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[Show's Over—Sike!]
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| Minutes later… |
...
After the final fight, the first-year students all reunited once more before Midnight and the podium.
With all of them there, Midnight's whip cracked through the air for the umpteenth time, her voice carrying clear through the speakers.
{"At last, all of the first-year events for this year's Sports Festival have been completed!"}
She pointed beside her, at the podium—while, of course, striking a pose.
{"Now, we will begin the award ceremony!"}
—Tssssss…!—
Right away, smoke billowed out dramatically alongside bursts of confetti, before several fireworks were shot off and filled the whole sky, though they were still drowned out by the shouts of the crowd.
Then—four pillars began rising from the earth, cutting through the smoke, each one revealing a figure standing on top of them as it cleared, in full view of the cameras.
Uraraka and Bakugo were both standing on pillars with third place engraved on them. Uraraka was trying to look composed, but her twitching mouth, clearly fighting back a wide relieved smile, gave her away.
Bakugo, on the other hand, was looking pretty dissatisfied with where he'd placed—but since he'd been beaten, he didn't have anything to complain about, so he just stood there looking pissed, as usual.
Then there was Iida, standing on the second-place pillar.
He was, of course, perfectly upright and doing his best to represent the high standard that a school like U.A. carried.
And lastly, there was the first-place pillar.
The crowd, of course, went wild as it rose through the smoke and revealed its contents.
The students and teachers, though…
"What the hell?" Jiro was the first to say it.
"Hm… that's a bit much, isn't it?" Kaminari muttered, his mouth twitching at the sight.
"Maybe—I mean, Taka did win, didn't he?" Hagakure offered, her voice carrying a wry edge.
"I've never seen the school do that for the previous winners, though." Jiro objected.
The same confused, baffled air rippled through the rest of the first years, murmuring over what they were seeing.
Even the other finalists—standing right beside Taka's pillar—abandoned any concern about looking good before the masses and stared at him speechlessly.
The teachers weren't in much better shape.
Midnight put her mic aside, eyes darting between Taka's pillar and Cementoss, before leaning in to whisper. "Hey, Cementoss, why is he…?"
"Don't look at me." Cementoss shrugged immediately. "I didn't put that there for him. Nezu didn't tell me anything either."
"Then where did it come from?" She pointed at it, looking worried.
"How should I know?" Cementoss shrugged again.
Even a certain muscle-bound hero watching from somewhere at the top of the stadium was baffled by what he was seeing.
While everyone tried to work out what they were looking at, flashes from cameras and excited cries erupted all across the stadium, all aimed at the tallest pillar. The press in particular were having the time of their lives.
And how could it not be?
There was Taka—smiling confidently for all the cameras.
But unlike the rest of the finalists, he wasn't standing.
No.
He was sitting on a throne, lounging in a casual but imposing pose, side of his chin resting on his fist as he leaned back against the seat.
Where had a throne come from? No one knew.
But they all assumed they'd somehow missed the announcement and let it go. Entirely overlooking the real source—the very teenager sitting on it.
Regardless, the ceremony had to continue.
{"Now, it's time we awarded the medals to the finalists!"}
Midnight spoke back into her mic before pointing up toward the ceiling of the stadium.
{"And of course, the medals will be presented by this man—!"}
"HAHAHAHA!"
All Might's booming laugh echoed across the stadium, lighting up the crowd all over again.
Even those who hadn't been quite as enthusiastic looked around in surprise, searching for the hero.
But they didn't have to look for long.
-Thunk!-
A loud sound echoed somewhere above, and suddenly the tall figure of the greatest hero in all of Japan shot into the sky, highlighted by the sun behind him—before he began to drop.
"I HAVE BROUGHT THE MEDALS—"
-Boom!-
"—Here." He finished his sentence as he landed.
The crowd cheered as hard as they had all day.
Midnight soon approached, holding the tray with all the medals to be given out.
"Now then, All Might, please present the medals, starting from third place."
All Might nodded, and after picking up the medals, made his way to the four students.
First, he arrived before Uraraka.
Seeing him standing there, she looked to be on the verge of tears.
