One by one, the other students begin to arrive.
Bakugo keeps alternating furious glares between me, Midoriya, and Todoroki, the latter seeming to contemplate life itself, staring into nothing while drinking water.
Soon, Himiko arrives in seventh place, and despite the exhaustion from the race, she still comes bouncing happily toward me.
We share a quick but warm hug.
"How was it?" I ask, brushing some dust out of her hair.
"It was easy," Himiko says.
She still hasn't used her quirk; she's been avoiding it in these early rounds so she doesn't have to keep changing clothes all the time. Unfortunately, they didn't let her bring the Kagune ring.
Some time passes until the rest of the participants reach the end of the trial.
When everyone is finally gathered, Midnight announces:
"The top 42 have qualified for the next stage!"
Then she continues building suspense, which Himiko and I ignore, almost as if we both turned our brains off at the same time, only returning to normal when the real announcement comes.
"A human cavalry battle!"
"Everyone will receive points based on their performance in the last trial."
I feel a chill when I hear that, especially because of Midnight's amused expression as she looks directly at me while saying it.
"If you placed 42nd, for example, you'll be worth 5 points, 10 points if you're 41st, and so on," she continues, occasionally throwing annoyingly amused glances in my direction.
"EXCEPT for FIRST PLACE, who will be worth TEN MILLION POINTS!!..." She holds back a laugh, covering her mouth elegantly.
"..."
All the participants turn their heads toward me at the same time, their eyes shining, almost as if they had stars in them.
But they quickly look away, some trembling and others wiping cold sweat from their foreheads.
I feel a poke in my side. I look over, and Himiko makes me lean in so she can whisper in my ear:
"Dear, turn off the Kakugan."
I do so, not even realizing it was active.
─── ◆ ───
After a few more explanations from Midnight, team formation begins.
I exchange a quick nod with Himiko, and my team is already decided.
"Himi, I'm going to try that."
"Oh! But will they let you build it?" Her eyes light up in recognition, a mischievous smile slowly forming.
"Let's try. If not, we go with plan B." She nods in agreement.
Then, in the middle of planning plan B, a pink-haired girl with steampunk goggles on her head and wearing a bunch of equipment and gadgets all over her body appears out of nowhere.
"Helloooo Mr. First Place, how about we form a team?"
"...Who are you?"
"Oh, right! I'm Mei Hatsume from the Support Department!"
We introduce ourselves as well, and then she continues.
"Since you're in first place, being on a team with you is the perfect opportunity to get attention and show my babies to the world!"
"Babies?" Himiko repeats, tilting her head, slightly confused but touched by the girl's enthusiasm.
"You mean your inventions, right?"
She nods and starts showing off several of her "babies."
'Pretty impressive.'
Himiko and I quickly look over the inventions, not holding back on compliments.
They all seem quite useful, though some have questionable safety.
"Hatsume, I don't think we'll be able to form a team, since Himiko and I decided to go with something more defensive."
"Yeah, you wouldn't be able to show your inventions during the battle," Himiko adds.
The girl immediately deflates, slumping over with her arms hanging, but soon perks up again.
"Alright! I'll try talking to the second place then!"
"I loved talking to you! If you need any new equipment, I'll be in Room 1-H!"
She waves energetically and runs off toward Midoriya's group.
"She's nice. We should stop by the Support Department someday," Himiko says, still waving at the girl.
I simply nod in agreement.
─── ◆ ───
Third Person POV
Fifteen minutes pass after team selection and a few extra minutes of break.
Midnight is about to start the countdown for the cavalry battle, but all eyes remain on the first-place team, which has been doing something strange the entire time.
Himiko is on Kaneki's shoulders, with the ten-million-point headband on her forehead.
She stays silent, carefully observing Kaneki, who has his eyes closed, deeply focused.
From Kaneki's arms emerge two massive oval Kagune shields, a darker red than usual.
The shields have a filled spiral shape, like a mandala.
The spiral lines are a brighter red, closer to the normal Kagune color.
The shields completely cover both of them.
At the bottom, each shield has two pointed ends, resembling wooden stakes used in construction.
"Everyone ready?" Midnight begins.
"Ten!"
"Nine!"
The countdown finally starts.
Kaneki slams the shield into the ground with a thunderous sound, embedding it firmly like a root.
The Kagune spreads beneath the arena floor.
The lower parts connect, forming a platform for Kaneki to stand on.
"Two!"
"One!"
"..."
"BEGIN!!!"
At the end of the countdown, everyone rushes toward Kaneki and Himiko, but Kaneki fully closes the shield, merging the two halves with a soft, satisfying click, sealing it perfectly.
The shield trembles under the barrage of attacks, being blasted, frozen, and generally bombarded by various quirks.
─── ◆ ───
Kaneki POV
Himiko sighs in relief, wiping sweat from her forehead before gently stroking my hair.
"Haaa, I'm glad it worked."
I take the opportunity to catch my breath as well.
The barrier unfortunately isn't very useful in most situations, it takes too long to create and is too heavy to carry around.
Thankfully, it's not absurdly expensive in terms of stamina since I optimized the process as much as possible.
Now I just need to reduce the creation time to make it more practical.
"Here, drink a little," Himiko says, placing her arm in front of my mouth, casually pressing her chest against my head.
I bite without much ceremony and start drinking.
Himiko lets out a cute squeak when I do.
The ventilation inside the barrier is handled by a Kagune tube running beneath the arena, almost imperceptible.
The trembling of the barrier stops, the other competitors seem to realize they won't be able to break it, at least not before the match ends.
I release Himiko's arm after drinking enough.
She looks like she wants me to continue, but she knows she needs her strength for the next rounds.
"..."
"So…"
"What do we need to buy this month?"
And just like that, Himiko and I start listing groceries for the month to pass the time while the other teams fight outside the Kagune barrier.
─── ◆ ───
[A/N]: Just to clarify a few things about the "Kagune Fortress":
Obviously it's not indestructible, just very durable, and considerably cheap to regenerate;
It takes a very long time to build and is too heavy (even for Kaneki) to carry from one place to another;
Kaneki needs to maintain contact with the Fortress for it to function;
You can think of it as a SUPER dense Koukaku (which, in the end, is what it is);
It's an experiment by Kaneki, and due to the difficulty in using it, it will be somewhat sidelined for now, but it's not something that will be completely discarded from the story.
Another thing:
...
WE REACHED 1 MILLION VIEWS!!!!!!![1]
This is insane!!!! Thank you so much for all the support you've given to my work!
See you in the next chapter <3
If you'd like to support my work and receive bonuses such as 5 to 10 advanced chapters, spoilers, early access to my new books, polls, and more, check out:
P @ t r 3 0 n - Condor7
[1] OHHH Big Number :0