With the final match of the Sports Festival concluded, the results were finally announced. Tokoyami and Kirishima stood together in third place, with Bakugo standing in second place, his face calm, despite the loss; however, the first place...
...was missing...
Yeah, anyone in U.A who knows about Tsutsumi's record of skipping class wasn't surprised at this point. Hound Dog is still pissed, trying to sniff out Tsutsumi.
Joke on him, Tsutsumi is already in another world.
"Strange." Tsutsumi muttered as he plummeted through open sky, his expression oddly calm while scrolling through a phone-like device in his hand.
Name: Tsutsumi Ryoko
Gender: Male
Semblance: Glitch
Aura Color: Magenta
"What the hell's a Semblance? Is it like a Quirk?" he scratched his head, frowning.
The ground rushed closer by the second. He was about to pull out a card when something thin and fast cut through the air. A spear, its blade grazing his collar before pinning him against the trunk of a massive tree.
The weapon bit deep into the wood, leaving him dangling several meters above the ground.
A spear like a bolt of lightning… if someone had wanted him dead, that shot would've been flawless. Instead, they'd deliberately missed.
Catching his breath, Tsutsumi muttered, "What kind of world is this?" He gripped the embedded spear and tried to wrench it free, but it refused to budge. Whoever threw it had inhuman strength.
"Need a hand?"
A girl emerged from the brush, her crimson hair catching the light. A bronze shield rested against her back, her red-and-gold armor polished to perfection. Every step made the metal ring softly, almost melodically.
"Hello!" she gave a nervous little wave. "Are you alright? I barely caught sight of you when I was making my landing. Guess you could say I was lucky. Anyway, we're in the Emerald Forest, you don't remember? This is the initiation test for Beacon Academy."
Tsutsumi didn't understand half of what she just said, but his experiences of drifting between worlds had trained him to improvise.
"Uh… yeah. I'm fine."
"So… I suppose this makes us partners, right?" She spoke up.
Partners?
"Yeah," Tsutsumi said, placing one hand on the tree for leverage, he reinforced his body and yanked the spear free, dropping lightly to the forest floor.
"Incredible! I've never seen anyone pull my spear out like that," the girl gasped.
"It's just a spear," Tsutsumi replied flatly, handing it back.
"Thanks," she said warmly, her smile bright and unguarded.
A hulking shadow burst from the underbrush, a black beast with glowing red eyes, looking like a werewolf, its claws aimed straight for her unprotected back.
"Behind you!" Tsutsumi barked, seizing her wrist and yanking her aside just in time.
Summoning his Rider Book and turning it into sword form, he swung it at the beast, aiming for its neck.
With Reinforcement coursing through his arms and weapon, he swung cleanly, the sword cleaving the monster's neck. Its head toppled before the entire body dissolved into drifting black ash.
"Thank you," The girl exhaled, startled but smiling gratefully. "I didn't expect you to return the favor so quickly… um?"
"Tsutsumi… Tsutsumi Ryoko." He answered, putting his blade away, and looked at the redheaded girl.
The forest breeze carried strands of her red hair, her green eyes bright beneath the bronze-and-crimson of her armor. She extended her hand to him.
"Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos."
He reached out and accepted her hand.
Pyrrha Nikos trailed a step behind her new partner.
On the surface, her expression was as flawless as ever, pleasant, welcoming, the kind of smile that put others at ease. But behind that carefully crafted mask, her mind swirled with conflicting emotions. The strangest, most startling realization hit her almost immediately.
He didn't recognize her.
From the moment she introduced herself. She held her breath and waited for the same pattern whenever she revealed her name. Immediate recognition, followed by the usual ecstatic joy of meeting someone famous, and finally the instant expectation that came with her name. It wouldn't be until after they started walking that she finally realized that he didn't recognize her. He treated her as if she were any other person, with no fanfare or theatrics.
When his hand reached out and she saw her emerald eyes mirrored in his purple ones, Pyrrha knew it; he genuinely had no idea who she was.
She wanted to laugh, to scream, to leap with joy, to cry out in triumph that she hadn't been wrong to run, that she hadn't been a fool to leave the suffocating pedestal she'd been placed upon.
So instead, she kept smiling, a radiant, breathtaking smile, as she followed along with her new partner.
And yet, a question tugged at her thoughts. She was sure she hadn't seen him in the grand hall with the other applicants. That vivid purple and magenta of his hair would have been impossible to forget. Nor did she recall him at the launch platforms. His plain clothes, the absence of a visible weapon, and the way he had summoned and dismissed that sword from thin air, all of it only deepened her curiosity.
Finally, she gave in.
"So… how come I didn't see you at the platform?" Pyrrha asked casually, her tone light. "There were only seven of us when we were launched."
"You probably missed me," he replied with disarming nonchalance.
Her lips curved into an amused smile. "Well, Beacon Academy is fairly large compared to the other academies, so I can believe that," she laughed softly. "Also, you seem to have had quite the rough landing. Your Aura should have healed the minor scrapes by now."
For a brief second, his confusion showed before he quickly masked it and turned away.
"Don't worry about me." He waved her off and shifted the subject. "I'll be fine. How much further anyway?"
He had no idea where they were going. Only that they were partners now, and this was the initiation test.
"Hmm… it can't be too far," Pyrrha mused, glancing around. "They didn't exactly brief us on the relics' location. Just the direction."
