Chương 10: challenge

"W-what? What is this? W-why can't I use my quirk?"

Tightly bound by the golden chains, Jiro Kyoka and Kaminari Denki were the most scared they had ever been in their lives. The feeling of losing their quirks, something they had had their whole lives, was not dissimilar to the loss of eyesight or one of their limbs. As such, it was understandable for them to panic. Not wanting to traumatize the youths, I hurriedly dispelled the chains before calling over Momo and leaving the premises, as this match was our victory.

As we left the building, I thought about how I wasn't looking forward to the bombardment of questions I would receive from the ever-so-curious Midoriya. 'but,' I thought. 'I guess that's the price for showing off.'

It seemed my companion, Momo, had a few questions of her own.

"What exactly did you do? How did we win so quick?"

"It was easy. I just incapacitated those guys and disabled their quirks."

"You can do that?!"

"Of course, wanna see?"

"...S-sure." She nodded.

I summoned a single golden chain and bound her with it. Immediately, she widened her eyes as she realized she was unable to use her quirk. Surprisingly, she was less scared than I thought she would be.

"So, how does this work, exactly?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. Magic, I guess."

She smiled wrily. I freed her from Enkidu's grasp, after which she asked: "You can do all these amazing things, but what exactly is your quirk?"

I smiled. "You know how I said our quirks were similar? Well, It's not exactly like that. It's hard to explain. Just know that I can do pretty much anything."

"That's pretty vague, isn't it?"

"Well, when you're as awesome as me, it doesn't really matter," I said before winking playfully, causing the large foreheaded, large bosomed girl to blush mildly.

When we finally left the building, I stopped at the entrance. "Go on without me," I said to my teammate. "I'll stay here and check up on the others."

After a little while, Denki and Kyoka walked out of the building, seeming perfectly fine. It was pretty surprising. It seemed most people, including me, were quick to forget that they were also the best of the best.

"Hey, guys! Are you alright? Sorry for finishing it all so quickly. No hard feelings, right?"

"It's all cool, man." the yellow-haired, energetic youth said. "But man, you really can do everything with that quirk of yours, huh?" He laughed.

The usually unenthusiastic Kyoka nodded her head. "It's fine. It was all part of the exercise."

I let out a relieved sigh, thankful that they didn't seem to care about the temporary loss of their powers. After all, I didn't want to ruin relations with my fellow students, especially so early into the school year. That thought gave me an idea.

"Oh, by the way, I'm planning to hold a small party after school, with the entire class. You two wanna come?"

As expected, Kaminari was quite ecstatic.

"Heck yeah, I'm always down to party."

The more quiet Jiro also agreed.

"Sounds fun. Do you want us to bring anything?"

"Nah, don't worry about all of that. I'm rich. Just bring yourselves." Oh, right, I'm pretty sure All Might is going to wanna talk to me, so can you do me a favor and tell the others? Don't forget Bakugo and Todoroki as well. If they don't feel like it, say I'll talk in detail about my powers. Oh, and if you can't find my place, ask Midoriya. We're neighbors. All right, we should probably head back."

After rambling on for a while, I finally felt like it was enough, and we hurried back to the rest of the group. When we arrived, All might quickly concluded the class and sent everyone home. I, however, was to stay behind to talk, as expected. It seemed the large man finally could not his questions any longer.

When the rest of the class had left, me and All Might sat alone in a small room filled with screens. It was the room through which the students and teacher could spectate the mock battles held previously. It was quite spacious, yet for some reason dimly lit.

"So, young Adam, how is life at U.A. highschool treating you?"

I pondered over his question for a bit. "Well, It's not bad at all, sir. It's a quality school. I'm just not being challenged, both academically and with hero activities." I answered in a more formal, respectful tone than I would with my fellow students. After all, we were not close, and he was still my superior, even if just in name.

"Haha! Well, that is not surprising from someone of your caliber. Now, do you know the reason why I wanted to talk with you?"

"I'd assume it's because of my quirk, sir."

"Correct, young man. You see, your homeroom teacher and I noticed we have no idea what your power actually is. Speaking of your homeroom teacher, he should be here any minute." And lo and behold, Mr. Aizawa entered the room, still looking as homeless as ever. "Hello, Adam. To help you as best as we can on your journey to becoming a hero, we would like you to tell us as much as you can about your quirk." He said in his classic emotionless voice.

I would usually be against telling such information. I knew, however, that the intentions of the duo were honest, so I complied.

"Sure, I guess I could do that. It's hard to explain, but there are two components to my quirk, a passive one and an active one." All Might leaned in closer, and even Aizawa showed an intrigued expression, which was rare. "Please elaborate," All Might said. I continued my explanation.

"The passive component is what I like to call "Divine body." It enhances physical attributes such as strength, speed, agility, stamina, and the like, and it gives me superior intelligence. But I assume Mr. Aizawa noticed all of this during the quirk assessment test, right?" He nodded

"Well then, onto the exciting stuff! The active component of my quirk, what I like to call the "Gate of Babylon." This one is hard to explain, but it basically is a personal dimension, which contains an almost unlimited number of powerful weapons and artifacts. I can summon the artifacts for personal use, or I can fire them at high speeds. I have a large number of regular weapons such as swords, axes, spears, etcetera, but I also have a large variety of unique weapons. One of them is the chains I used a while ago, Enkidu. Speaking of, you haven't seen those yet, have you, Mr. Aizawa?" He shook his head.

"To keep is short, it's a set of powerful chains that can both pierce and bind an opponent. Anyone bound by these chains will be unable to use their quirk until release. It's even more powerful than your "erasure" quirk, as I don't have to keep staring at an enemy for it to work. Once bound, you stay bound until I feel like releasing you. Pretty cool, right? Well, that's not even the most powerful weapon in my arsenal. If I used 'that,' even you, All Might, couldn't possibly hope to defeat me."

All Might let out a confident chuckle. "Now now, young man. I get that you are strong, but overconfidence can be the downfall of any hero." As amiable as All Might was, he still had his pride. As strong as the kid before him was, the title of no.1 hero was not for show, or so he thought.

Seeing his reaction as a challenge, I grinned confidently.

"You know, we ARE in a large, empty training facility. Why don't we go outside, And I'll show you why you could never hope to defeat me." I paused, for effect.

"I'll show you EA."