Time trickled down as the timer dropped below the three-minute mark.
The passing of every second began resonating with heartbeats.
It was like all and everything was happening at once; all cards seemed to have been thrown on the table at once; all had decided to push past their limits, showing the grandest and most surprising display of might — at once!
Every second, it felt like the remaining students would reveal another trump card, a card they had somehow managed to hide their entire lives.
Like Bakugo's new Hero Costume.
Like Luke's uncanny mastery of merciless close combat skills.
Like Todoroki's Ice Age, which had kicked out the highest number of students simultaneously.
Like Momo's grandest display of firearms, and her strategic skills, making her the most underestimated dark horse of the Battle Royale.
And then there were the expected and not-so-unexpected students, too.
Tenya Ida from Class 2-A and Neito Monoma from Class 2-B.
Among the two of them, only Tenya had remained relatively unknown to the world, as Monoma had made it to national headlines only recently, along with Luke and Todoroki, because of the Training Camp.
Such a thing should have never bothered Tenya.
As a UA student, he was expected to carry himself with absolute integrity, setting a standard for others to follow, regardless if he was as famous as others or not. It was expected of him. His family… his bedridden older brother… his classmates… They all expected him to be coolheaded and rational all the time.
What about what he wanted, though?
Buried an inch into the earth, with chunks of ice over him, Tenya watched as Luke acrobatically jumped between the green strands of energy, advancing a step before backing off two steps.
Booms and bangs echoed across the entire field as those energy strands razed the ground.
Every time one of them landed on the earth, it left behind a chasm, upending ice, dirt, and everything in between.
On the other side, Momo was having a hard time defending against those flexible, insanely powerful strands of energy, too. The steel wall she had created seemed too heavy for her to hold over herself for too long. As those greenish energy strips struck her, all that force of impact was getting sent to her, her body dragging across the field, little by little.
But none seemed more in pain than Midoriya himself.
Grunts. Screams. Shouts.
Midoriya was in the middle of all this, half his body taking the form of a green-skinned demon now. The green skin had even covered his face, making him look anything but a student of the Hero Course at UA.
It felt… Midoriya was asking for help.
And, in that instant, Tenya knew why he had made it to this stage.
He knew why he had survived till now in the Battle Royale.
It was all for this moment.
Letting out a breath as his gaze zoned out, Tenya got up.
His left ankle seemed broken, with a nasty black-and-blue bruise over it.
But he had already lost that leg when Mina's acid had melted into his boots, scorching his soles.
He still had his right leg, though, to put all his weight on it.
I have already used Recipro Burst too many times, Tenya recalled, a strand of green energy throwing ice and dust on his face as it struck the earth nearby. And Recipro Extend wouldn't be enough… Not nearly enough…
Then…
Like others, Tenya had been working on an Ultimate Move, too.
However, it had nothing to do with his Hero Costume or something he could simply practice to achieve.
It was related to the Quirk that ran in his family.
When the Ultimate Move training had started, Tenya had approached his older brother, Tensei Ida, more popularly known as the Turbo Hero: Ingenium, who had temporarily retired because of Hero Killer Stain.
It was Tensei who had told him about a secret of the Ida family.
It was to take the mufflers off his engines and let a new set of mufflers grow naturally over time.
Tenya looked down at his calves.
The new set of mufflers had already begun sprouting.
But… if he used them to go beyond Recipro Extend now, then…
No.
There was no if.
"Midoriya…" Tenya hissed, putting his hands on the ground, closing his eyes. "… Luke… Todoroki… Bakugo… you all… I… I want to become strong, too…"
Ultimate Move —
Fire roared out of Tenya's engines as he planted his feet into a running stance.
In the next moment, the new mufflers on them became red-hot, the fire taking the color of the surrounding ice.
Then, as the pain from his left leg darkened his mind, Tenya's eyes shot open... determined.
— Recipro Turbo!
Space seemed to fold around Tenya.
It rippled, up and down, left and right.
Time came to a crawling halt in his surroundings.
Tenya's entire figure lengthened as if he had become a steely strand of spaghetti.
Sonic BOOMS rocked the space as Tenya blurred past everyone and everything, landing behind Midoriya in one step.
The delicate mufflers on Tenya's engines exploded to smithereens.
His eyes had already rolled back into his head because of the monstrous pain.
Yet, no one, absolutely nothing, had dared to block his path — nor could they do so now.
With the power of a supersonic human missile, Tenya slammed right into the bulbous region on Midoriya's back from where all the green-black strands of energy were coming out.
In a fraction of a second, because of the high-speed and instantaneous impact, the entire green mass covering Midoriya's body dissipated, breaking off like green ash.
Then, with a loud CRASH, both Tenya and Midoriya rolled across the battle region, leaving behind a deep trail of ice and dust.
When the sprinkles of ice and clouds of dust settled, Tenya was nowhere to be seen, as if the ground had swallowed him alive.
Midoriya was lying face down just a step ahead of the laser boundary.
The remaining students on the battlefield, the referees, and the audience just wanted a few seconds to take in this scene, making their peace with, perhaps, the bravest act of the Battle Royale.
But what happened next made their eyes widen, their hearts pounding in their chests.
Bruised.
Bloodied.
And broken all over…
… Shoto Todoroki had crawled out from an icy grave, carrying madness in his eyes!