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[Sports Festival]
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| Last day before the Sports Festival… |
...
-Clang!-
"Ah...!"
Yaoyorozu fell on one knee, her staff clattering to the floor alongside her.
Taka stood before her, expression impassive.
"Your reaction time has improved a lot compared to our first spar."
Yaoyorozu took a moment to collect herself, gradually pulling back to her feet. Despite Taka's compliment, she didn't look particularly pleased. "I see. Thank you, Takahashi-san."
Taka studied her expression for a moment before speaking again, his tone softer. "No need to look so down. There's still a lot to cover, but you're prepared well enough for the festival. You had only been lacking quick decision-making and assessment skills during fights. Now you have them, so there's no way you won't do well."
At that, she seemed to snap out of whatever self-deprecating thoughts she'd been having, looking at him surprised for a second before smiling a little. "Thank you, Takahashi-san. Truly."
"No need."
With that, he made a quick beckoning motion, and a box flew in from somewhere and landed in his hands.
He then tossed it to Yaoyorozu, who fumbled slightly before catching it—her eyes widening like platters the moment she got a proper look at it.
"T-this is... Golden Tips Imperial Tea—how did you get this, Takahashi-san?! It's an extremely rare product!"
"A friend gave it to me. I'm not much for tea, since I prefer stronger flavors, but I figured you'd like it. Consider it a congratulatory gift for completing the training before the Sports Festival."
"A gift from a friend..." Yaoyorozu murmured, eyes glistening.
Seeing that she had liked it—even though she was rich enough to probably track one down with minimal effort—Taka smiled, satisfied.
Then he raised his arm, and from somewhere, his backpack flew straight into his hand.
"It's late now, so I'll be going. Good luck tomorrow."
"Yes!" Yaoyorozu saluted, much to Taka's amusement.
Thus, he began to walk away, planning on returning home.
As he headed toward the exit, he passed several classmates still sunk in training of their own, making use of their last hours to the fullest—Sero, Kirishima, Shoji, and a few others.
Plenty had already relocated to better sites for their respective training. Tsuyu had gone to the school's pool, Mina, Uraraka, and Aoyama had ended up at the USJ facility, and Iida had moved to the track field, plus many others—leaving Ground Beta considerably emptier than when it had all started.
As he passed by, many of the remaining ones waved.
"Yo, class rep, you leaving?!" Sero called out, standing beside Kirishima and Ojiro.
Taka gave them a nod.
"See you tomorrow then!"
Taka waved back and walked on.
It had been one hectic week and a half, that was for sure.
Developing his own abilities while helping everyone else at the same time—it was an experience he wasn't sure he wanted to repeat. So much to keep track of, and so little time to breathe.
But he'd say the result was worth it.
For starters, he'd managed to give everyone at least some help with their training, and largely thanks to the impressive results he'd gotten out of Jiro and Midoriya, which prompted more and more of the class to ask for some coaching.
By the way, Midoriya had taken two full days to figure out he needed to kick rather than punch. He almost wanted to smack him for it, but he did exactly that plenty of times during their training to help him figure it out, so he held back.
Of course, he wasn't a miracle worker.
For some of his classmates, his help had been groundbreaking—like Tsuyu, Hagakure, or Tokoyami—or Jiro and Midoriya themselves, since their Quirks had a lot of untapped potential he'd been able to help draw out with his show knowledge, even if to varying degrees.
There were others he sadly hadn't been able to help much, or at all. Kaminari's Quirk, for now, only made him a living taser, and he would need some support items before he could get more use out of it. Todoroki and Bakugo were more or less training on their own terms, so he didn't have a hand in helping them either.
For others, his help had been more a matter of smoothing over rough edges—things that may or may not have been directly related to their Quirks. Like Yaoyorozu, whom he'd helped get accustomed to actual fights so she wouldn't freeze up as she had in the show. Or Koda, whom he'd taught a bit about controlling his voice. Or Kirishima, Sato, and Ojiro, whom he'd mostly done physical training with, helping them correct mistakes in their techniques and footwork. And lastly, Iida, whom he'd helped with kicking techniques after the bespectacled boy spotted his breakdancing-infused fighting style and came asking.
Speaking of Iida, he hadn't forgotten the canon event coming up that involved him. He'd already laid out a few contingency plans for that, so he wasn't too worried.
All in all, the Sports Festival showed promise, and Taka couldn't help smirking once the thought of it being tomorrow landed on his mind.
'And thus, the week of preparation finally ends,' Taka thought as the exit finally came into sight, letting out a long sigh.
Now all that remained was to wait until tomorrow, and things would play out.
'...Actually, I need to prepare the player's pledge,' he sweatdropped, immediately recalling the speech that the student ranked first had to give right before the games.
In other words, the one he had to give.
'I can't say I have stage fright, but this is my first time making a speech, isn't it?' He mused, sighing in a troubled manner.
His mind went over the one Bakugo had given in the show.
'I pledge to win... It's pretty good, I have to give it to him.'
The short-fused guy had been pretty inspired that day.
He could, of course, copy his and get done with it.
But that's the way losers think.
He had to make it better than that.
'An aura farmer never rests, I guess...' He thought with a sigh, aware that his duty still wasn't over.
...
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| An hour later... |
...
Taka stood outside his house, rummaging through his backpack for his keys.
After a little while longer, he found them, let himself in, and closed the door behind him—letting out a groan as the soothing feeling of finally being home settled over him.
Only for the first thing to greet him—
"Welcome back..." A tiny voice greeted.
—to be Eri, sitting on the couch watching TV from the living room.
"Finally done, eh, Taka?" Seiji leaned sideways to peek at him from behind the couch, barely visible from the entranceway. He'd apparently been keeping her company through whatever they were watching.
