

Taka smirked slightly. A vein appeared on Jiro's forehead.

{"In second place, Team Todoroki!"}

The camera moved to the next team. Todoroki stood there looking less than pleased, much like his teammates. Iida looked like he'd just finished a marathon. Yaoyorozu held a bug-catching net she'd used to scoop up headbands. And Kaminari had his usual short-circuited face.

Aside from Kaminari, the other three looked dissatisfied with the results. But with time up, there was nothing to be done about it.

{"In third place, Team Bakugo!"}

Bakugo's team came up next. Unlike most, who had dropped to the ground to rest, he remained standing, looking as pissed as ever with his arms crossed.

Around him, his teammates let out weary sighs. Sero in particular had an armful of headbands in his grasp, having apparently used his tape to reel in quite a few.

{"And in fourth place, Team Midoriya!"}

Lastly, the camera settled on Midoriya and his group. He and Uraraka were flat on the ground, resting. Mei was off to the side, checking over her gear and pulling out headbands that had gotten tangled in it.

Tokoyami stood apart from all of them with his eyes closed and arms crossed, clearly committed to looking composed, a few headbands held loosely in one hand.

{"These four teams advance to the final game—give them a round of applause, everyone!"}

The crowd obliged. Chatter exploded through the stands, most of it trained on the team that had made the biggest impression.

With the finalists named and the game properly wrapped up, Present Mic's next announcement followed without much delay.

{"We'll now take a one-hour lunch break before the afternoon activities begin! Look forward to it, everyone!"}

A brief exchange between him and Aizawa about what to do during the break leaked faintly through the speakers. By then, however, most people had already stopped paying attention and were heading toward food.

And just like that, the second part of the Sports Festival came to a close.

Taka let out a quiet breath.

The messier, more unpredictable parts of aura farming were done. What came next was simpler and more straightforward.

The tournament.

But that was after lunch. Right now, he wanted something filling and a proper chance to rest.

He'd burned through a fair amount of aura across the two games, and he needed to recover it before the third started if he wanted to be at his best.

The Susanoo knockoff, specifically, had eaten a lot of aura to build—and then to rebuild from scratch, bigger, after the teams brought it down the first time.

It had drained him considerably.

Though, on balance, it had probably been worth it.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

[STATUS PAGE]

▸ Strength: (182 Base) 1000

▸ Defense: (364 Base) 2500

▸ Aura Projection: 25,138

─────────────

Total Aura: 61,365 → 29,092 (47%)

1st Clone's aura: 12,273 (20%)

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

All his stunts had cost him around 20,000 aura points, and the active clone was another ongoing drain on top of that.

But for all of that spending, his aura—which had been sitting at a comfortable 53k when the day began—had already climbed by eight thousand points in just a few hours, pushing it past 60k.

He'd finally crossed the mark of roughly double what he'd had when U.A. started.

Not exactly double the number, there were still a few thousand between him and the precise figure, but close enough in practice.

If he'd had this much back when the Nomu showed up, the fight would have looked very different.

Of course, he held back at that time, which is why he struggled in the first place… But now he'd struggle less while holding back the same!

He smiled faintly at that.

The festival was shaping up to be exactly what he'd hoped for.

And the afternoon games were still waiting.

If things kept going the way they were, breaking past 70k today wasn't out of the question.

"Well?" Jiro's voice pulled him back from his thoughts.

He turned to find her watching him with crossed arms, still waiting for her answer.

'Right. The Susanoo thingy.'

He cleared his throat.

"You see—" He started.

"Yo, Taka, what the hell was that?!"

But before he could even begin, Kirishima pushed through and planted himself in front of them, looking equal parts irritated and impressed.

"I know you said you weren't going to hold back much, but summoning a giant flaming skeleton? You nearly flattened some of us in there!"

Taka jabbed a thumb toward Jiro.

"She was the one controlling it. Take it up with her."

"Geh, Takahashi!" Jiro flinched at having the blame passed so cleanly.

Kirishima wasn't done.

"Still—your Quirk is supposed to be telekinesis! How did a giant flaming skeleton come out of that?!"

"Yeah, I was asking the same thing," Jiro added.

But then—

"TAKAAAA!"

A very loud, floating set of clothes came charging toward them.

"How could you?! You stole our headband!" Hagakure arrived and immediately started throwing punches at him, all of which he caught with his palm without much effort. "And then you almost flattened us with that thing! How is any of that telekinesis?!"

Kirishima and Jiro both looked at him more pointedly.

And it didn't stop there. Soon, a whole group began approaching

Midoriya's team minus Mei, who'd apparently stayed behind to fix her gear, plus Tsuyu, Mina, Iida, Sato, Sero, and Yaoyorozu. All of them carrying looks that ranged from tired to openly annoyed.

Kaminari wandered over too, though from the distant expression on his face, he was probably just following the general direction of the crowd.

Soon, Taka found himself encircled by suspicious eyes from every angle.

"That was a pretty evil move, Taka," Tsuyu said straightforwardly, a flat gaze visible in her face instead of the usual wide eyes, clearly a bit put out.

"Tsuyu's right. That was pure evil! My team made it, but at what cost?" Uraraka muttered beside her, looking worn out.

"Oi, Takahashi, ever heard of sportsmanship?!" Sato said, raising a fist.

"Class rep, I looked up to you, and you betrayed us!" Mina said, doing her best impression of someone heartbroken.

"When that skeleton came after us, I genuinely thought it was over," Sero muttered with a sigh.

"Takahashi-kun, I thought better of you," Iida said, chopping the air at a rapid pace. "You disrupted the order of the game and nearly brought the whole thing to ruin when you took everyone's headbands at once!"

"It was unlike you, Takahashi-san," Yaoyorozu added quietly, looking a little hurt.

"To call forth such a giant beast from the underworld and unleash that level of destruction..." Tokoyami shook his head slowly. "I did not foresee such darkness lurking within you."

"Whey~"

Taka took all of it in without flinching, arms crossed, eyebrow raised.

"This is a competition," he said, his tone a bit flatter than they were used to. "You didn't expect me to go easy on you, did you?"

He let that land, then continued as his eyes narrowed.

"Besides, I said I was going to make history… So I will."

""...!""

That quieted the group down noticeably. A few looked caught off guard by the confidence behind it.