After putting the medal over her neck, a hug, and some encouraging words—plus Uraraka asking whether third place would make her famous and All Might diplomatically avoiding the question—he moved on to the other third place, Bakugo.
He was a bit hesitant at the pissed look, but figured it was just Bakugo's default face and gave him the medal, the hug, and the encouraging words anyway. After all of it, Bakugo just replied with a click of his tongue and looking away.
Knowing him, All Might knew he was just annoyed he hadn't been the one to win. But with this being an excellent chance to teach the blonde some humility, he decided to just give him a pat on the shoulder before walking too his next target.
Then, he arrived before Iida.
Medal and hug done, he gave the encouraging speech.
"Those were some brilliant fights, Young Iida… Even in those first and last fight where you couldn't show your full potential. But as long as you gave everything you had, that's all that matters. New opportunities will come eventually."
"I see. Thank you for your wisdom, All Might!" Iida bowed deeply, nearly dropping his medal in the process.
With a firm nod, All Might turned toward the next and last student, sweatdropping a little at the… peculiar sight waiting for him.
He walked up the steps leading to first place.
"Young Takahashi… I see you got yourself a seat."
Taka nodded, then slowly pushed himself to his feet.
All Might let out a small cough before taking the last medal hanging on his forearm and leaning forward to place it over Taka's neck as he leaned in to meet him.
Then came the hug. A bit awkward of a hug.
After that, All Might pulled back and placed a hand on Taka's shoulder.
"Good job making good on the pledge, Young Takahashi. At first, I was a little skeptical given the grandiose of it—but from the looks of things, they'll be talking about this festival for years to come."
"They better."
All Might let out a short laugh.
"You truly made history today, young man. Not only as a competitor, but as a classmate as well. Don't think I missed the clear improvement from the whole class since the last time we were all together. Whether that was because of your direct involvement, or simply because of what having you as a rival means to them—you can be proud of that."
Taka gave a faint nod, not giving much away with his expression.
With that done, All Might walked back down the steps, reuniting with the rest of the teachers.
As he did, Taka's eyes drifted up toward the ceiling of the stadium, squinting ever so slightly, and his mouth opened to murmur something very low.
"… I'm not done yet, though?"
After that, the four top ranked students stepped down from their podiums and rejoined the rest of the first years to hear the last words from the staff before they were free to go.
Taka made his way back to his spot and cracked his neck, a relieved look settling over him.
At last, his role here was done. His goal had been more than achieved, and he could rest easy knowing he'd be prepared for whatever the universe decided to throw at him next.
Today had been a massive jump in power, and it'd continue to be for many days to come.
The Sports Festival had indeed been a complete success.
Now, all that was left was lying back and enjoying what came next.
"A throne, really? Where did you even get that from?" Jiro suddenly said from beside him, giving him a sideways look.
Taka gave her one back. "You saw I won, didn't you? That's just the proper reward for the victor."
"Yeah, but no one's gotten a throne in all the years this thing has been running."
"Well, they haven't won the way I did, have they?"
"Uh…"
"Touché," Sero muttered from behind them.
Jiro shot him a betrayed look, but the guy glanced away right that instant, neatly dodging her gaze.
Before she could attempt to refute Taka's argument in any way, though—
{"Hello, everyone."}
Nezu's soft voice came through the mic, snatching everyone's attention at once.
Beside him, all the teachers stood, including All Might, who currently looked like simply existing was costing him something.
{"After this grueling tournament, where I have no doubt some of you put your soul and body on the line, I know there's only one thing on your minds now that it's finally over…"}
He swept a gaze over everyone's tired faces, his smile stretching gently, as if proud of what he was seeing.
{"You're asking yourselves how I keep this fur in such pristine condition."}
Some snickers rippled through the students, and laughter followed from the crowd.
The teachers smiled too, already accustomed to his antics, but still finding them funny.
{"Besides that, the answer must also be rest. I'm sure most of you have poured everything into preparing for this event, and regardless of the result you ended up with—good or bad—you must rest now. The storm has passed, and it's time to let the body recover, for a country with exhausted heroes and civilians would be destined for ruin."}
Plenty of yawns greeted that. Even the people overseeing the event stretched their backs and legs.
