Chapter 94: Sports Festival (8)
—
"Washroom took you too long, the match ended already."
Momo said to Neji while pointing her finger at the arena where Todoroki had frozen Shinso's body entirely except for his face.
Neji sat down beside her and sighed exaggeratedly.
"Haaiyah, that's sad."
Momo gave him a dead stare before turning her head to the arena again.
"He is super strong, and he even challenged you before the start. Seems like in the next match, if you win against Midoriya, you'd be against him." She turned to Neji and stared at his eyes curiously. "What would you do, I wonder."
Neji gave her a small grin but said nothing.
As Momo shook her head and looked the other way, Neji gave Uraraka a glance from the corner of his eyes.
After talking to her for a few minutes, he told her to return first and then waited a few more minutes before returning himself. This way, nobody would be suspicious. Nobody except Todoroki…
Looking at the half-hot half-cold boy walking back to the tunnel he came through, Neji hummed softly.
The room Neji and Ochako were in minutes ago was the student waiting room. Anyone from Class 1-A who had their match next would go there to wait for their call. Todoroki did so too and was about to enter the room that Neji and Uraraka were in when they were hugging, but he didn't enter upon hearing Uraraka's sobs.
That was commendable, even if he wasn't being considerate and was just trying to avoid any hassle. In Neji's view, Todoroki was probably the most chill dude here. The only problem was his angst, which wasn't really a problem.
Neji planned to make Todoroki use his left side from the moment he got the quest. That's one way he'd be able to truly get the overwhelming victory that the quest required him of.
In the process, if Todoroki loses a bit of his angst… that's not a bad deal either.
"Well," Momo turned to Neji again, smiling. "Guess it's your match, Mr Charming. Go break a leg!"
—★—
Izuku Midoriya cut the call as his mother's voice stopped flowing out of the phone. He clenched the phone in his right hand while his left hand trembled along with a crazy grin on his face.
Izuku Midoriya was sure Neji saw him in his Astral Form in the USJ incident. But his master said otherwise.
Firstly, only All For One could see Izuku's astral body, but that's because All For One didn't use his eyes to see, as he didn't even have eyes. Instead, he used one of his quirks. Meaning, to see Izuku's astral body, Neji needed an eye-related quirk too, which if he truly had would have been registered in the school's document about him.
But from the copy of the documents that the school spy delivered, that didn't seem to be the case.
Secondly, assuming Neji could somehow see him, then why is he not telling the teachers about him? Izuku was clearly acting suspicious in his astral body, and unless Neji was blind, he should have seen through it. Then why?
All this convinced All For One to believe Neji didn't see Izuku, but the latter had different thoughts.
Izuku would bet his soul against a rat's tail that his eyes met Neji's.
And maybe there was indeed something special about his blue eyes. When their eyes met, there was a red tinge in his blue eyes, but Izuku had dismissed it as blood from the fight since they were too far from each other. But if it really was because of a quirk…
["And now, coming through the left entrance iiiss Izuku Midiroya!!"]
He stopped his thoughts and walked outside the dark tunnel. Immediately cheers surrounded him and Izuku gave a half-hearted smile.
When he stepped into the arena, he found Neji already standing opposite to him. He had his hands in his pockets and his smile was as wide as the sky and as bright as the sun itself.
Izuku smiled too and cracked his fingers.
"Good luck on the match."
He said to his opponent who gave a graceful nod.
"I believe you should be the one in need of luck, though."
Izuku chuckled under his breath and waited for Midnight to start the match.
Izuku couldn't use his Astral Repulsion technique without coming in contact with the target's body, so he planned to get closer to Neji and just touch him somehow, which will draw the end of the match.
Izuku all of a sudden regretted showing that technique in the last match, but Ida was an opponent who needed to be finished asap if he wanted to win, so he didn't have any other choice. Because of that, Neji would be prepared, but that didn't mean Izuku would lose.
"Alright, kids." Midnight said. "The match begins!!"
Immediately, Izuku ran towards Neji at a fast pace. He reached out his widened palm at him and then clasped it at a fast motion.