"So manly... damn it." Kirishima looked somewhere between moved and distressed.

"The top of the world isn't for the faint-hearted, it seems," Tokoyami said, a faint smirk taking over his stern look for a moment.

"Whey~"

"Still, something doesn't add up!" Sato said, snapping a finger at Taka. "You told us your Quirk was telekinesis, and that it came directly from your physical strength. So how did you produce that monstrous thing?!"

"We were wondering the exact same thing," Jiro said. Kirishima snapped out of his thoughts and nodded in agreement.

Everyone looked at Taka, waiting. This time not about to let anything else stop the question from being answered.

He scratched his cheek, barely hiding his troubled look.

Of course, he already had an excuse ready, but he would have liked a bit more time to make sure there weren't any holes in it—especially now that Yaoyorozu and Iida were in the group. If anyone was going to catch an inconsistency, it was one of them. Yaoyorozu especially.

As if on cue, though, fate decided to cut him a break.

"Takahashi."

A voice from outside the circle. The group parted to see who it was.

Todoroki stood there, expression as blank as ever.

"I need to speak with you. Come."

Then, he turned and walked away without waiting.

'The hell?' Taka stared at his retreating back with a flat look.

He could have ignored it. Todoroki hadn't even said please.

...But given the situation he'd just been pulled out of, following seemed like the better option.

He turned to the group. "I'll explain later."

Then he walked after Todoroki without any further ceremony.

The group watched him go, visibly baffled.

They were about to call after him—

—Growl—

When a collective stomach complaint echoed from the group at once.

Flat looks were exchanged. Then everyone started drifting toward the cafeteria.

Whatever was Taka's secret, it could wait until all of them had eaten.

While the field cleared out around them, Taka and Todoroki's path curved away from the main flow, coming to a stop at a quiet corner near one of the exits.

Todoroki settled against the wall with his hands in his pockets, eyes closing.

Taka just looked at him.

'...Now that I think about it, isn't this basically the same setup as when Midoriya had his talk with Todoroki?'

Same isolated spot.

Similar air of backstory about to be revealed.

Even similar moment in time, if he recalled correctly.

'So it ended up being me this time.' He thought, quietly amused.

With the war declaration already having come his way, it wasn't that strange that this conversation had followed. Still, he'd have preferred Midoriya for this. Talk-no-jutsu wasn't really in his skill set.

But he was already here, so there wasn't much choice but to hear what the emo of the class had to say.

"..."

"..."

A lot of silence was apparently what he had to say.

Todoroki seemed to have a talent for letting awkward silences. Maybe the guy even enjoyed it, because even several seconds after Taka had made himself comfortable, the guy still hadn't opened his mouth.

"..."

"..."

He just kept looking at Taka, direct eye contact, not saying a word.

"..."

"..."

Until, of course, Taka decided not to put up with it. So he turned around to leave.

"Wait."

Finally, Todoroki decided to speak.

Taka turned back, expression flat. "I was starting to think you'd gone mute."

"..." Todoroki's eyes narrowed.

Then he closed them, took a slow breath, and looked at the ground.

"I can't beat you."

He led with that, making Taka's eyebrow go up slightly.

'Don't tell me he brought me here just to repeat what he already said in the waiting room? If so, I'm beating him to a pulp. I'm hungry, and I want to rest to recover the aura I lost, not have a rivalry moment with this guy.'

Todoroki went on, unaware of his thoughts. "You've outclassed me completely across the first two games of this event, and in ways that were completely over the top, while clearly not even going all out at that. Before I said I would beat you with my ice, regardless of the gap between us, but now I realize my mistake."

A reluctant look crossed his face.

"You're at a level I can't reach right now. Without my fire, there's no chance of beating you. And even with it, I don't think that changes much."

His expression soured.

"I can't win. I understand that now."

Taka's eyes narrowed slightly.

Todoroki didn't come across as someone who could just admit defeat flat out. So this was going somewhere.

As if on cue, the sour look shifted—replaced by something harder and more direct.

"But even so, know this."

Cold mist began drifting off him.

"No matter how far above me you are, I won't go back on my pledge."

The mist settled. Both of them looked at each other.

Then Todoroki's gaze dropped slightly.

"You know Endeavor?" he asked.

Taka nodded faintly, "Your old man?"

Todoroki nodded back, his expression shifting into something with a lot of dislike behind it.

"He's always had a strong drive to reach the top. That drive brought him all the way to number two—but then he hit a wall he couldn't get past, no matter what he tried... All Might."

He lifted his left hand slightly, looking at it.

"He put all his life into one day surpassing him. But eventually, the truth settled on him. He wasn't going to reach number one, ever… So, with his limits made clear, he moved on to his next plan. Me."

His eyes came back to Taka, who hadn't reacted.

"Do you know about Quirk marriages?"

A flicker of annoyance passed by Taka's face. "Arranged marriages designed to produce children with stronger Quirks than their parents."

Todoroki looked briefly caught off guard by that. It wasn't a term that was widely known anymore. It still happened, of course, but the practice had declined a lot from the old times when it occurred.

Still, he recovered quickly from the surprise.

"... That's what I am. A product built from a Quirk marriage, whose purpose is to eventually surpass All Might and take the top spot."

His eyes stayed on Taka for a moment, looking him over almost analytically, before moving away.

"That bastard bought my mother's parents off and forced the marriage with the sole objective of creating me… his goal of surpassing All Might was all that mattered. My mom, on the other hand, much like my brothers, became disposable to him once she conceived me. Honestly, I can't remember a time she wasn't crying."

His hand rose to the burn on his face.

"Eventually, it all came to a point where she poured boiling water on me as she looked at my left side with clear disgust."

Taka didn't react, simply listening silently.

"Because of all that, I refuse to become a tool for someone like him. No matter what, I won't use my fire against you."

His eyes met Taka's again.

Upon seeing his unmoved face, he scoffed faintly.

"You're probably wondering what any of this has to do with you." He said, averting his gaze, "The thing is, you reminded me of him."

Taka frowned. "Endeavor?"

"All Might."

Taka's expression eased.

Todoroki closed his eyes. "Whether you're connected to him or not doesn't really matter. The fact is, you're going to reach his level—or go past it—in due time. That much is easy to tell right now."

Then, his eyes opened again, staring at Taka as if he were the final goal in his path.