It really had been a long day.
{"So, I'll leave you to that—but not before thanking all of you one last time for your efforts today."}
He bowed. Deeply.
{"Thank you all, dear students."}
After that, he straightened up and smiled broadly.
{"With this, I declare the first-year events for this year's Sports Festival, ov—!"}
—CHAKACHAN!!!—
The sound of an electric guitar riff cut him off.
{"Oh my, whatever could that have been?"}
Nezu asked in a very convincing display of confusion, turning around to search for the source.
He didn't have to search for long.
"Look, up there!" A helpful bystander in the crowd shouted, pointing upward.
Everyone lifted their heads.
And there they saw him.
Or rather—them.
Six figures, standing at the edge of the stadium's ceiling, all with their arms crossed, looking down at everyone.
The screen panned toward them, and those who hadn't been able to see them directly let out gasps.
"That's…!"
"No way!"
"How?!"
In an instant, the whole stadium knew who they were.
"ROCKINESIS?!"
Back among the students, everyone stared agape at the sudden appearance.
Everyone, save for one.
"Takahashi… are you serious?" Jiro asked, looking between him and the several Rockinesises with a face that had gone completely blank.
"Hmm?" Taka turned to her with an innocent look, before pointing at himself. "What did I do?"
"You…"
Smiling, he turned back to the figures overhead, ignoring her infuriated stare.
While at it, he also sneaked a glance toward Eri further away, sitting beside Seiji. She was staring at his alter egos in surprise along with everyone else.
Seiji, though, was looking at him with a deadpan.
He ignored him.
'Now, it's time to sit back and enjoy.' He thought, relaxing and turning back to the spectacle about to unfold.
At the podium, All Might took a step forward, ready to intervene.
But Nezu lifted a hand, ever so slightly, gesturing him to stop.
"Principal?"
Nezu looked at him and shrugged. "If they're all clones, it would be a useless effort, wouldn't it? Let's see how this plays out."
All Might didn't look entirely convinced. "Still…"
"Besides, the students are all tired. Let's give them an unexpected reward for getting through the day."
That seemed to do the job. Barely. All Might calmed down and went back to just staring at the unfolding event.
The other teachers followed his lead. Cementoss even put out a call on the radio to alert those who weren't nearby.
But of course, Nezu didn't have control over every hero present.
Several at the crowd stepped forward and tried to stop the band of clones—some launching projectiles, others launching themselves.
"You dare show your face around here, vigilante?!"
Endeavor among them.
The crowd watched him shoot like a meteor toward the figures, his scowl already in place.
But before he could get anywhere near them—along with the projectiles flying in from every direction, and the handful of other heroes who had risen alongside him—two of the six Rockinesises stepped forward.
In just that instant, they shot across the sky, so fast they blurred for a moment to everyone's perception, before coming to a dead stop directly in the path of everything incoming.
Then, with a simple raise of both hands, palms out—
"What?!" Endeavor's furious voice rang out across the sky.
For he, the projectiles, and all the others, became suspended in the air. Frozen and helpless.
As if time itself had simply stopped.
He tried putting his flames to use, of course, but they were siphoned upward and dispersed harmlessly.
Thus, rendering all of them immobile.
With them taken care of, the remaining figures standing at the edge of the ceiling took a step forward.
They didn't fall. They walked calmly through the air, unhurried, despite the captured heroes and the others on standby below.
And following them, their instruments drifted along.
Before long, they stood at the center of the stadium, high above, clear for everyone to see.
And with that, the one at the center reached up and caught the mic floating toward him.
{"This one is dedicated to a very special person in the crowd."}
-Tack!-
And after those words, he lifted one hand, and the guitar flew into it—grasped cleanly and brought into position.
With that, silence fell over them for a moment.
But the whole stadium understood it was only temporary. Like a spring being coiled.
And they couldn't have been more right.
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[Imaginary Technique: My Theme] (ACTIVATED!)
Song chosen: You're Gonna Go Far Kid - The Offspring
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The next instant—the show began.
…
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: Since I'm not feeling edger today, I'm going to try and upload the next chapter today.)