As if something clicked in space, Izuku got hold of Neji's 'aura'. He then yanked his hand back and Neji flung towards him in a fast motion.
Neji flew towards him as Izuku prepared to shove a palm on his midsection.
That palm will decide the game. If it comes in contact with his body, Neji's consciousness will be cast out. If not…
Neji's body reached Izuku's range in less than a second, and that's why no wonder Neji hadn't reacted yet. Because he couldn't.
Izuku's palm flung upwards, going at Neji's abdomen… but shockingly, it stopped mid-air.
An invisible force had caught his arm.
Neji still flew at him at a terrible speed, but midway, he simply blasted his leg once to get a hold of his poise as his feet touched Izuku's forehead.
Fury filled Izuku in an instant as Neji looked down on his face with his cold but bright blue eyes.
Then his lips moved.
"Boom."
A terrible force, as if being punched by All Might himself, hit Izuku in the forehead as his body flung and flew back metre behind, out of the arena, as his back hit the wall at the far end.
"..."
Midnight was about to announce the winner, but Izuku kicked the air and dashed back to the arena before his feet could land on the ground.
Frowning, Midnight exchanged some words in her earpiece and nodded to the two students as they continued.
Izuku took the defensive this time and waited for Neji to move instead.
Seeing this, Neji crouched down in his spot and placed his palm on the ground as a white half-transparent sphere appeared around his palm. He pushed his palm on the ground once… and with a deafening crack, the ground split and broke into multiple pieces.
Izuku lost his foothold for a second and before he could regain it, Neji's fingers started to dance in the air.
The pieces of the shattered ground lifted from the ground as if controlled by an outer force, and just as Neji shoved his fingers in Izuku's direction, they all leapt forward and hit Izuku who had yet to regain his composure in the chest.
With a loud impact, Izuku simply flew out of the arena and landed on his back. This time, fully eliminated.
Midnight gave Neji a smile, which he ignored, and announced, "With that, the winner is Neji Hado!!"
A loud cheer covered the stadium as Neji gave them a small smile.
—★—
"Who taught you to show off like that?" Momo asked Neji in the waiting room, as her match was up next.
"Oh, why? Are you impressed? Did you get goosebumps?"
"Maybe~"
Neji pulled her by the waist as she wrapped her hands around his neck.
"You know, Inasa is a strong opponent."
At his words, Momo scowled. "Why are you trying to scare me?"
Neji shrugged. "I am not."
He was just trying to prepare her mind for the inevitable loss coming in minutes. Momo didn't have the… weak mindset like Uraraka, but it was good to make her realise her limits.
'She'd win if this wasn't bound by the tournament rules, though.'
Her quirk was limited by those rules a lot. If not for the rules, she could just make a TNT and then launch it at Inasa via a cannon, which would guarantee her a win.
Then again, Momo had a Hero Complex, so maybe it couldn't be helped even in that scenario.
"Good luck with the match."
Neji said and placed his lips on her mouth and moved his tongue inside her. She moaned softly but said nothing to protest.
"A-alright."
After the kiss ended, Momo wiped the saliva from her lips and turned around to leave.
"See you soon!"
With that, she went to her inevitable defeat.
—★—
Midnight swung her arm downwards.
"Start!"
Immediately as the match started, Inasa simply floated up in the air, leaving Momo with the option of long-range attacks only.
Meaning guns.
Momo could indeed create actual revolvers, something that would piece people's skulls at a shot. But she couldn't create such a thing here since that would be dangerous for Inasa.
Her training with shooting was pretty basic, and since Inasa had strong wind swirling around him like a vortex, there was no way the bullet she would fire would hit the place she wanted it to.
She feared that if she targeted his shoulders, the bullet would hit his head instead.
Momo didn't want to hurt people, let alone kill them. So she dismissed the idea of actual bullets, and instead, she formed rubber bullets.
She observed the tornado of wind surrounding Inasa as she targeted his head with her hands firm… and then shot her gun.
Bang!
The bullets hit Inasa, but not where she aimed, as she had expected.
