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[Level 9]
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"…Why the heck was shooting lasers so easy, when healing is so fucking hard?" Taka grumbled.
Wearing his Rockinesis costume, he lay on his back mid-air—almost as if he were lounging on a mattress—idly rolling a sphere of aura between his hands. All while flying at absurd speed through the sky. He didn't even bother looking where he was going.
"Come on, come on—nope. Crap. It's just getting hotter again."
He clicked his tongue and dispersed the aura, letting out a long, exhausted sigh.
'Figures. Healing's supposed to be broken, so of course it's got the difficulty set to max.'
Nearly two weeks had passed since he received the mission to unlock the healing mode of Aura Projection, and progress had been… let's call it "slow as hell."
The mode demanded a level of precision far beyond simply compressing energy into a single point, as its destructive mode had asked for. From what he'd managed to understand, healing worked by literally transforming his aura into whatever material the body needed at that moment, and making his aura do that was proving to be quite the challenge.
What's worse, that seemed to be the basic part of it all.
The actual mechanics underneath, what other functions it performed, or what else was needed besides focusing on that aspect for it to work as an actual healing skill? That was way beyond his understanding at the moment, awaiting to be deciphered in the foreseeable future.
The biggest obstacle, however, was the ridiculous aura expenditure. Even short attempts drained him fast.
Still, he wasn't completely in the dark anymore. He'd managed to evoke healing properties a couple of times—enough to dull pain and accelerate recovery after the villain gang incident… or whenever Seiji turned him into a punching bag.
Granted, both times natural regeneration had carried most of the weight, but his aura had definitely helped with internal damage.
Anyway, it was still in its baby stage.
But hey, baby stage was better than being at the undiscovered stage, and with time, he'd figure out the complete method. He just needed to practice.
For now, though, he didn't exactly have many subjects to practice on. And trying it on actually injured people seemed… questionable. Especially since he still occasionally mixed up the "heal" function with the "obliterate into sizzling chunks" function.
So until he could reliably make the aura heal when he wanted it to heal, regardless of how effective it was, he'd have to be the only test dummy.
Once that was sorted out, then the real healing training would start—and he'd finally add a proper healing skill to his arsenal.
Speaking of skills in his arsenal…
—Bzzzt—
Taka summoned another sphere of aura into his palm, watching it hum and glow.
'I wonder what other modes this thing has…?'
There was destruction, triggered by condensing aura into a single point, making it hotter and brighter the more aura he poured in. He could also isolate the brightness aspect to make fake, harmless shots—like the one he used on the sniper villain. Not powerful, but great for sending the message of: If that had been real, you'd have disintegrated.
And there was healing, which, as said earlier, was still a work in progress.
If you looked at Aura Projection alone, you'd think those were the only two functions. They worked like a yin and yang, after all.
Normally, a, uhm, yung? didn't exist.
But the stat wasn't the only thing that granted his aura strange properties; his skill list also affected it directly—clone creation, cleaning, radar-like detection… they made his aura a chaotic mess of potential applications.
And there were probably more effects waiting to be unlocked.
But what could the AP stat do on its own, without relying on future unlockable skills?
-Sigh-
He dispersed the sphere again and stared up at the vast blue sky, clouds drifting above and below him.
"Aura… aura… aura…" he muttered. "Come on, some fiction back in my old world definitely used aura as a power system. Maybe I can steal—ahem, be inspired by something."
He recalled a few.
Aura…
First thing that came to mind—
'A blade sharpener.' He thought, snorting at the thought.
Not as in the tool, but more like the medieval trope where knights enhanced their weapons with energy. Often called aura or ki, or whatever fitted the world.
Could his aura do that, too?
Taka glanced around, expecting his system to throw him a mission as it had for healing.
But nothing popped up.
"…So either that's not it, or the system wants me to figure it out myself," he muttered with a wry smirk.
With a sigh, he rolled over from his relaxed, belly-up flying posture. Finally, looking to where he was going.
