The Road to Greatness: One Quirk at a Time - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

With the cavalry event over, all of us who were moving onto the upcoming tournament were given a nice break to get some lunch. I'd already gotten dressed in a spare uniform, we all had plenty of spares. My shirt had gotten heavily damaged in the event and using my enhanced form had stretched my pants out and torn them partially.

Lunch was nice, all of us chatting about what happened during the previous events. Momo spent a fair bit of time complaining about the midget leech that had attached itself to her during the obstacle race. I hadn't seen a sign of Mineta since I warned him away from Momo. He didn't make it into the third round which was only disappointing in the fact that I wouldn't have a chance to kick his ass in person.

Well, whatever.

The only single downside I could think of for Mineta not being in our class was that he and Kaminari didn't get together to trick the girls into wearing cheerleader uniforms. All the girls in class were beautiful so seeing them dressed like that would have been very nice.

Oh well.

After lunch we were all now gathered together to begin the tournament. Though, before we could start, Ojiro and the boy from class 1-B, Shoda, withdrew themselves. Disappointing, but it was their right. Shinso did basically turn them into his puppets for the event. Personally though? I would have continued on to prove my worth in the tournament. Though their withdrawal did make the tournament easier to run by reducing it from eighteen to sixteen participants.

With everything set, we all waited for the first randomly assigned match to be announced. The spinning animation stopped and displayed two names. Seeing it made me grin as Midnight loudly announced, “For our opening match we have the powerhouse that's blown through the first two events with ease, Monoma Neito! Versus! The lizard girl of 1-B Tokage Setsuna!”

I couldn't help smile as I made my way up onto the stage prepared by Cementoss, who was standing to the side at the ready, while everyone else but Tokage made their way to the stands to watch. I looked across the stage at Tokage and got my first real look at her. She's fairly cute with dark green hair, green pupil-less eyes, and shark teeth similar to Kirishima's. While the school's gym uniform didn't look very flattering on her, it also didn't fully hide the very feminine figure she sported.

Seriously, what was it with the heroics courses and every girl in them being a babe on some level? Even the 'odd' ones like Tsu-chan and that mushroom girl from 1-B were cute in their own ways.

As we looked across the distance from one another, Midnight standing on a platform nearby lifted her leather thing-thing and cracked it in the air, “BEGIN!”

Tokage immediately punched at me with her right arm launching her fist at me. I couldn't help smiling as I imagined it being a rocket punch. What guy doesn't want a rocket punch?! Well, regardless, I stepped to the side while lightly slapping her hand away. The moment we touched I was forced to copy her Quirk by mine and One For All copied it into itself permanently.

As I stand now, I can't believe how afraid I was of copying peoples Quirks, of 'stealing' them. My situation is what it is and there's nothing I can do to change it short of turning myself quirkless. I can't let fear hold me back anymore, not if I'm going to be the wall the others need to overcome. It's why I did what I did during the cavalry event. Even now, I could feel Hatsume's Quirk in the back of my mind.

Just because I was forced to copy it didn't mean I had to use it.

On the other hand, I would become a massive hypocrite if using one of them could save someone and I refused because it was 'stolen'.

What the hell was I thinking wearing gloves and shit? I'm no Rogue. No one gets hurt if I touch them. All I can think is... fucking teenage hormones. Well, that's my excuse at least.

I flip on my, MY, Time Perception Quirk to slow time around me a fair amount. It's something I learned to do over the last few weeks as I practiced with OFA. It was something I previously felt ashamed of having to do. The fact is, between the Speed of the Nomu combined with the Speed of OFA, I was far faster than I could possibly process. Seriously, I can't even count the number of times I slammed into a concrete pillar or wall trying to control my movement.

Now? I had no problem using it. I'm sure Kitagawa-san wouldn't have a problem with this either. He's a great laid back guy.

With the world slowed in my vision but my body now able to take advantage of it. The world to my view wasn't stopped, merely slowed down. I could visibly see Tokage as she shifted her stance, her left arm coming forward. I assume she's about to punch her other hand at me.