It hit his chest.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
She kept shooting in fast succession and soon her muzzles ran empty.
Barely scratched, Inasa simply looked down at her from the sky with his arms crossed.
None of his vitals was hurt, and so he was fine even after a barrage of her attacks.
Sighing, Momo decided to make a cannon.
She unchained her shirt, revealing her black sports bra, as a huge cannon head started to peek out of her abdomen.
Frowning, Inasa finally made his first move.
With a swing of his arm, a strong gust of wind came crashing into Momo.
It attempted to push Momo away, but Momo's feet were pinned on the ground via spikes coming out of her shoes.
With a grunt, she held on against the wind as the canon finally came out of her body, exhausting her quite a lot.
But after she had taken the Tier Potion from Neji, the ratio of her calorie and creation has changed. She can now create more things with a lot fewer calories.
So she was still good enough to make a lighter and light the cannon, pointing at the flying Inasa.
With a loud bang, the cannonball left the beak of the cannon.
Inasa hesitated for a second before deciding to take the ball head-on.
The ball, reaching Inasa, hit him in the chest, pushing him back in the air as he held it back with his arms while Momo went below him with an AK47 in her hand.
It was loaded with rubber bullets.
As she pointed the gun at Inasa, she thinned her lips.
Momo could tell why Inasa didn't just finish her off with a single push from the get-go. If he did that, nobody would have been impressed, as the wind wasn't as flashy as Todoroki's Ice – unless he made a tornado.
So he was allowing Momo to attack first, showing the Heroes up there his defensive capacities, but Momo was able to successfully exploit that.
Now, she just needed to fire him down.
With a nod to herself, from below Inasa, Momo started to fire her gun. The recoil should have been too much for her frail body, but she had made this gun not for killing but for merely injuring an opponent, so it wasn't as bad as the real deal.
The bullets hit Inasa all over his body, and even as he was successfully able to push the cannonball away, the bullets made him unable to move.
Inasa grunted in pain just as Momo was getting excited.
She might actually win.
That dream soon came crashing into her as her bullets ended and she started to reload.
Inasa roared in the sky and the wind around the arena went ballistic.
Momo easily lost her footing this time, since she had moved from her previous spot by absorbing the spikes into calories again, and forgot to make them again.
With a big dusty tornado, Momo was flung out of the arena, landing on her back softly.
The gun dropped to the ground and she breathed heavily.
"Well…" she took a deep breath. "At least I was able to showcase my powers a bit."
She sighed and closed her eyes as the crowd cheered aloud.
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Chapter 95: Sports Festival (9)
—
The match after the next match was between Neji and Todoroki, and so Momo didn't return to the seats of Class 1-A and instead headed back to the waiting room where she found Neji.
"Oh, hey~ If it isn't my favourite snowflake." Neji waved his hand from his seat while Momo sighed under her breath.
Neji just shrugged his shoulders seeing her sigh. "Hey, I am joking. It was a good match, you did better than I thought you would."
Momo walked to him and crawled on top of his lap, pointing her finger at her forehead.
"You know, I am quite smarter than before, right? I knew I would lose without you telling me, so yeah, I expected it all."
Neji leaned back on the chair with Momo on his lap.
"Hm, I guess. It's basically <Hivemind>, isn't it? So even if your previous intelligence hasn't suddenly expanded, you are certainly better at reaching conclusions and creating theories. It's as if dozens of Momos are inside one, huh."
"Yees!" Momo exclaimed in relief. "I tried to explain it to Mom, but she just wouldn't get it!"
Neji frowned immediately. "Wait, you told your mother about your Quirk Growth?"
Instantly Momo flinched and looked the other way. "I-I… that…"
After a while, she grumbled while biting down on her lower lip. "I am sorry… I was lost in thoughts when she suddenly asked what's wrong. She is really good at pursuing me, so I was forced to say that my quirk grew after minutes of talking."
Neji deadpanned. "You didn't tell her about the potion… right?"
She rapidly shook her head. "No, no, I didn't! You told me not to. I can hold on to that at least!"