"Yeah. It's finally over." Taka answered, pausing at the entrance to take off his shoes.
As he did, he found himself thinking about how things had gone since Eri arrived.
It had been awkward at first.
Since he spent most days at school until late due to the Sports Festival preparations, he'd had to rely mostly on Seiji to keep him updated on how she was doing.
During the first few days, she'd stayed in her room most of the time—only coming out to eat, or coming out when he returned from U.A.
But as the days passed and she grew a bit more comfortable with the house, she'd started moving around more freely. Seiji had encouraged it by letting her use the TV, which, as you can see, had worked wonders.
Still, beyond knowing she was somewhat more at ease than at the start, Taka was largely in the dark about how she truly felt.
He hadn't unlocked anything like telepathy, so there was no way to know what was going on in her head most of the time. She wasn't particularly talkative, either.
He could only assume she wasn't unhappy, at least.
But just like in the show, she wasn't smiling.
—And Taka wasn't planning on letting that go on for long.
The Culture Festival was still quite far off, roughly a semester away, so having his class put on a concert like in the show wasn't exactly likely.
With his clones, he could always put one together himself. But he wasn't sure whether it had only been the music that made Eri smile in the show, or whether other factors had played just as big a part. Like the effort that everyone put into it, and that she had seen.
Still, that didn't mean he couldn't try something.
'Good thing I've been working on a new song for this,' Taka thought, smiling faintly.
He already had a plan mostly sorted out, and while some of the arrangements had been tricky to put together, they were largely taken care of.
Now all that remained was to wait for the right moment.
Smiling faintly, he finished taking off his shoes and stepped into the house for good.
As he did, he couldn't help but notice the entranced look Eri had as she watched TV. Seiji stood behind the couch, leaning on the headrest with a smirk on his face.
The TV faced away from the entrance, so he couldn't see what was on. He walked closer and turned his head to get a better look at what had Eri so interested.
"..."
Then, his eyebrow twitched.
{"So what if you can see, the dark inside of——!"}
His gaze lingered on the screen for a beat, then shifted to the two watching it.
Seiji was grinning widely, sneaking glances at him as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Eri, while not smiling, was watching with a worrying level of focus.
Then, to top it off, she turned to him and pointed at the screen.
"That's you, Taka?"
Taka's mouth twitched.
"...Yeah..."
Eri nodded, seemingly letting that sink in, before turning back to the TV, eyes glued to it.
Taka stared at her with a slightly pained look, then turned to Seiji. "Why is she...?"
"You've gotten quite famous. A video of yours got recommended to her. I just caught her watching it and joined in." Seiji shrugged.
Taka gave him a flat look, then turned back to her and the screen.
'For real...?'
To his luck, after a few more seconds, the video ended—before then switching to another recording of Taka's "performances."
"That's also you?" Eri asked.
"Hm." Taka let out a loud hum of confirmation, doing his best not to let her notice he was massaging his temples, his face slightly hot from the embarrassment.
He really wasn't good with this kind of situation.
"I see..." Eri said.
Then she went back to focusing on it, eyes glued to the screen.
Taka's gaze slid to Seiji, and a silent back-and-forth started up between them.
'How long are you planning to let her watch that?' his side-eye said plainly.
Seiji's eyebrows rose, his expression unmistakably reading: 'Why? Embarrassed, Taka?'
Taka let out a sigh.
Then he reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
"Ahem." He cleared his throat, snapping Eri out of her TV-induced trance and drawing both her and Seiji's attention.
Seeing he had it, he held up what he was holding. "Nezu was feeling generous today and handed me two tickets to front-row seats at the festival."
"Festival?" Eri looked uncertain.
"It's a very famous competition. Taka and his classmates will be participating in it." Seiji explained.
She still didn't seem to fully grasp it, but she got the general idea. "I see."
Taka stepped over and ruffled her hair. "Think you can make some time in your packed schedule to watch me win?"
Eri pursed her lips and gave a small nod under his hand. "Hmm."
Taka smiled. "Good. There's going to be a spectacle at the end. It'd be a shame if you missed it."
Seiji sent him a flat look. "Really?"
"Hey, I got permission this time." Taka shrugged.
Seiji didn't look convinced, but Taka simply ignored him, grinning slightly.
'It's all coming together.'
...
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| The next day, U.A. stadium grounds... |
...
To say it was cramped would be an understatement. U.A.'s campus was packed with people in every direction—some coming and going from the stadium, others walking around and browsing the food stalls and souvenir stands, of which there were a hundred or so, and others simply chatting as they waited for everything to begin.
"Hey, what time was the third year's competition?"
"Later, in the afternoon. First, the first years and second years go."
"Bummer. I just came for the third year, so I guess I'll find something to do until then."
"You crazy? Why would you skip the first years with the bombs they've got this year?!"
"What do you mean?"
"You've been living under a rock? This year we've got Endeavor's son, Ingenium's little brother, and most importantly—the kid who was all over national television the other day. The one who saved the school from a terrorist attack."
"That kid was from U.A.?"
The school was the most talked-about it had been in a long while, with multiple names drawing the attention of people and heroes from all around the country.
The festival was an important event, sure.
But this year's was different, and everyone knew it.
"..."
Standing on top of the stadium, a figure looked down at the people below, his coat fluttering in the wind at that height.
And soon, many more—just like him—began walking to his side, striking similarly dramatic poses.
"And so it begins."
Then—they all disappeared.
…
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: And so it begins indeed. At last, we got into the Sports Festival arc. Now, I could have liked to add what abilities or plans Taka came up with during the week of training, but I think it'd be better to keep the surprise.
There's one thing readers have been asking, and it's honestly very feasible, so it will make its appearance here.)