"That makes you the same kind of wall my father spent his life running into." Todoroki's brows pulled together. "Which makes it all the more reason to face you without my fire."

"Even though you won't win without it?" Taka said, his tone flat and a little pointed.

"I won't win. But I won't lose in a completely one-sided way either. I'll show that my ice alone is enough to stand against someone like you."

With that, he pushed off the wall and started to turn.

"That's all I wanted to say… Farewell."

"Nope."

"...?!"

—He'd taken about one step before a crimson force caught him and brought him back to the wall, putting him face to face with Taka once again.

"Info-dumping me and then walking off. You've got some nerve." Taka smirked as he spoke, though clearly not because he was amused.

He had some sympathy for what Todoroki had been through. But he wasn't about to just stand there and take the guy's whole backstory and second war declaration, only for the guy to just leave without letting him give a word of his own.

So, while Todoroki pushed back against the crimson hold, Taka's voice came through with a sharp tone in the form of a question.

"Why are you here, Todoroki?"

That took the teenager by surprise.

"What do you mean?" He asked, still struggling against the restraint.

"Why are you at U.A.?" Taka clarified, head tilting slightly. "If you didn't want to be your father's project, you could have chosen any other path. Become something other than a hero. Even if he pushed back, you could have pushed harder. But you didn't—you're here, in the exact place he would have put you."

Todoroki's mouth opened. Then it closed.

He didn't have an answer.

It was a question he'd never actually asked himself.

If he'd really wanted to defy his father, many choices other than being a hero were available to him.

He could have taken any other… But he hadn't even considered it.

Why?

And as he tried to find the answer, a memory surfaced—him as a child, watching All Might on the TV with his mother. One of the few moments she wasn't crying.

Before he'd thought it through, the words came out.

"Because I want to be a hero."

Taka's expression eased. Just slightly.

"Then let me ask you something else. When you become a hero—when enemies stronger than you show up, when people need you, when lives are on the line, and it comes down to what you can do in that moment—are you going to hold back your left side then too? Because of a grudge against your father?"

Todoroki went still. He stopped pushing.

Taka stepped closer, eyes level with his.

"You say you won't become his tool. But not using your left side isn't freedom from him—it's just handing him a different kind of control."

"What?" Todoroki's brows pulled together.

"Say you make it to number one with only your ice. Does that mean you broke free from him? Or does it mean that even after you've reached everything you set out to reach, he's still shaping how you live and what you choose not to do?"

Todoroki's mouth opened to speak, but let out no sound.

Taka let out a huff.

"Think it over."

Then, the invisible hold suddenly released. Todoroki caught himself before he fell completely, slowly coming back to his feet.

By the time he looked back up, Taka was already walking away.

But just before he could get too far away, he glanced back once, his eye shining eerily.

"Do have in mind, though, without your fire, you won't be even able to put up the slightest fight. If you want to remain as you are, feel free to do so—but whatever you want to accomplish, you won't be able to."

Then, he turned.

"Against someone who doesn't even take his goal seriously… I'll make sure to crush them."

And so, leaving those words, he walked away.

Todoroki stayed where he was, silent as a rock as he watched Taka's departing back join the mass of students walking to the cafeteria.

And as he did, his hand lifted to touch his scar once more.

"Become a hero."

…

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: I feel like this one might have felt like a skippable chapter for some, given the lack of plot advancement aside from Todoroki's character development. Hopefully not.

How is Taka's growth in this event according to you? A bit much? Or not sufficient? Do recall that the aura gained becomes significantly less the further away people are—and I know the aura he's supposed to be gaining should be technically around the millions, but for the sake of the story and the stakes, let's just say that Taka's original Quirk can only absorb a specific quantity of aura from its surroundings before it begins to lose grip on the rest. Like a pipe receiving an influx of water perfectly, until the quantity becomes too much and ultimately overflows the pipe and gets lost.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Matches]
────────────────────────

…

'Well, hopefully that got through his head,' Taka muttered once he'd walked far enough from Todoroki and his emotional baggage, sweatdropping as he did.

He let out a sigh. He wasn't nearly as good at motivational speeches as Midoriya.

Actually, was what he'd just given Todoroki even a motivational speech? It felt more like a reprimand than anything else.

Regardless of what it actually was, hopefully it would do the job of getting the guy to stop sabotaging himself and actually go all out during the tournament.

'And if it doesn't, a thorough beating might help.'

With that thought settled, he nodded to himself and headed toward the cafeteria. He wasn't about to let his lunch break slip by because he'd had to fill in for Midoriya.

A few minutes later, he stepped inside.

'Damn... it's packed.' His eye twitched at the sight of the enormous line stretching across the room. Every student who'd arrived before him was already ahead of him in it.

All because he'd been late.

Taka clicked his tongue.

'Todoroki, I swear I'm going to beat the hell out of... your emotional problems, yeah.'

Just as he was resigning himself to the wait—

-Tap-

A hand landed on his shoulder.

"...?"

He turned to find Kirishima grinning at him, thumb jerked toward one side of the room. "Yo, Taka, we saved you a spot."

Taka looked in the direction he'd pointed. With the cafeteria this full, he couldn't see much past the crowd, but he took the man at his word.

"Thanks." He nodded. Not having to eat standing was more of a relief than he'd expected.

Though, now that he thought about it, standing with his aura handling everything wouldn't have been much of a hardship. He didn't even technically need his hands to eat.

'... Actually, would eating in a corner while my aura handles the chopsticks with my hands in my pockets count for aura farming, or aura losing?'

He set the thought aside before it could go anywhere.

He jerked a thumb to the line ahead of him. "... but I still need to get food, so I'll have to queue up before joining you."

"Don't worry!" Kirishima waved him off. "We grabbed what you usually go for—the spicy stuff, right? Yaoyorozu put it in a temperature box she made with her Quirk. Should still be hot."

Taka blinked.

They'd actually paid attention to that?

Well, it was his go to most of the time, so maybe it wasn't that hard to notice.

"Well, thanks then." He kept his expression even, even if something warmer stirred somewhere in the vicinity of his chest.

Problem resolved, the two of them left the line and headed toward the table.

… But as they neared it, Taka's pace slowed once it came into view.

"...?"

The cafeteria tables were meant for six. The one ahead had at least sixteen people around it, every single one of them his classmates. They'd somehow all compressed themselves around it—elbows on the surface, fingers interlocked in front of their mouths, and eyes fixed directly on him with matching expressions of absolute seriousness.