'Well, I told you not to tell anyone about the Quirk Growth either.' Neji thought in his mind, sighing.
Only Nejire's changes are what would be visible to the naked eye, as she now had a somewhat Super Strength and more durable body. But Momo's wasn't something that anyone would be able to guess unless she blatantly said so herself.
If news goes out that the people around Neji are suddenly growing stronger, stronger than most heroes even, then someone like Principal Nezu would surely get suspicious.
He would be certain Neji has more of those magical potions.
Looking at her guilty face, Neji sighed deeply. "Girl, you'd someday get me into big trouble, y'know. You better learn to hide things from your mother, or we would someday get fucked."
She nodded swiftly with an apologetic look on her face. "I will think of something… don't worry."
Neji stared at her for another few seconds before patting her head softly.
'Why does someone like her have such low common sense.'
It never failed to astonish Neji.
—★—
The next match was between Tetsutetsu and Bakugo, Neji and Momo didn't go there in person and just saw the fight happen in the Monitor in the waiting room.
It was an interesting fight as Bakugo could quite literally melt Tetsutetsu's body if he gets the chance to land enough blows, but at the same time, Tetsutetsu would win the moment he gets a hold of Bakugo.
So it was a cat-and-mouse game, but in the end, Bakugo won as expected.
Then, at last, the battle between the top 4 started.
There was a 10 minutes break for everyone, and after that Neji finally left the waiting room for the Arena when Present Mic called his and Todoroki's name.
On his way, a certain someone stepped out from an alley.
"Hey."
No.2 Pro Hero, Endeavour, said, stepping in front of Neji like a mountain.
"There you are."
Endeavour, standing at 195cm, easily towered Neji's 183cm build.
<Tier 6 – Enji Todoroki>
As Neji stared at the huge man, Endeavour crossed his arms and looked down on Neji with his eyes flaming red.
"An amazing quirk you have there. I can tell that you haven't even used your full power from your last matches." He said as fire danced in his face. "You are clearly the strongest in your year. But…"
His face suddenly burned hotter. "My boy Shoto has a duty to surpass All Might, and so shall he surpass you. His match against you will provide a valuable lesson. For that reason…" His eyes locked on Neji and burned as if he was glaring. "Give your all, hold nothing back, and show him he is nothing without his left side."
His last words brought silence in the hallway as Neji simply stared at the older man before a soft grin formed on his face.
"Why should I go out of my way to give my all and reveal my cards for the whole world to see?" Neji said. "I don't get what UA is doing. Trying to intimidate the lower rank villains by showing off their students, maybe? But do they not realise that the actual big shots are getting more than enough information on us future heroes? Making counter-strategies against us would be a piece of cake for villains in the future." Neji let the words settle as he continued. "Moreover, not like Todoroki would be able to take even the current power I showed. Then tell me, why should I go out of my way to use my full power?"
Endeavour's story reminded Neji of his past life's mother. Which caused complicated feelings to rise in him. But Neji was, in the end, just provoking him. He already planned to make Todoroki use his left side.
Provoking the man gave him a slight satisfaction. Though his mother would have called him a pushover for this.
After glaring at Neji for a few seconds, Endeavour was about to speak again, but Neji opened his mouth first.
"You know what? Okay, fine. I will make him use his left side." Neji slipped his hand in his pocket and took out his phone.
This phone was in his inventory, of course, as he had put his actual one in the waiting room because of the upcoming match.
He then smiled broadly at Endeavour. "In exchange, let me take some selfies, alright? Oh, you must smile at the pictures. I am actually a really big fan."
It was not entirely a lie. Cheering for the underdog was sometimes a good feeling. Though he would always like All Might more, that dude was anything but unlikeable.
Endeavour was a shitty parent, but so were many people in the multiverse. Goku was a trash parent, but nobody gave him hate for that. Neji ignored both his and Endeavour's personal life, none of that concerned the current him. After all, it was also true that as a Hero, Endeavour was not any less badass than All Might.
'I mean just look at his costume.'
He smiled as Endeavour stared at him with widened eyes, before grumbling.