"Well, I can just test that with a knife once I'm home. But that'll have to wait… For now, let's finish our business here."
He looked down.
Tokyo—an entire city sprawling beneath him, almost the whole metropolis visible from where he hovered.
Why was he in Tokyo again, you may ask?
It all went back to the release of his song the other day. Thanks to it, he'd realized a couple of important things.
First of all, he was kind of… actively being hunted in Shizuoka. And while he'd hardly be arrested, the police showing up immediately whenever he sent a clone out was getting annoying. Their timely interventions kept cutting his shows short.
Meaning, putting on a performance was becoming harder and harder.
He could suppress them with his clones since they could be pretty powerful with all the aura he had now, but doing that would ruin the mood.
Second, after his musical-festival stunt here in Tokyo, Taka had realized something else—this city was basically a gold mine for an Aura Farmer. Not only was Shizuoka's population tiny in comparison, but the media adored Tokyo more than anything. Sure, news from other cities popped up sometimes, but Tokyo owned the spotlight.
So if he wanted to become renowned—if he wanted to show off his aura to the most people—then hitting the most important city in the country was obviously the move.
And third—though not exactly a benefit—another reason he chose this place was that, after the festival show and the massive bump in aura gains, his top travel speed had improved so much that going back and forth between cities was now actually viable.
If this were the old him, it would've been annoying as hell. Three hours by car, which had been somewhat his speed, meant a six-hour round trip. But now?
Just a neat little one-hour flight. Two for the round trip.
Truthfully, even before the show, he could've squeezed the first trip into two hours instead of three… but back then, he needed to channel part of his aura just to block the air blast on his face, and that was an aura he couldn't put into flight speed.
Now, though? With a bigger reserve, he could afford both: the shield and the velocity.
In short, traveling here wasn't a chore anymore. At least to him. A clone would still probably find it tedious.
Which was why he came himself.
—Of course, a clone had the whole day free, so they could spend more time traveling… but he suddenly felt like coming personally.
…No, it absolutely wasn't because he wanted to check out the delicacies and some pretty interesting spots exclusive to the bigger cities.
How could anyone even think that?
"... Alright, maybe that's a bit of a reason." Taka cleared his throat, folding instantly under absolutely no pressure.
Then, as his gaze swept below, he activated his Trouble Radar.
Time to make his debut.
You may be wondering why he wasn't carrying any instruments if he was planning a show.
Well, because this time he was going for a more… brutish presentation.
As in, beating up villains.
As for the music? He had a skill for that now, and it was already configured with his most recent track.
All that was left was to find a villain to beat into the pavement while a song played inside everyone's heads.
Not that he was giving up his instruments—this was just a temporary approach while he gauged the city's reception, difficulty, and the amount of hero/police interference.
If everything went smoothly, he could find an empty building, set up another Rockibase, and have his clones gear up there after each trip.
But first, he needed to see if things were viable. Travel certainly was, especially if his aura kept growing at this ridiculous rate.
But if the heroes here were too strong… maybe not.
So, with his plans already laid out, he scanned the city for a while.
But even after a few minutes had passed...
"Hm. Seems like a pretty calm day," he muttered, annoyed by the lack of crime.
Some alerts were popping up, sure, but they were all level 1 or 2.
That wouldn't do for his debut.
"Come on, I know it's just for checking on this place, but give me something big."
A level 5? Maybe level 6?
With how powerful he currently was, those would be easy enough to win against, but still strong enough to leave a lasting impression.
A level 7... yeah, that could work too.
It may prove a bit annoying, but it shouldn't be too hard.
'So please, appear!' Taka prayed inwardly.
Unfortunately… fate seemed uninterested in cooperating.
'Should I just go for a level 2?' Taka wondered after even more minutes had gone by, rubbing his chin.
That felt like such a waste for his first official appearance (festival crash not included) in Tokyo.
Some random crook? Really?
'But if that's all I've got, then I guess I can't help it…' He sighed and began descending.