A heavy air suddenly fell upon him.

His eyes slowly drifted to Kirishima, who stood next to him.

The guy's usual grin was gone. Instead, he had the same expression as the rest.

'Et tu, Brute?'

"We saved your lunch, Takahashi-san." Yaoyorozu suddenly said as she pulled up a small box of some unfamiliar metal from under the table, took out the food tray with his lunch, and slid it across to him with one hand—while the other stayed folded over her mouth, gaze unbroken. "Please take a seat."

"Gee, thanks." He said with barely hidden sarcasm as he sat down and pulled the tray the rest of the way with his aura.

Kirishima settled in beside him, seamlessly joining the wall of stares and emo avenger poses.

While that happened, Taka picked up his chopsticks collectedly, acting as if the glares were not even there.

It annoyed some, who were blatantly trying to make them noticeable.

Then, as he finally took the first bite of his food and seemed to enjoy it with the calmness always present in him, he looked back at them.

"So... Something on your minds?"

"Yes, quite a lot," Yaoyorozu said, her tone respectful but precise. "We were wondering about the specifics of your telekinesis. You left rather abruptly before, Takahashi-san, and left us with rather a lot of questions."

"Hmm." He poked at his food, eyes drifting slightly to one side.

Then a wry smile crept onto his face.

"Ask away, then."

Everyone's focus sharpened at once.

-Slap!-

A hand slammed onto the table.

"How did you produce a giant flaming skeleton?" Jiro was the one who spoke, looking like an interrogator tired of waiting for straight answers.

Everyone glanced at her, gave a collective nod of agreement, and turned back to Taka.

"Air," Taka answered calmly, eating another bite. "With telekinesis, I compress it into a solid. The telekinesis not only holds it there, but acts as a layer that absorbs part of any damage the formation takes. As for why it looked like it was on fire and red—that's just the color of my telekinesis. You've all seen it by now."

He demonstrated, letting them all see the bubbly crimson aura that sometimes flickered between looking liquid and other times like raging fire.

A few looked struck by that. Almost like things were clicking into place.

Others, however, didn't look quite so convinced.

Yaoyorozu's voice came through the ripple of reactions.

"Air is mostly nitrogen and oxygen. At the pressures needed to solidify it, it should liquefy first, or ionize, depending on the energy involved. And if it's that dense, shouldn't there be shockwaves and pressure displacement around it? None of that was present when you and Jiro-san moved it. Also, if the telekinesis is absorbing kinetic energy, where does it go?"

Jiro looked a bit uncomfortable in the middle of that.

Taka simply shook his head.

"My telekinesis acts like a bond that holds the air together. That lets it behave like a solid without liquefying the way you're describing, and the bonds also absorb impact and energy when something hits it. As for where the energy from all your attacks or similar external stimuli goes, I redirect it all into the ground, evenly spread. Sometimes, back into the skeleton's own attacks for extra damage."

"What about the side effects of compressing air that way?" Iida raised a hand. "Shockwaves, displaced air pressure, extreme heat—shouldn't any of those occur?"

Taka didn't bat an eye.

"I contain those, too. Same method, transferring it all evenly into the ground."

Iida blinked baffledly. "How...? Energy like that can be extremely unstable and hard to control…"

Taka raised and pointed his chopsticks at him, his face completely serious. "With great care."

"T-then..." A voice rang out from somewhere along the table.

Taka looked over. Midoriya was there, sitting with his notebook already open and pencil in hand.

Taka's gaze went flat immediately.

'Not this guy...'

"Are you saying," Midoriya continued now that he knew he had his attention, "that you were simultaneously managing all those processes—while keeping the entire formation in the shape of a skeleton—while also making it mirror Jiro-san's movements in real time?"

"... Yes," Taka said flatly after a few seconds.

Midoriya didn't look fully convinced, and with it, his usual muttering was unleashed.

"Producing fire and electricity, pushing physical limits beyond what's biologically possible, adding cutting properties to blunt objects, and now this—on top of what seems like a computational ability to run multiple processes simultaneously and in extraordinary detail... Takahashi-san, your Quirk doesn't really sound like just telekinesis."

His eyes fixed on Taka with the look of someone who was onto something.

"Yeah, and your Quirk almost looks like it's not yours, given how inexperienced you were with it at first," Taka replied evenly.

"Never mind, it all makes complete sense!"

Midoriya's gaze snapped away immediately, hand going to the back of his neck with an awkward laugh.

Everyone around the table looked at that exchange with varying degrees of confusion.

As they did, Taka set his chopsticks down on the tray and stood.

"If that's everything, we should get moving. The Festival will resume in not too long."

The sound of him picking up the tray snapped everyone at the table out of whatever thought they may have been having.

Eyes moved between each other; the question going through their eyes was clear.

"Are we really just gonna let him go like that?!"

Those who weren't exactly versed in matters of physics looked at each other dubiously, not knowing whether what he had answered them truly answered their questions.

The sharper ones in the group, on the other hand, didn't look entirely satisfied with what they were given.

—but without a solid grasp of how his Quirk actually worked, there wasn't much to push back on. Telekinesis wasn't exactly an ability that played by the standard rules of physics.

Nor were many Quirks, actually.

Everything was as possible as impossible.

So, in the end, nobody spoke up.

With them unable to voice their dissatisfaction, Taka turned and gave the table his back, already about to walk away victoriously.

Before turning his head slightly, and gesturing at them to follow.

"Well? Let's go. Third game's about to start."

It was time for the last stretch of aura farming.

And he wasn't about to miss it.

...

°

°

°

| Minutes later... |

...

Taka stood calmly before the stage, surrounded by most of his classmates, as they waited for the next part of the festival to get underway.

While waiting for the rest of the classes to get there, and for the crowd at the stands to come back now that the recess was over, his hair swayed in a faint breeze as he stared stoically at the ahead.

Which was strange, given that they were standing in the middle of the stadium with no wind to speak of.

There was truly no rest for the aura farmer.

"..."

Still, standing there doing nothing but looking cool was a little dull, and the other classes would take a while longer to get there from what it looked like. So with nothing better to do, he checked his status to see how his growth was going so far.