—★—
Neji walked up the arena a bit later than Todoroki who stood on the other side of the arena.
But that could be ignored because of the stunning pictures he got.
"Boy, you are late." Midnight said, her right hand on her waist. "Another 30 seconds and the other boy would have ended up winning by default."
Neji turned his head at her and winked softly. "Oh? And you would have let that happen? Do you not care about your favourite student's results?"
Midnight blinked twice at him before smiling seductively. "My, I am still a teacher, you know~ I can't actively break the rules, can I now?"
Todoroki blankly stared at the two conversing from the sidelines as Midnight cleared her throat at the realisation.
"Anyway kids, your match starts now!!"
Saying so, she jumped backwards, taking a very safe distance and starting to observe the fight.
Immediately, Todoroki swiped his right hand from down to up, as in front of him spikes of ice formed and rushed towards Neji forging a mountain in its path.
The mountain approached Neji who raised his palm in the air slowly. Golden rings of unrestrained shockwaves burst out of his palm, crashing right into the ice and shattering it into pieces.
At impact, the mountain of ice crashed and broke down with the sound of glass shattering.
Todoroki didn't stop and continued the same technique for the next 5 breaths just as Neji continued defending casually. But by then, his body had started to tremble which was only visible to Neji, as the shivering was too light.
"You would catch a cold at this rate, why not use your left," Neji said with his hands in his pockets. "Your dad came to me when I was walking here, therefore why I was late."
Todoroki's eyes widened as Neji continued. "I don't know what problem you are facing in your family, but you can't win with just your ice."
Not like he'd be able to win even with his fire side, but that's beyond the point.
Neji shrugged, "Your right side is cool. White hair and everything, but if you believe you can surpass your father, let alone All Might, then you are dreaming-"
Neji's speech was interrupted by a shout from Todoroki as another barrage of ice rushed at him.
This time Neji let the ice come closer to his face and when it was his arm's range he simply slapped it with the back of his hand. The slap was soft, but the impact was strengthened hundreds of times using his shockwave.
The ice blasted away like dust as a cold wind blew in the arena.
Neji sighed. "I am not good at motivational speeches, so I guess that's it. People won't like the match being dragged like this when the winner is clear, so I will end it here. Though I expected more from you after that bold challenge... but eh, whatever."
Neji raised his palm in the air as Todoroki's eyes followed… before widening.
Above their head, above the arena, golden shockwave energy was flowing like a river. The massive mass spun, twisted, and whirled like a vortex.
That has been gathering above them whilst Neji was talking. Todoroki didn't pay attention.
The crowd, seeing Neji raise his palm in the air, cheered, as Todoroki clenched his jaws.
From the size of that vortex, there was no way to avoid it other than jumping out of the arena. But that would disqualify him.
Neji, seeing him contemplate, nodded. "This has the weight of an earthquake and the power of a tornado. Against this attack even your flame wouldn't do any good, but you would be able to survive with an igloo of ice, probably. Heh, guess your ice isn't so bad after all."
His eyes locked with Shoto's as he grinned. "Good luck."
Then his arm descended.
"«Gold Dragon's Dance». That's what I call it."
In a massive force of destruction energy, the swirling vortex came crashing down on the arena, engulfing both Neji and Todoroki, who had by then hidden inside an igloo made of ice.
But Neji could control the tide of the wave to not touch his own skin, and even then, he had the Passive skill [Shockwave Resistance - Level 80]. He would be more than fine.
But Todoroki...
As if a giant dragon had roared, the sky shook and the arena crumbled down. The whole stadium trembled against the massive force while Present Mic's voice came out muffled.
The entire crowd still managed to cheer and shout as the Gold Dragon's Dance continued.
It was truly as if a dragon was dancing, crumbling everything below its feet and destroying wherever it stepped.
The dance didn't last long since it drained a lot of Neji's power and he had to make sure to not spend all right here, but the few seconds it lasted, it had already crushed the arena into dust.
Now the arena that was raised a few feet higher from the ground, was dissolved against the ground except for Neji who stood on a small round platform made from the remaining arena.