I reduce my perception speed until I'm seeing the world just slightly faster than anyone else would. Just enough to give me an advantage. My goal isn't to mercilessly and easily crush her into the ground. My goal is to make her push herself, to force her to go all out. I want her to show off everything she can do to the recruiters before I win the match.

As my perception changes, she finishes her punch and launches her other hand at me. Black lightning wraps around me as I tap into a small portion of OFA to make use of its Quirks. I slight ping of pain from the danger sense Quirk has me glancing over my shoulder and smirking. Her right fist had turned around and was coming at me from behind while the left was still charging at me. A pincer attack? Nice.

I catch her left hand in my left hand while spinning around to catch her right in my right. I turn back to look at her surprised face with a grin. I move both my hands up and down like I'm shaking her fists in greeting, “Hi there Tokage-can! It's nice to meet you!”

Tokage smirks at me, “Nice to meet you two! You mind letting go though? I prefer not to hold hands with a boy I just met.”

I snicker. I'm sure a line like that would make some of the boys in our classes blush, but it just amuses me. Still, I do as she asked and let go of her hands. They fly back to her an reattach to the stumps of her wrists, “Thanks!”

She give's me a bright smile before her body bursts into a bunch of pieces that float in the air. Her smile turns predatory as they come flying at me in a swarm. I dropped into a martial arts stance I'd practiced for years and grinned. She kept her torso, arms, and head, mostly together and flying high in the air while the pieces of her legs charged at me.

Smart! The legs are almost always stronger than the arms for hitting. My arms become a blur as I repeatedly smack the bits of her body away from me. Tokage has telekinetic control over them though and has them circle around to continue to attack from other angles. At the same time she sharges in with her torso to throw punches along with her kicks.

I spend a bit of time focusing on defense, only using as much speed as necessary to block and dodge her attacks. I let this go on until I can see frustration building on Tokage's face. I drop into a horse stance and fire out a burst of telekinesis to knock all of her body pieces away from me at once.

Her torso flips through the air a few times before coming to a stop where she reassembles her entire body together. She's looking at me with a slightly more wary, and annoyed, expression now as I continue to smile, “You're pretty impressive Tokage-san. I'm curious though, if you can fly, why didn't you use it during the cavalry battle?”

Tokage frowns, “I can't fly. I can only control the pieces I break off.”

I blink, “That... makes no sense. I mean, you were literally just flying half of your body around. Couldn't you just break off a piece of hair or a pinky or something and float both pieces of your body around? You literally had every piece of your body in the air at once so it's not like you're required to have a foot on the ground or something?”

Tokage stared at me in shock. Though she quickly got over it as she asked, “Are... are you giving me advice on how to use my Quirk in the middle of our fight?”

I can't help but scratch the back of my head, “Sorry, habit.”

She frowns at me, her expression turning a little angry, “Are you looking down on me?” Her frown grows even more, “You're holding back on me. Why are you holding back on me?”

I open my mouth to answer, but stop myself. I'm pretty sure what I was about to say would have come off as extremely condescending. I can't just go around telling people how easy it would be to beat them with a flick of my pinky, literally. So, I change what I was originally going to say and instead say, “Sorry about that. The whole point of this tournament is to show off what we've got. I'm not looking down on you, I just want you to show everything you've got. Even if it means giving you something new to use.”

Tokage stares at me for a moment before a lock of her hair splits off of her head and her whole body begins to float into the air. A smirk grows on her face, “Maybe you should have kept your mouth shut.”

I grin back at her, “Maybe.”

She charges at me, her fists and feet launching at me while the majority of her body stays together. The four detached parts of her body harass me while she uses her forearms and shins to launch additional attacks with more weight behind them thanks to her body still being attached. The combined strength of her body and personal telekinesis is pretty impressive. Definitely more powerful than just the pieces by themselves.

I can't stop smiling as we continue to exchange blows. I actually start to ignore the blows coming from her feet and hands while focusing solely on her main body.

I can hear Midnight and Present mic both narrating at various moments but their words are ignored. I battle with Tokage for a bit longer before I once more release a burst of telekinesis and blow her and her parts away from me. When she settles down I stake at her and ask, “Got anything else?”