But as he did so, His eyes widened slightly at what he saw.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

[STATUS PAGE]

▸ Strength: (182 Base) 1000

▸ Defense: (364 Base) 2500

▸ Aura Projection: 25,138

─────────────

Total Aura: 72,896 → 55,223 (75%)

1st Clone's aura: 12,273 (17%)

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

'Uh... what?'

His total aura had grown by around eleven thousand while he wasn't looking.

And from the looks of it, it was still climbing.

'... How?'

He thought it over.

It wasn't like there was a camera on him while he had been lecturing Todoroki, or when he justified his susanoo rip off to his classmates, right? And even if there was, he doubted it would have earned him that much aura.

That would be pretty funny, but it clearly wasn't the answer.

So why had he gained more aura while sitting in a cafeteria than he had during the actual aura-farming moments at the festival?

'... Delay.' He thought, arriving at an understanding.

What had come in before, the 8k, which he'd assumed was most of it—had most likely only been the aura from people watching live inside the stadium.

What was arriving now was from further out. People across Japan, and beyond, who'd been watching the broadcast from a distance.

Some who hadn't seen it live and were only now catching the highlights were also another reason for the aura to have a delay.

Others abroad, who'd gotten the transmission late and needed it translated on top of that, probably another reason.

Add in the distance the aura itself had to travel to reach him, and the delay made sense.

"Damn." The word slipped out quietly.

He'd known the gains would be significant. He'd assumed he'd accounted for most of it during the games themselves.

'I miscalculated a bit.'

Despite his thoughts, he couldn't stop his mouth from curling upward.

He'd underestimated just how wide the reach of an event this size actually was.

And there was still the afternoon to go.

'My aura is almost recovered too,' he noticed. The number was at 75% and rising steadily, clawing back what the skeleton and the race had eaten through. At this rate, it'd be back to its cap of 83% —the limit due to the active clone—before the first fight even started.

Though, seeing as the total kept climbing, that cap would likely keep growing with it.

His grin settled a little more firmly.

'So I finally achieved it.'

Whatever the final aura gained ended up being, by today's end, he'd be at last standing alongside the true heavy hitters of this world.

Still a bit behind, of course, given he had to spread his aura across his three stats.

But in raw power, and if he decided to go all in, his output would probably equalize or be bigger than even All Might or even All For One.

He couldn't wait for the day he met Gigantomachia again. This time, it wouldn't be a one-sided fight.

'He might not even survive a point-blank aura blast as he did with the 10k version I shot him with when we met,' He thought, snorting.

Maybe not even All For One would.

He shook his head. 'Actually, let's keep my distance from All For One for a while longer.'

Confidence was one thing. Walking into range of a Quirk that could steal abilities was another, especially when his own Quirk was as unusual as it was—and the system attached to it was something stranger still.

He'd prefer not to test what an AFO with a system would be like.

Of course, that was given the guy could touch him, which he very much doubted.

But it was still better to wait until there was no question of the outcome.

'Now, growing a lot is great and all… but that's not the main reason I'm here, is it?'

With that thought, his eyes drifted up toward the VIP section. Eri and Seiji weren't there anymore—probably grabbing food and planning to come back in a bit.

Focusing on the aura was important, but focusing on the process of today's act was just as much.

He was going to make sure this was a day neither would forget.

Nor anyone else.

'But I already said that, didn't I?'

Smiling faintly, he glanced at his status screen one more time and dismissed it.

And found Jiro staring directly at him from the spot where it had just been.

"Look at you grinning at the air. What's got you so amused?"

Taka's smile dropped. He cleared his throat and looked away. "The weather is nice."

"Uh huh."

{"WE ARE BACK, BABY!"}

Present Mic's voice cut through everything, pulling all attention to the stage.

{"Now that lunch is over, it's time to reveal what the last game will be!—right before that, though, an announcement for those who didn't make the finals: we've prepared recreational games so everyone still gets a chance to shine. This isn't called a Sports Festival for nothing!"}

Relieved sighs and cheers broke out from the students who hadn't made the cut.

{"Now that that's taken care of—THE LAST GAME OF THIS YEAR'S SPORTS FESTIVAL!"}

The screen above lit up with an image that made plenty of eyes go wide.

A tournament bracket.

{"Once the recreational games wrap up, our finalists will duke it out tournament style, one on one!!!"}

The crowd's noise hit a new high, many reincorporating spectators joining in on the hype.

But the finalists themselves had a rather different reaction.

"WHAT?! FIGHTING?!"

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!"

"THIS IS RIGGED, RIGGED I TELL YOU!"

"THERE GOES MY CHANCE TO SHINE!"

All eyes drifted, wryly, to the one person standing completely calm through all of it.

The collective thought at that moment was a single, shared prayer:

'Please don't let me fight him.'

Except for two people, of course. One explosive, one half-and-half. They were itching for a fight, judging from their expression, and the tournament had just given them what they wanted.

-Whip!-

Midnight's whip cracked, and the noise settled.

"Before we reveal the bracket and move on to the recreational games, there's one more thing. We need two more students to fill out the bracket evenly. Two members of the fifth-place team may advance."

She pointed directly at the relevant group.

"Team Shinso—you'll need to decide among yourselves which two of you move on, or we'll leave it to chance."

'So Shinso made fifth place,' Taka noted. 'He must have hypnotized a lot of people in desperation at that last minute, but still fallen just short of making the proper cut.'

He let out a quiet, amused breath at the image of Shinso pulling in all those headbands from other teams only to end up one step outside the line.

That's when noise from that direction caught his attention, making him turn.

"I said I don't want to!"

On scene, Ojiro, was glaring at Shinso with real heat in his expression, while Shinso looked thrown off.

"H-how are you—?"

{"Quirk usage outside of the games is not permitted."} Aizawa's voice came through the speakers, flat and unhurried. {"I have my eye on you."}

Shinso blinked in shock. Then his jaw tightened as his most reliable move was shut down before it could get started.

'So they were aware of it.' Taka hummed in faint surprise.

But, well, it was to be expected to an extent. It wouldn't have made much sense for the teachers, who had information on the Quirks of the students, not to have expected or to have let Shinso hypnotize the others into letting him move on to the next round.

Good thing he hadn't needed to step in himself.

So, with the quiet resolution of Shinso hypnotizing them into a consensus gone, the group of four—Ojiro, Shinso, Aoyama, and a student from Class 1-B—broke into squabbling almost immediately.