"Right," he drawled. "Let's just hope this is the right way, then."
The moment he accepted her hand, he tried to acquire a sense of his new environment. This was unknown territory that I was treading in, with no presence or sign of any Kamen Rider. Still, this world has its own unique power system, so he wanted to at least know more about it first.
"I think… up ahead is the way?" Pyrrha said uncertainly, pointing toward a gaping dark tunnel at the base of a sheer cliff.
A cave system.
"Probably," Tsutsumi said with quiet caution. "Doesn't look like there's another way around." The two of them couldn't possibly scale the cliff in a reasonable amount of time. So that cut down our already short list of alternatives.
Of course, he could fly past it, but he didn't understand the danger or the main concept of this world yet; being reckless and exposing too much of his power would only invite more trouble.
"Well, it doesn't look too bad," Pyrrha offered optimistically. "What could go wrong?"
He gave her a flat, unimpressed look. "By saying something like that."
She chuckled sheepishly. "Forewarned is forearmed, right? …Wait, shouldn't we make a torch?"
"No." He stepped forward, his purple eyes faintly glowing in the dark. "Our vision will adjust. A torch might go out, and we'd waste time fumbling. Besides…" He glanced deeper into the abyss. "The darkness can be an advantage. In case something else is down here."
"You seem to know a lot about this," Pyrrha said, matching his stride. "Experience?"
"I suppose so," he replied simply.
But as they pressed deeper into the shadows, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched.
Not far behind, hidden in that same cave, another Tsutsumi stood.
"Finally got the time travel thing down," he murmured with a satisfied grin, before an Aurora Curtain swept him away, returning him to his own world.
Moments later, he was just another young man walking the streets, stopping at a shop to buy groceries before heading home. Months could pass for him in another world, and yet when he returned here, mere seconds had slipped by.
Although now also having unlocked time travel, he didn't use it recklessly, just traveling to the point in time in his world where his past self had already left for his adventure in another world.
Doing this would avoid creating a paradox, and time itself wouldn't fracture.
He opened the door to his home. "I'm back."
"Welcome, Ryoko-niisan!" Miyu called brightly, closing her book and hurrying to greet him.
...
Delving deeper into the cavern system, the air grew bone-chillingly cold.
"Hey," she whispered, her voice barely audible in the oppressive silence. "Do you feel that in the air? It feels kind of warm, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I feel it too." His steps slowed to a near crawl, and she mirrored him.
Up ahead, through the veil of darkness, a faint golden glow flickered. It pulsed softly, warm, inviting, almost hypnotic. Without meaning to, their feet carried them closer.
The glow revealed itself as a floating golden bulb, radiating gentle warmth. A lure of light in the shadows.
Suddenly, Tsutsumi stopped dead and threw out an arm. Pyrrha bumped into him, but he held firm.
The moment they froze, the light froze too.
She started forward again, but he pressed back against her shoulder, forcing her to match his movements. He tugged her arm, guiding her step by step. One cautious step backward, the light shifted. Another step, the glow followed, trailing after them.
His eyes narrowed. Reinforcing his vision, the illusion peeled away.
Further down the tunnel, the true shape somewhat revealed itself. A hulking monstrosity loomed in the dark, its body blending seamlessly with the stone walls. The golden lure swayed from the tip of a grotesque appendage, an anglerfish's trick, meant to draw prey into striking distance.
Dozens of furious crimson eyes blinked open across its armored hide, glaring through the black.
The thing was massive, the size of a school bus, maybe larger. Its jagged limbs scraped against the rock, and a segmented tail curled menacingly over its back, tipped with a glistening stinger.
The scorpion-like giant shuffled in agitation. Its movements shifted just enough for a crack of sunlight to cut through the cave wall. That faint beam revealed the truth.
The creature wasn't just lurking. It was blocking the only exit.
Tsutsumi felt Pyrrha tense in his grasp, readying herself for a fight, but he pulled her closer and signaled for her to stand down. There was no need to take the monster head-on, he could simply outmaneuver it.
Form Ride: Faiz Axel!
The mechanical announcement echoed through the cavern walls, instantly drawing the creature's attention.
It shrieked, a bone-rattling screech, before lunging toward the sound with all its fury.
Start Up!
The moment it scurried aside, Tsutsumi seized his chance. He scooped Pyrrha into his arms and surged forward at blinding speed, leaving only a streak of purple and red in his wake.
They burst out of the cave into open air. This side of the forest was less suffocating than the one they'd left behind, trees thinned into a clearer line, giving way to a grassy field. Far beyond, ancient ruins loomed against the horizon.
After covering a good distance, the 10-second acceleration faded. His boots skidded across the earth as he slowed to a stop, armor fading out of existence.
"Tsutsumi?" she called softly from his arms.
"Yeah?"
"Is this how you take all your girls on their first date?" she teased, lips curling upward.
"Yeah, I take all of my dates walking in monster-infested forests before dragging them into caves." His voice dripped with sarcasm. "I hope you don't mind that, since you're my partner now."
He gently set her back on her feet.
Pyrrha rested a hand on her hip, smirking. "Then I'm looking forward to the next one."
He sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. "We should get going. There's a ruin not too far from here." He pointed toward the distant outline. "I've got a hunch that's where our objective is."
Her eyes narrowed as she tried to focus. "I can barely make it out. You've got good eyesight, Tsutsumi. That's what? A couple of kilometers away?"
He only shrugged.