The dust cleared gradually while Neji stood with his hands in his pockets, waiting for either Midnight to announce the winner or… for Todoroki to stand up.
The latter is what happened.
From the debris of dust-covered ice, Todoroki stood up, bleeding. Ice was penetrating many parts of his body, but none of them hit any of his vitals. His skin was cut here and there, his shirt torn off, and his body covered in white ice.
He wasn't dead, but from his freezing body, he was about to.
That attack was one of the strongest attacks that Neji had developed only recently, in the past two weeks. If Neji put enough power, it could seriously injure someone like Ryukyu who specialised in defence.
But Todoroki survived.
Both because Neji didn't put in enough power, and also because he didn't want the kid to be buried under ice, so he controlled the tide to not focus on the ice too much.
Now, from under the debris, as Todoroki stood up with his back hunched, his skin pale like a dead body, and his bare chest was out in the open, something started to change around him.
Instead of giving up the fight, as Neji had expected, Todoroki finally used his left side. There was no need for any deep motivational speech this time yet slowly from Todoroki's pale skin, hot orange flame started to spark up.
"You are giving your all…" He said in a ragged voice. "I will honour that with my own full power."
His left hand blasted as he swiped it upwards at Neji.
The crowd cheered.
Neji stood in his spot, his hands in his pocket still just as a small smile slowly crept upon his face.
"Good heavens, that's hot."
The fire crashed into him, but a wall of shockwave burst out from in front of him.
The wave of hot flame hit the wall, going either side of it, as Neji stood behind it like a man beholding a shield.
The cheer of the crowd grew louder.
Neji's shockwave was becoming easier and easier to control now. He wasn't limited to just shooting them out anymore, and in fact, could apply it to many more things after awakening.
This was one of them.
Now, the shockwave acted like an energy of its own, as it was from the beginning, except for the fact that he could actually manipulate it freely now. It was like bending water. Neji believed after using the Quirk Evolution Card, he'd finally unlock his "Energy Manipulation" power. That's when things would truly go wild, but for now….
This was more than enough.
Neji raised both his arms horizontally in the air as the pillar of fire passing beside him started to chill out bit by bit.
Around his raised palms, golden shockwaves started to dance. Unlike usual, when golden rings left his palms, this time golden shockwave concentrated in front of his palms into a bright shining ball, a ball that enlarged and took the size of a football.
This was «Gold Dragon's Breath». The 2nd technique of his "Gold Dragon Attack Set" that he made in the last two weeks.
The moment Todoroki's fire calmed down, the wall in front of Neji dropped as he pushed power into the ball. The ball shone and expanded and from it, a beam of golden shockwave dashed out.
Neji controlled the beam to enlarge since if it stays so narrow it would simply penetrate and kill Todoroki. Instead, as the beam approached the half-cold-half-hot boy, the beam expanded, bigger than his body, and engulfed him in the next instant.
Pain, extreme pain, shot out from every inch of Todoroki's body as the shockwave raged above his skin and vibrated even his cells.
A loud cry of pain left Todoroki as he was unable to attack with anything else.
The storm of golden breath ended, sparks slowly dimmed out, and Todoroki's body simply fell to the ground, limp and unconscious.
Neji's breathing came a bit ragged, the two new types of attacks were mentally a bit straining. He then looked at Midnight who stared at the destroyed arena in awe. Noticing Neji's gaze she blushed softly, unlike her usual self, and cleared her throat.
"W-with that, ladies and gentleman, Neji Hado takes another win!!"
There was silence this time from the crowd, but as Neji raised his fist in the air everyone broke in a magnificent cheer.
They yelled Neji's name out loud, applauding his victory while Neji smiled broadly.
There wasn't even a single scratch on his body. But that was to be expected, as Todoroki was but a Tier 3.
Neji walked back inside the dark tunnel, the joy of victory spreading through his body even though he knew it was childish to feel like this from a victory against a weaker opponent.
**
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Author's Note: There'll be regular chapters from now on again. So, uh, vote power stones for poor author's motivation 😳