… Most of it was directed at Shinso, who'd hypnotized them into teaming with him in the first place.

"No agreement, then?" Midnight interrupted their bickering from the stage. Her whip cracked decisively. "Chance it is."

A roulette appeared on the screen, the four names spinning against tense music.

-Bang!-

One name crossed out.

Aoyama Yuga.

The wheel kept spinning.

-Bang!-

Another name crossed out. The wheel stopped.

Nirengeki Shoda.

Leaving two: Mashirao Ojiro and Hitoshi Shinso.

"The two advancing are Hitoshi Shinso and Mashirao Ojiro!" Midnight announced.

'Lucky guy... or maybe not so much,' Taka thought, watching Shinso's brief flash of relief die the moment he caught Ojiro's expression.

Not only had he made an enemy of the guy—Ojiro clearly knew his secret now. That was going to be a problem.

Regardless, that was for them to solve.

"Now that the participants are set, let's draw lots for the bracket!" Midnight produced a box. "Starting with the first team—Takahashi Fukumoto, step forward!"

Taka did, walking up the stage without any change in expression, reaching into the box, and pulling out a ball.

"Number one!" Midnight announced.

A very audible gulp rippled through the mass of students. Everyone who'd heard it already knew they didn't want to be number two.

Everyone except the usual two, of course.

'Didn't even need to look.'

He turned the ball over in his hand with a faintly amused look, then headed back as his name went up first in the bracket.

As he rejoined the group, he caught Todoroki and Bakugo both watching him with the same focused expression.

'I could arrange the matchups like I did in the first combat exercise,' he thought, 'but where's the fun in that?'

He looked back ahead.

'If they can't get past their now-stronger classmates on their own, that's on them.'

One by one, the rest stepped up, drew, and returned. The bracket filled in slowly.

Until it was done.

[First Combat: Takahashi Fukumoto vs Mina Ashido]

[Second Combat: Shoto Todoroki vs Momo Yaoyorozu]

[Third Combat: Izuku Midoriya vs Katsuki Bakugo]

[Fourth Combat: Fumikage Tokoyami vs Hanta Sero]

[Fifth Combat: Kyoka Jiro vs Eijiro Kirishima]

[Sixth Combat: Ochako Uraraka vs Denki Kaminari]

[Seventh Combat: Mashirao Ojiro vs Hitoshi Shinso]

[Eighth Combat: Hatsume Mei vs Tenya Iida]

"Nooooooo!!!" Mina's wail carried across the field.

Taka looked at the bracket with quiet amusement.

'Midoriya against Bakugo. Iida against Hatsume. It's almost like fate, those four.'

This was going to be one hell of a final act.

He was up for it, though.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: Disclaimer - I went a bit overboard with the exposure to all the fights in the tournament. It got better at the end, but I think it may be a bit annoying.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Pinky Shall Die]
────────────────────────

...

{"Alright, since we are done with the bracket, let's leave the matter of the tournament aside for a momentary interlude—"}

-Bang!-

-Bang!-

-Bang!-

Fireworks shot into the sky.

{"—AND LET'S HAVE FUN WITH THE RECREATION!"}

The crowd's roar and the fireworks bursting overhead swallowed everything else whole.

With that, Midnight turned back to the students.

"Now then, before we begin, the finalists are free to participate or not. We understand some may prefer to rest or prepare instead."

Most of the finalists began drifting away from the group immediately. Todoroki, Tokoyami, Bakugo, Midoriya—all of them peeling off without a second thought.

A few stayed behind. Mina, Kaminari, and Sero among them.

Jiro had been about to leave too, already half-turned, when she noticed Taka hadn't moved.

She elbowed him. "Oi, you're not seriously going to participate, are you? Leave some spotlight to the others."

The question rippled outward immediately. Several nearby students snapped their heads toward him, alarm flaring across their faces.

Taka glanced at her, then tilted his head slightly, as if weighing the question.

Then, he opened his mouth. "I think I'll participate..."

Multiple expressions fell at once.

"… At another time," He added.

And with that, he turned and walked away.

"Screw you!" A voice rang out from somewhere in the mass of students.

Jiro stared at his retreating back, her gaze baffled.

That was on purpose, wasn't it?

She sighed, gave an apologetic nod to the surrounding students, and turned to leave as well.

Just before she did, though, her eyes drifted back up to the bracket on the screen overhead, finding her name and settling on her matchup with Kirishima.

Given her current offensive options, it was going to be a rough fight.

But that wasn't really what she was thinking about.

'In the end, I actually made it to the finals.'

She'd even gotten to pilot a giant flaming skeleton and cause chaos across an entire field while doing it.

The day had turned out considerably more unexpected than she'd walked in expecting.

A short snort after, she turned back onto her path.

"...?"

—And noticed that Taka, who'd only been a few meters ahead seconds ago, was already completely gone.

Her face went deadpan.

"He sure has a knack for acting mysterious..."

...

°

°

°

| Some time later... |

...

The recreational games moved quickly once they began—a welcome change of pace from the tension that had defined everything up until then.

Scavenger hunts, team races with oversized rubber balls, even tag. It was a pack of events that let the students be students rather than competitors for a moment, and the crowd seemed to appreciate the breather just as much as the participants.

The finalists also made use of the time in their own ways.

Some rested. Todoroki found a quiet spot in the patch of forest bordering the stadium and sat there without moving until the time came. Tokoyami, for some reason, did the same but chose a tree branch as his resting place.

Others prepared and mentalized themselves for the fights ahead. Bakugo and Midoriya, almost by some cruel design of fate, had ended up facing each other in the first round—a fact neither of them seemed to be taking lightly.

Midoriya, sitting in the class's waiting room to calm his nerves, was the more visibly nervous of the two.

But something had shifted in him over the past week and a half.

He'd trained, and he'd grown. He wasn't the same reckless, unprepared kid who'd always relied on going beyond his limits and paying for it afterward.

He could now fight.

Bakugo was extraordinary. He knew that better than anyone.

But he wasn't planning on losing here.

Aside from all them, other finalists joined the recreational games outright, unwilling to miss another chance to be seen by the pros scattered throughout the stands, and finding that competing for fun did more to settle their nerves than sitting alone would have.

Ultimately, however, everything has to come to an end. As did the recreational games, and the calm before the storm.