Tokage answers after putting herself back together and catching her breath, “It doesn't matter, I'm going to take you down regardless!”

I'll take that as a no. Her Quirk is impressive, as is her personal strength. She also has a fair amount of skill in hand to hand combat. If it was the me from before USJ, she'd be a rather tough opponent. Even now I'm really impressed by her. It looks like it's time to end things though.

I cock my arm back, the first real offensive move I've made since the start of the match. The black lightning racing around my body intensifies and gathers around my arm, “I had fun, so don't take what's about to happen personally Tokage-san!”

She growls at me and launches both of her fists as hard as I've seen from her. It's not enough. I throw my arm forward and punch the air in front of me. Much like when All Might pulls off one of his smashes, I smashed the air in front of me and launched a powerful burst of air. The blast wave slams into Tokage's hands first and sends them flying back where it collides with her body. She's sent flying out of the arena and smacks hard into the wall.

Lucky for her, I've had plenty of practice doing this over the last week or so and she only hits the wall hard enough to hurt without causing actual damage to the wall itself. I don't care what anime's do with people smashing into concrete walls, making craters with their bodies, and shaking it off. That shit doesn't happen in real life. If I'd hit her that hard, her body would have been red paste in the center of that crater.

“Monoma wins by ring out! That was one heck of a powerful blow!”

I turn off One For All and make my way down from the ring. I tune out Midnight as I make my wa into the stands. The next match looks like it might be kind of interesting, Tokoyami versus Ashido, Dark Shadow versus Acid.

As I sat down near Momo, Kirishima, Jiro, and Kaminari, the battle on the stage began. Kirishima looked over at me and commented, “That was a pretty manly fight! I can't believe you gave her advice on her Quirk in the middle of the fight!”

I chuckle, “I couldn't help it. I want everyone to get stronger, to be the best hero possible.”

Kirishima clenches his fist, causing it to harden, “Yeah. I guess I shouldn't expect any less from you.”

I turned my attention back to the arena just in time to see Dark Shadow capture Ashido in its claws and set her down outside of the ring. Yeah, that seems about right. While Ashido is pretty athletic, and has a decent Quirk, she doesn't really have much to fight back against Dark Shadow with. The shadow creature would either be immune to, or highly resistant to, her acid. She would also be limited in the strength of the acid she could use against Tokoyami.

Looks like I'll be fighting him in the next round.

“Alright folks! It's time for our next match! Up next we have Ida Tenya versus Aoyama Yuga!”

Huh. That seems rather familiar. I know I picked for the two of them to do against each other on purpose before, but for them to be matched randomly as well? I wonder if the results will be different this time.

I look away from the stage as Momo stands, “I'll be heading to the waiting room now.”

We all wish Momo luck as she leaves the stands, only to be replaced by a returning Ashido and Tokoyami. Tokoyami looks as stoic as ever while Ashido looks slightly bummed out. Kirishima is instantly trying to cheer her up so I leave him to it.

The fight between Ida and Aoyama starts the same way their spar did in our first class with All Might. Ida trying to close the distance while Aoyama fires his Navel Laser from a distance. As Ida closed the distance between them, Aoyama spun around to face away from Ida, angled his stomach down, and fired a strong burst of his laser. The angle and power of the burst, shot Aoyama toward Ida at a rising angle. Aoyama flew over Ida's head before the speedster could come to a stop.

Ida barely managed to slow down before Aoyama fired another shot, looking distinctly queasy as he did, that slammed into Ida and sent him flying out of the arena. There was a moment of silence at the surprise upset before cheering filled the air. I couldn't help chuckling as Aoyama preened under the praise and had to practically be dragged off of the stage by Ida., causing a round of chuckles among the rest of my class.

“Alright! Moving on to the next round! We have two beautiful flowers in full bloom! On this side we have Itsuka Kendo! On the other, Yaotorozu Momo!”

I smile to myself. At least in this Timeline it looks like Momo will be able to put up a much better fight in the first round. I will always believe that Momo has the potential, and ability, to be one of the greatest heroes in the world.

