章 54: Chapter 54: Tournament's Beginning II
"Now, let's see if you understand the rules! The fights will be 1-on-1 matches, with someone only winning when their opponent is either incapacitated, unable to battle, or lands outside of the ring for whatever reason!
Me and Cementos will be on the field to enforce the rules, any and all villainous actions will result in an ending of the match and immediate disqualification! Am I understood?"
...
After another crack of her whip to reinforce the statement, the 16 students on the field all echoed their understanding.
Pushing up her glasses for a moment, Midnight smiled and licked her lips in a way that just seemed inappropriate at a school event.
"Oh, I just can't wait to see you all try to overcome any and all struggle and hardship~! I'll love seeing each and every one of you out there! Now, everyone but the first participants step off of the field so we may begin!"
With that, Cementos appeared from inside of the stadium and stood next to midnight off to the side while the woman spoke to someone in her earpiece.
Not even a second later, the ground before them split open and revealed a huge chasm, followed by the sound of thunderous rumbling.
A few seconds later, a huge, gridded cement arena with four stone pillars carrying flaming torches at each corner rose from the chasm.
Woah.
This was starting to feel like a tournament arc in an anime at this point!
Walking up to the area and placing his hands on it, Cementos proceeded to create a tall cement throne for himself and a place Midnight to stand and watch the matches.
"Alright! Let's get started!" Midnight cracked her whip again, ushering everyone that wasn't scheduled to fight right now to walk off of the field.
Yeah, Peter doesn't know if he'll be paying attention.
But they're Sports Festival fights, they have to be super awesome, right?
On his way to 1-A's booth, Peter heard Present Mic make wrestling-style introductions for each fighter, but he couldn't really bring himself to pay too much attention.
Kinda brought him back to his cage match days, though.
He and his friends walked up to his class' booth and sat down, Peter listening to Nejire ramble out predictions about the fight even though she didn't even know anything about anyone fighting.
Still, it was nice to hear her talk, you know? Peter didn't know why, though.
It… It was just nice.
"Now, Round One… Begin!" Midnight called, the crowds began to roar as the two students began to run at each other, marking the beginning of the tournament.
God, this was boring.
He dragged his hands down his face with a quiet sight, looking back up at the support student dodging that tall general education guy all around the arena while loudly advertising his support items.
They weren't even that good! He has only gotten so far because the guy he's fighting doesn't have a combat quirk!
Seriously, the guy's jetpack had nearly thrown him out of the ring at least 3 times by now.
Peter could make a better jet pack than that!
Wait, maybe he should make a jet pack! That'd be so cool! He could ask Nejire for advice on how flying worked an-
"Oh, fuck this! I don't care about the hero course that much, I'm out!" The tall guy's voice cut through the stadium, making nearly everyone sigh in relief at the match being over.
As he walked off the arena with his hands in his pockets, Midnight cracked her whip with a little less enthusiasm than normal.
"Uh… Tani Madoka has forfeited! Mochizuki Katsuo moves on to the next round!" There was a bit of reluctance in her voice, but it was drowned out by the support kid cheering loudly even if the match had kinda sucked.
Eh, good for him or whatever.
Peter was just happy it was over.
Oh, wait! He was next up!
At the sudden realization, Peter shot up from his seat while feeling for the mask and goggles in his pocket.
"Still here… sweet." He muttered in English, already in the process of walking out into the hall before being stopped by the feeling of arms around his neck.
And two things on his back.
He really wished he had his mask on right now.
"Good luck, Peter!" Nejire said from behind him, Togata saying the same before joining in on the hug while Amajiki sat there confused as to what to do.
How hot his face felt aside, group hugs were nice!
"Thanks, guys! I'll do my best out there!" He gave a small laugh before his two friends let him go.
Sliding the mask and goggles over his face, Peter took a deep breath as he walked towards one of the stadium entrances, the feeling of the soft fabric over his face giving him a small sense of calm.
Alright, this was it!
He was gonna put on a hell of a show.
Man, he forgot how big the stadium was!
Because, Jesus, was this thing big!
As he stood in the tunnel entrance, Peter couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed by the scale of this whole thing.