Minutes later, Cementoss walked away from the center of the field, patting his hands off as he went, leaving behind the freshly constructed arena where the stage had been.

{"Thank you, Cementoss!"}

The teacher lifted a thumbs-up without breaking stride.

{"Now then, everyone, ARE YOU READYYYYY?!"}

The crowd answered loudly enough to feel it.

Present Mic's laughter echoed through the speakers. {"A lot has happened at this year's competition. We've seen feats none of us could have imagined walking in here this morning, seen students go at each other with everything they had... but it all comes down to this. One last event to determine who stands at the peak."}

The tournament bracket appeared on the screen above, names lit up for the whole stadium to see.

{"SERIOUS COMBAT! A situation that, even outside of being a hero, you'll face many times in life! Heart, skill, body, wisdom, and knowledge—all of it matters. Who among these students has all of it? We're about to find out!!!"}

From opposite ends of the field, two figures stepped out and began making their way toward the arena at the center.

{"Ladies and gentlemen, the finals you've been waiting for are about to begin—and what a way to open! Match number one—"}

The screen shifted to show the two approaching figures, names alongside their faces.

One of them zoomed in—a wide grin and a peace sign aimed straight at the camera.

{"Ready to give this fight an sour flavor and probably dissolve the beautiful arena Cementoss just spent several minutes putting together—from the hero course, MINA ASHIDOOO!!!"}

On the field, the pink-haired girl smiled and waved at the crowd as she walked. Her usual cheerful energy was there, but it was sitting a little lower than normal.

{"—VERSUS!"}

The screen shifted again. A familiar, impassive face looked back at the camera with steady calm in the picture.

{"The student who, just as he declared, has been making history today in ways no one before him has—and who I'm sure many of you are very curious to see what else he has in store—TAKAHASHI FUKUMOTO!!!"}

The person in question didn't acknowledge the attention at all, gaze fixed straight ahead as he walked slowly toward the arena—his hair lifting faintly in a breeze that, once again, wasn't supposed to be there.

While Present Mic ran through the rules, the two climbed into the arena and took their positions at opposite ends.

"Taka…" Mina said, a pitiful edge to her voice.

Taka's eyebrow arched faintly at being called out like that.

She looked at him with full puppy eyes. "Let me show off a little before you kick my ass, please?"

"No."

"Ugh!"

Seeing her face twist like at that, he smiled a little.

"The first two games were probably enough to show how strong I actually am."

"...?" Mina raised an eyebrow, not sure where he was going with that.

"But letting everyone assume I only got this far because of my Quirk doesn't sit right with me… I should show what I can do without leaning on it too, don't you think?"

"You don't mean…" Her eyes went wide.

Taka shifted his stance slightly, settling into something closer to a straightforward fighting position.

"So whether you get to show off or not is up to you. It depends on how much you can make me work for it."

"Thank you, Taka, thank you!" Mina bounced back immediately, her mood lifting.

He let out a huff, as if mildly put out by her reaction. "I'm still your class representative. I'm not letting any of you go unnoticed unless that's your own doing—but you all made it here for a reason, didn't you?"

She grinned at him.

"I'll make sure to put on a proper show, then!"

{"Ready?!"}

Taka grinned back.

"If you can."

{"... Start!"}

The moment the word dropped, Mina kicked off.

She went into her acid-skating immediately, moving fast around Taka's position, keeping herself in constant motion as she sized him up.

"If you won't use your Quirk—that means I've got the range advantage!"

She brought her hands together mid-movement, locking her aim on him.

"Piercing Acid!"

A thin, pressurized spray of acid shot from her palms and was on him in an instant.

Taka ducked under it and jumped clear without apparent urgency.

But Mina hadn't expected it to land on the first try. She kept her momentum, circling, and redirected the spray to chase after him.

Yet not a shred of concern crossed his face.

The spray closed in again.

He, of course, ducked under it again, the acid missing by centimeters.

She adjusted her aim, but by then, he was already moving before she'd finished the adjustment.

Then he started advancing toward her.

Which should have made things easier. A target running straight at a stream of acid ought to be simple enough to hit.

"...?!"

But soon she discovered it wasn't. Or at least, not that target.

Ducking, twisting mid-air, rolling, jumping—he moved through the spray like he already knew where it would be aimed before she'd decided. No matter how she redirected, he was already out of the way, and still closing in.

By the time she registered how close he'd gotten, there was barely a meter between them.

She was mid-movement, riding the slick her acid had left on the floor, still trying to line up a shot, so there was no clean way to set up a dodge against whatever Taka threw.

So she committed to a counter instead—using her momentum to duck under whatever attack he was about to throw and drive a punch back at him.

"Ei—argh!"

Sadly, all that accomplished was getting her arm caught.

The next instant, the world flipped as he sent her into a full-body throw.

"Waaargh!"

—Thud!—

She ended up rolling across the arena floor, eating a few meters of it before she could get her bearings.

She tried digging her fingers in to brake herself using acid on the concrete—then thought better of it and kept moving instead.

—Bam!—

The right call, as it turned out. Taka closed in and brought a stomp down exactly where she'd been a moment earlier.

-Crack!-

The impact left a clear mark on the arena floor.

Mina's eyes bulged as she caught sight of it.

"Oi—I thought not using your Quirk included the superhuman strength!"

"It does."

"Then why are you so strong?!"

"Effort."

Gritting her teeth, she broke off and tried to rebuild some distance.

To buy herself room, she swept her hand back in his direction and released a volley of acid bullets.

"Acid Sho—how are you dodging that?!"

He was running straight into them, which should have made it nearly impossible to react in time—but he moved through the volley anyway, slipping between projectiles like they were in slow motion for him, and kept coming.

She clicked her tongue.

"Alright, class rep. I was saving this. But you're forcing my hand—this is a move I kept hidden from you!"

He didn't slow down.

She slammed her hands together, then pulled them apart into fists and flung them outward toward him, as if hurling something.

"Acid Super Nova!"

A spread of small acid droplets sailed at him—slower than the acid shots, and clearly fewer in number.

But Taka's advance cut off abruptly. His eyes sharpened, and he threw himself sideways out of their path.

—BAM!—

—BAM!—

—BAM!—

The next second, each droplet detonated mid-air throwing out a spray of acid across the area, letting out a hissing sound as the acid hit the ground.