...
'Wait.' A thought hit him, making him stop mid-descent.
If he jumped down there… what were the chances a powerful hero was nearby?
It was morning—prime patrol hours. At the festival, it had been night, so heroes like All Might, who had limited time, were unlikely to appear.
But now? Diving into central Tokyo in broad daylight?
Chances of running into someone troublesome were high.
Sure, he was strong enough now that he doubted he'd actually get into danger. And even if things went south, he could hide, send a clone to mislead them, or just let a clone handle everything while he watched from afar.
But his goal was to perform unbothered. That sort of chaos ruined the point if his show was interrupted mid-act.
Still… Tokyo was a gold mine. More trouble might just be part of the trade.
Higher risk, higher reward.
'Hmm… is there a workaround?' he wondered, scanning the city carefully.
His gaze narrowed toward the outskirts, near the bay.
Maybe the hero density would be lower there.
And his aura didn't reach that far, so a higher-level crime might be happening unregistered.
'Well, I lose nothing trying.'
With a shrug, he shot forward again.
He kept scouting the whole way—but the highest alert he saw was a level 3.
Today really was quiet.
After five minutes, he reached Tokyo's edge.
Beyond lay Chiba Prefecture—which was not his goal.
"Well, it was worth a try… I guess that level 3 alert will have to do," he muttered, dejected.
He prepared to head back, but then—
"…!"
His whole body froze. His pupils shrank, and his eyes widened like platters.
He turned sharply toward Chiba.
From there… an alert from his skill came. However, it was one completely unlike any other he had ever felt.
Not even those three villains from weeks ago compared.
Back then, even if it was risky, he had felt the chance he had to win even before confronting them—and he won in the end.
But this?
This was pure, primal danger in its rawest form, converted into an alert his aura could catch.
It was a kind of threat even his body and aura recognised instinctively as something above his level.
If he went there, it wasn't about whether he could win.
The question was… would he even be able to do anything?
What worried him more was that he was twice as strong as weeks ago, when he fought the villains.
And yet, he felt powerless before this alert.
It was that unnervingly ominous.
'How could the show not have mentioned this…? Or did it?' Taka frowned, digging through his memories for any hint that something of this caliber had ever been brought up.
But nothing came to mind.
Maybe All Might had shown up to handle it, making the whole ordeal look simple in hindsight, and thus never got mentioned in the show?
"Maybe…" he muttered, though his gaze never left the distant prefecture.
But what if that wasn't it?
There was always the possibility that the show had glossed over countless tragedies. Background events that never made the spotlight.
Right now, he had power.
He was no longer the Quirkless kid who looked at the world and thought, There's nothing I can do.
He could do something now.
Even if it wasn't much—judging by the suffocating pressure radiating from that alert—he could still act.
And if All Might really did show up, Taka could simply stay on the sidelines and make sure nothing went wrong. The Symbol of Peace wasn't a god, after all. He could always use a bit of backup.
"Well… I guess a level—what level even is this?" Taka rubbed his chin, brows furrowing. "Level 8? No, as I am now, a level 8 should be manageable... this feels a tad too overwhelming for that."
With a decisive nod, he readied his aura.
"Level 9 then. I guess a level 9 will have to do for my grand debut."
And with that—
—BOOM!—
A thunderous burst of air exploded behind him as Taka shot forward, faster than ever before.
Soon, he dissapeared into the distance, going to face his hardest challenge yet.
...
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: Originally, I wanted there to be two events before U.A., but after a bit of thought, I realized I could fuse the two and be done with it. Not as to be lazy, which I am, but rather because one needed a powerful villain to serve as Taka's final obstacle before U.A., and I was racking my brain trying to invent one. Meanwhile, the other event already included a dangerously strong villain.
Maybe too strong a villain, though.
But nothing Taka can't overcome with pure coolness.
So, in the end, the thing clicked in my head, and the two last events became only one, so you won't need to wait that much before U.A.)