Unconsciously, his fingers in both hands flexed a few times, inching closer to the triggers of the black devices on his wrists.
Almost time.
Hope he doesn't embarrass himself or something.
Over on the inside of the stadium, Midnight listened to someone on her earpiece for a moment before nodding to both students in each tunnel.
Deep breaths, Parker! Be cool!
Once he saw how the person on the opposite tunnel began to enter the stadium, Peter began to as well and was met with the most deafening sound he had ever heard.
All around him people cheered them on, there were a decent amount of boos directed at him but that was normal.
They were cheering for him! That was insane!
A lot of people still booed but whatever! People wanted him to win right now!
"Time for the second match of our tournament, everyone! Let's see who we got inside the ring!" Present Mic announced, Peter was sure he heard what sounded like Aizawa grumbling in the background.
As he got closer to the actual arena, the teen began to be able to see his opponent.
A really, really tall girl with was probably the darkest shade of black he's ever seen as a hair color along with bigger muscles than him.
Seriously, she was at least 6'3! It didn't look like she had a mutation quirk so that was pure genetics.
Her physique aside, she flashed him what was probably the kindest smile he's ever seen.
There were so many conflicting factors and he didn't even know what her quirk was.
It was a few seconds before either of them reached the arena, broth standing at opposite ends as the crowds roared.
"She's a master multitasker, along with the definition of being in two places at once! She's 1-B's Kuron Kemuri!"
The crowd erupted into cheers, the girl now known as Kemuri happily waving at everyone around her.
"Then we have UA's resident wall-crawler, coming straight from New York City! 1-A's Peter Parker!"
Just like that, the crowd immediately exploded into cheers with a decent amount of boos in-between.
Still, it warmed his heart a bit when he heard his name being chanted.
"You kids know the rules, right?" Midnight asked, covering her mic and leaning forward a bit.
"Sure do, ma'am!"
"Uh, yeah!"
Hearing this, Midnight smiled genuinely for a moment and uncovered her mic.
"If both combatants are ready, then let's begin!" Once the sound of her whip cracking reached his ears, Peter was already one-fourth of the way over to his opponent.
His plan was simple, really. Tell a few jokes, shoot some webs, jump around and get her out of bounds, you know?
It wasn't the most thought out, but it couldn't really go wrong.
Until it did.
Right before his eyes, the girl interlocked her hands together as a cloud of smoke appeared around her half of the ring.
And then she came out of the smoke.
15 times.
Peter's lenses went wide as he stopped in his tracks, the 15 clones lining up neatly and smirking at him.
That was the clone girl from the 2nd event! Even if he didn't recognize her, he thought she could only clone herself twice!
This was so unfair! She literally has shadow clones!
"Aw, what! Man, I can't close myself! Am I supposed to get you out 15 times!?" Peter's confusion was drowned out by the cheering fans, but everyone close was still able to hear.
With a crack of her whip, Midnight brought all attention to her.
"Due to the nature of Kemuri's quirk, I shall impose an extra rule! If one of her clones go out of bounds or is immobilized, even if it isn't the real her, she loses!"
Ah.
Much better.
Still, like, not that fair making him fight 15 people!
But it was a bit better.
With a small sigh, Peter decided to ditch his initial approach of running at his opponent, taking a moment to rethink his strategy.
His lenses looked to the floor, watching as the multiple copies of Kemuri cast shadows from the sun, which meant they had mass.
This was legit cloning, not just illusions or anything.
If they had mass, that meant they had a presence and could affect other people.
Which meant they could punch him.
Which was… pretty bad.
But if they could punch him, that meant his spider-sense would see them as a threat and warn him.
Which was pretty good!
Small victories, you know?
But still, cloning yourself had to have some sort of drawback, she couldn't just create those copies without spending something.
Maybe stamina? If his theory was correct, then creating clones continuously should tire her out to some degree.
And if he remembered that one ninja show from the 21st century he watched that one time, then they probably weren't as durable as the original one.
So he should just go in and try to immobilize one of the copies to win!
Yeah, that sounded like a plan.
...
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