Despite the strange attack, however, he didn't comment on it. He just hit the ground mid-roll after his dodging lunge, pushed back to his feet, and rushed at her again.

"Not even fazed, huh?!"

She clicked her tongue again and swung her hand out, releasing another volley of acid bullets.

As she did, her face tightened slightly.

Her acid resistance was wearing thin. She had used too much in too little time.

It wouldn't be long before her acid began affecting her too.

So, while Taka dodged the volley and kept closing in, she made a decision.

"Alright!"

If she had to slow down on using her acid, then she'd go for the physical approach!

She roared and drove herself forward instead, acid leaving the soles of her feet and using it to skate toward Taka rapidly.

Soon, the two were upon each other.

Once there. she threw everything she had at close range—punches, kicks, weaving around him with her acid-slicked footing to keep her speed up and be hard to catch.

"I've been working on this too—think you can keep up with me at this speed, class rep?!"

-Thud!-

"Gyaaaah!"

A foot came out before she could realize. She tripped over it mid-circuit and her own momentum sent her rolling away again.

She scrambled back to her feet fast, spinning around to not let him get out of her sight.

Though strangely, when her gaze snapped up, she came across the strange sight of him still standing where she'd left him. He hadn't even bothered chasing after her, despite her mistake

She frowned. Why hadn't he—

Then she saw the crimson aura bleeding off him and understood.

"Y-you said you wouldn't use your Quirk!"

Taka raised one hand, fingers curling upward slowly.

The arena on his side began to break apart.

Giant slabs of debris tore free from the floor and rose into the air, circling him in a slow orbit.

Then his fist closed.

-Crack!-

Each slab shattered at once, splitting into hundreds of smaller chunks—all of which kept orbiting.

Then, Taka spoke.

"I lied."

He pointed his hand at her—and the barrage launched.

Her eyes went wide.

"You cheater…"

She raised both hands and pointed them ahead, jaw set.

"Fine—I'm using an unfinished move, then!"

Acid poured from both palms—more than she'd released at once before, and different in texture. Thicker and more cohesive.

With a sweep of both hands, she shaped it into a wall, holding it in place.

"Acid Veil!"

The barrage hit it a moment later.

—TATATATATATATA!—

The wall shook under the volley, causing Mina's expression to wince.

Despite it, the wall kept standing.

—At least, for the few seconds.

Soon, under the constant pressure, it began deforming—bowing inward under the relentless pressure, and the surface rippling as chunk after chunk hammered into it.

"Ack!"

—SPLASH!—

In the end, it finally gave out, collapsing and scattering in all directions.

She jumped back before the debris could reach her.

But as she took her distance, she realized nothing came after her.

The rain of debris had also stopped, judging from the cease of all the noise it had been making.

She blinked confusedly, then looked ahead.

"Hah...?!"

Only for her mouth to hang wide open once she saw what was happening.

Taka was pulling every piece of launched debris back—along with whatever else was loose on the arena floor—and fusing it together overhead into a single enormous mass of compacted concrete.

It hung above her, blocking the light.

"You got to be kidding!" She stared up, eyebrow twitching at the absurdity of it.

Without word, Taka pointed his hand at her.

And then—the mass began its descent. Slow at first, then picking up weight as gravity added to the telekinetic push.

It was a literal meteor crashing upon her.

Panic crossed her face. Then her teeth came together and she steadied herself.

No clean dodge from this, that was for sure.

So the only way out was through.

-Paf!-

Arriving at that resolution, she brought both hands together in a clap and aimed them upward.

This time, there was no holding back anymore… Unless she wanted to be squashed like a pancake.

This time, she was going all out!

"Piercing Acid!"

With that battle cry, a pressurized beam of acid fired from amidst her joined palms and drilled into the underside of the mass.

—PZZZZZZZ!!!—

The acid ate into the appraoching concrete with a sustained hiss, slowing the descent, and gradually boring through it layer by layer.

The pain in her hands climbed with every second she held the beam going, her acid resistance nearly spent.

But despite it, she pushed it aside and kept the output steady.

The mass kept crumbling. Chunks breaking away, dissolving, the whole thing fragmenting under the sustained pressure.

—Rumble!—

Finally, it gave. The remaining pieces scattered and fell wide of her.

Right away, she snapped her aim forward—toward where Taka should have been behind it.

But he wasn't there.

"That's good enough."

The voice came from directly behind her, followed by the feeling of her collar being grabbed.

"Eh?"

And before she knew it, the world spun. The sky swapped places with the field, and then the grass came up fast.

She was hurled clean out of the arena.

—Thud!—

A second later, she hit the grass unceremoniously, rolled for a bit, and ended up lying there, face planted on the ground.

And, as expected…

"Mina Ashido is out of bounds—Takahashi advances to the next round!" Midnight's voice rang out right after that, declaring her loss.

The crowd erupted along with it.

Once the announcement was given, Mina rolled onto her back and looked up at Taka, who was standing at the edge of the arena looking down at her.

"Class rep… I trusted you."

He huffed. "You shouldn't trust an enemy in the first place."

Then, he turned and walked away.

"Ugh…" She pushed herself upright, her expression twisted in betrayal. "And here I thought he was the honorable type…!"

But then, she paused, her expression shifting to surprise.

Pressing her palms against the grass to get up, she'd expected the sharp sting that came with burning through her acid resistance to flare.

And it was there indeed—but much fainter than it should have been, considering just how much acid she released at that last part of the fight.

Once sitting, she stared at her palms, head tilted.

"That's weird."

While she turned that over, Taka had already left the arena and was heading back down the tunnel toward the finalists' waiting room.

Soon, he stepped inside.

—And found Todoroki already there.

"...!"

The emo boy flinched as he appeared. A reflex he quickly controlled, as he shifted it to a frown soon after.

Taka gave him a brief glance, then looked away and kept walking past him.

"Good luck."

Two words, left behind as he pushed through the door on the far end and disappeared.

Todoroki stood there after he was gone, staring at the door.

His expression hardened.

"Luck… I won't need it."

...

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-To Be Continued...-

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(A/N: Final chapter of today. How was the fight? Yes, Taka lied a bit, but it's all for the greater good… Or his classmate's good, actually.

He forced her to show everything she had, even if she may feel unhappy he ended up using his aura in the end.)