The moment the match started, Kendo charged toward Momo while Momo instantly summoned a bo staff. You know, one of these days I should ask her what metal she makes that out of. The pair quickly engage in an exchange of martial arts. Everyone looked interested as Kenod would launch punches and Momo would deflect or counter attack with her staff.

Only I knew that Kendo was holding back. So it came as a surprise to everyone else when her fist all of a sudden ballooned in size becoming large enough to cover Momo's entire body. I could see the surprise on Momo's face just before the massive fist slammed into her. Momo was sent rolling across the arena, but managed to stop herself just before she was pushed out of the ring.

Momo didn't make a move to stand up. Instead, she threw her hand out and in a flash of light a metal cylinder was formed. It bounced a few times before exploding into a blinding light. I felt my lips curing into a wide grin. She was using some advice I gave her!

Over the last two weeks I'd talked to almost all of my classmates about their Quirks. One piece of advice I'd given Momo was simplifying some of her creations. Yes, she could create perfect replications of things like flashbang grenades. Thing is, in an emergency situation, or one that required speed over anything else, why does she need to make the FULL grenade? Taking the time to add in the extras, like a pin and spoon, don't seem very necessary. Not only would it be mentally easier for her to construct a grenade without the safety features, but she would save on resources as well.

Of course, this only applied to items she was making on the fly and not preparing ahead of time. But in the heat of the moment, the few seconds saved by not having to pull the pin on the grenade could be mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Knowing the explosion of light and noise that was coming let Momo prepare herself for it by looking away. Kendo, on the other hand, was caught completely off guard and left disoriented by the grenade. Momo took advantage of the situation and conjured up another item, a taser. A single shot later and Kendo was down on the ground, muscles all locked up due to the electrical current running through her body.

Momo was nice enough not to keep the trigger held down, but any time Kendo moved to try and climb to her feet, Momo would pull the trigger and keep her down. After a ten count, the match was over with Momo victorious. Only then did she reach up and pull a set of ear plugs from her ears, clever girl. I hadn't even suggested that, though in hindsight I definitely should have. As much as it pains me to admit it, I am not perfect.

After the pair cleared the field, the next set of participants arrived. Hatsume Mei versus Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. No, seriously, his parents need to be in jail for child abuse for making his first name the same as his last. That's just wrong on so many levels.

Regardless, the match is... Well it's Mei and Tetsutetsu isn't exactly the brightest tool in the shed. He falls for Hatsume's lies and ends up being her demonstration puppet for the next twenty minutes while she shows off all of her babies to the support companies in the stands and watching at home. I can't help snickering over the whole event. Poor Tetsutetsu looks so disappointed and depressed by the time she lets him go and forfiets.

Up next, Kirishima and Tsu-chan take the stage. I gotta admit, class 1-A really did dominate the sports festival. So many of us made it into the final round it's not even a fair comparison. Ten out of sixteen participants were from 1-A, four from 1-B, 1 from support, and 1 from GenEd.

The match between Kirishima and Tsu-chan is... boring. The simple fact is, Kirishima is still slow. Well, slow compared to Tsu-chan and most of 1-A. So, while he has some speed, it's not enough to catch Tsu-chan easily. On the flip side, Tsu-chan doesn't have the strength or abilities necessary to take down Kirishima...

The hell? Why did Kirishima just collapse on the ground? I lean forward and try to understand what I'm seeing. Throughout the entire fight, Tsu-chan had been getting into melee range and hitting Kirishima, to no effect, and then dodging his counter attacks. I hadn't seen anything... Yet Kirishima is on the ground clearly unable to move.

I'm still confused as the robots with the stretcher come and collect Kirishima to take him away. I'm very clearly missing something. The question is, what am I missing? Tsu-chan clearly did something but I can't figure it out. I'm probably forgetting an aspect of her Quirk. I'll ask her when she gets back up here.

Meanwhile, the next match is announced. Todoroki versus Shiozaki from class 1-B. I immediately feel bad for the girl. While her vine hair is pretty nifty, she stands zero chance against Todoroki. Even if he was still unwilling to use his fire to burn her vines, he's more than capable of trapping her in an iceburg.

I sigh and shake my head as, true to my prediction, Shiozaki is instantly encased in ice by a somewhat annoyed looking Todoroki. Did that bag of dicks Endeavor bother him and put him in a bad mood? Hmmmm did that mean that I could look forward to a conversation with him? I can't help smiling at the thought. While I've gotten a bit closer to All Might due to circumstances and have decided to give him a little leeway, I straight up hate Endeavor.  The guy is a child abuser, a criminal, plain and simple.

I'm kind of looking forward to verbally ripping him a new one to his face.

While Todoroki is melting the massive iceburg he trapped Shiozaki inside of, Tsu-chan finally arrives back in the stands with the rest of us. My curiosity can't be held back as I turn to look at her, “Tsu-chan! Congrats on your win, but how did you do it? I know Kirishima can take more of a beating than you dealt out.”

At my question, the rest of the class gives her their attention to hear the answer. Tsu-chan gives a small smile, “Not telling. At least, not until the tournament is over. Gero.”

Everyone pouts, but I can respect her answer. I think it has something to do with poison though. I know there's poisonous frogs, like the tree dart frogs. I just don't know enough about how their poison works to judge if that's what she did. I'm definitely going to find out later!

I just give Tsu-chan a nod and turn back to watch the next match, which takes a while to get ready thanks to Todoroki's temper tantrum. If I face him... Er, when I face him, we'll have to hash his issues out some more.

The next match is announced, Kaminari versus Shinso. I just shake my head and smile. Kaminari is screwed. While Shinso isn't all that impressive physically, his Quirk is very impressive. However, it's best if used on people who know nothing about it. Knowing its weakness essentially renders him Quirkless.

I honestly think its a huge mistake for him to be showing it off during the tournament like this. The more people who know about his Quirk, the less effective it will be in the future. His best bet for a career would be to follow in Aizawa's footsteps, like he did in canon. His Quirk is best when they don't see it coming. He would probably also benefit from voice lessons to change his voice and trick people. If I get the chance I think I'll suggest that to him.

As the pair step onto the arena, Shinso is the first to speak calling out to Kaminai, “Good luck.”

Kaminari, decent guy that he is, answers, “You too!”

“AND BEGIN!”

Shinso smirks and gestures to the edge of the arena, “Do me a favor and walk out of the ring.”

Kaminari says nothing and zombie walks his way out of the arena. Midnight looks completely confused and silence fills the arena. Shinso, after waiting a few moments, clear his throat and looks at Midnight questioningly. Midnight shakes her head and throws her hand in the air, “Shinso Hitoshi wins!”

I sigh and lean back in my seat. That was predictable but, I honestly liked it. Shinso got cheated out of his win against Midoriya by the Deus Ex arrival of the vestiges in One For All. Without them literally saving his bacon, he would have lost right then and there. It was a cheap cop out, in my opinion. But, whatever. Shinso is getting a good chance to show off this time around.

I climb to my feet and make my way down to the waiting room. There's supposed to be a small break between rounds so I've got a few minutes before my match against Tokoyami. I'm looking forward to giving him at least one big hint on using his Quirk during our battle. I've been meaning to bring it up, but Tokoyami and myself aren't the best of friends and I don't spend much time with him outside of classes.

I smile and take my seat in the waiting room. I should really try harder to make closer connections with my classmates. I'm one hundred percent certain my moping and bad attitude for the last few weeks hasn't earned me any respect from the class. But, that will definitely change now that I know what my role is and what I can accomplish doing it.

This is one of my first steps on the road to greatness.

-----Line Break-----

AN

Okay, this chapter is a bit short compared to the others, but there's a reason. Writing the whole tournament in one go is just a bit too much.  I don't know how long a chapter containing the whole thing would be so I decided to break it into two. Now, if the second half is about the same length as this chapter, I'll combine them back into a single one. If it's as long as I feel it will be, then it will be a good long chapter all on its own.

I hope you guys enjoyed it despite the sorter length!