章節 17: U.A Festival (Part 3)
-Narrator POV-
Even though daylight, the arena lits up as Kaminari activates his electric coil. He's aware to not underestimate anybody, much less one he wasn't got a clue what her powers are. The sounds of electric current near cover the ones made by the audience, avidly waiting for the show to start. It's time for the payoff of all those days of training.
Kaminari jumps foward straight at Shiozaki! Shiozaki faces away from Kaminari much to everyone's dismay. Soon they will understand why as she holds her hands together, her vine-like hair extends beyond their normal size and pierce the ground, creating a shield like barrier made of vines. What neither Shiozaki nor any of the spectators realized, is that Kaminari's front dash was a feint.
Kaminari's speed increased to near subsonic levels thanks to his training, what seemed like Kaminari dashing foward was his afterimage. A simple tactic to make Shiozaki reveal her powers.
"Vines, eh? Quick enough to react to the speed of electricity." Kaminari had figure it out her type of quirk and her reaction speed.
"Now for the offensive capabilites." Kaminari dashes once gain, this time slow enough to be noted by Shiozaki, who encased herself into a vine cocoon to avoid the attack. Kaminari touches the vine cocoon and electrocutes it, the sound so loud it echoes throughout the arena. Pain signals fire rapidly as he notices the vines' thornes pierced his skin. He retreats back to his starting position, in front of the vine shield. During this time, Kaminari continues to increase the power of his electric coil.
"Got it. She knows my quirk enough to pierce her Vines into the ground and make a lightning rod, rendering my electricity useless to be fired at them. Have to up the spee-"
The ground of the arena shakes below Kaminari's feet, soon hundreds of vines are summoned from the ground below and swarm him, wrapping around his body, lifting him into the air. She got him.
"So she can also detach her vines and create more... No doubt the entire arena became her turf the moment she defended from my first feint. What a powerful quirk..."
Kaminari stood in the air, the thornes pressing against his body as the vines slowly squeezed him tight. Kaminari tried in vain once more to shock the vines, but nothing came of it. It seemed like the end is near for him.
"I can't shock her from the vines, lifting me up in the air negates my speed and the thornes are a way to make me submit through pain... There's no other way..." Kaminari thinks to himself.
"Referee-sama, he's not able to continue, call it." Shiozaki refers to Midnight, perhaps she thinks the battle has already been decided. Midnight looks at Kaminari, finding odd that the boy is with his mouth wide open, looking at the side of the vine shield, as if this wasn't enough weirdness, she also wondered why her hair begun to stand on end.
"This is gonna suck..." Kaminari braces for the pain as he closes his mouth shut hard. The shut creates a spark of electricity that, as if a flame touches gas, soon transforms into a full on lightning bolt wire that traverses the arena around the vine shield and right into Shiozaki's flank.
*ZZZZCRACK*
The deafening sound of thunder made the even the farthest spectators cover their ears as the rumble ludly echoed across the Stadium! The structure of stadium itself vibrated as even Midnight had trouble keeping her balance. Her ears were ringing but managed to look what had transpired.
The vines crumbled, Kaminari was at the ground with his hand covering his mouth, squirming as if he was under lots of pain as tiny trails of smoke were emmanating from his mouth. Looking over to the other side, Shiozaki was bent over, her hand covering the burn caused by the electrical discharge. The vine shield had also crumbled, looked like the earlier attack made her lose control over her creations.
Kaminari tried his best to not cry at the pain, his entire mouth was burnt, the sudden plasma heat was too much to bear. He looked over to see the same as Midnight, including Shiozaki. Trying his best to fight through the pain, he electrified himself once more, the fight was not done, not for him.
Spectators grew concerned that the boy would injure Shiozaki even more, some pleaded for the fight to be over, others turned away as Kaminari ran at Shiozaki's direction, fearing for the worst outcome. Even Cementoss was an inch closer to stop the fight.
Kaminari stopped half a meter from Shiozaki, who tried her best efforts to activate her quirk but to no avail, the pain was too much to handle. Kaminari raised both of his arms and she could only turn her face, expecting an attack.
Imagine her surprise when he lifted her up instead, princess carrying her out of bounds. What to many looked as if it was the killing blow, was instead a show of sportsmanship.
"Kaminari passes on to the second round!" Midnight announced as the crowd cheered. Between the appraisal of spectators, Present Mic and future contestants, Kaminari was proud of his results.
"I apologize for the pain I've caused you, Shiozaki." Kaminari says with a smile on his face.
Shiozaki blushes and looks away.
"No-... No problem. Please put me on the medical strecher, this is embarassing." Her plead struck Kaminari like a lightning bolt, to be carrying her on his arms was severly inappropriate. He desperately rushed over to the medical cart, carefully placing her on it before leaving the arena as well.
"Even though he faced a natural counter of his quirk, he managed to win." One spectator spoke, impressed by Kaminari's results.
"The boy is more brain than brawns, I will give him that." Another spectator agreed.
"He analyzed her quirk and then devised a proper plan to defeat her." A third one exclaims.
Soon Kaminari exits the arena and makes his way to the infirmary to treat his burns.
...
"Those were some nasty burns, sweetheart, but they will be treated in no time. I suggest you don't do this anymore until you have more resistance to heat." Recovery Girl assures Kaminari as she heads over to Shiozaki.
Kaminari ponders about what Recovery girl said. Indeed, he was hurting himself too much, feet blisters and now his mouth, even before he suffered severe burns at the Villain raid, heat resistance training is a no brainer after the Festival.
He was soon cleared and went back to the stands, just in time to witness Kirishima's match. On the way, he heard weeping, didn't took long until he found Yaoyorozu sitting on the floor.
"Yaoyorozu?" He caught her by surprise, she tried her best to hide it but to no avail, Kaminari had already figure it out by the time he got closer.
"Do you want to be left alone?" Kaminari wanted to know if she was okay but also not intrude on her privacy. She merely nodded sideways, indicating his presence was okay, trying her best to hold back her feelings. He got closer, leaning against the wall.
"Congratulations on your victory, Kaminari-san. I am sure you feel proud of your results, I only wish I could say the same for myself." Her frustration can be touched, Kaminari knew that feeling, the feeling of not being enough, no matter how hard he trained.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kaminari took a relaxed tone approach, the way he would want someone to approach him if he was in the same situation.
"All I managed to do was cower behind a shield, it was all I could do, Tokoyami-san had no problems at all, it made me feel like all those weeks of training were over nothing." She clenched her fists and bit her lower lip. "Had I trained harder, or I had a poweful quirk like yours, I would be successful!"
"Successful, huh? It's odd that we have such different opinions." Kaminari leaves a faint smile escape. This intrigues Yaoyorozu.
"How so?" She asks, wondering what he's refering to.
"My quirk looks powerful in combat because I trained way too much for it to be that way. Your quirk is versatile, which for me is the greatest trait a quirk can have, you're a jack of all trades, any situation you will excel at. Me? Not so much." Kaminari looks at Yaoyorozu, who pays attention at his words.
"If it's so versatile, I would be the victor..." Yaoyorozu is not convinced.
"If it was that simple your help would be meaningless. It took me years to hit the spot that made me the way I am. And I failed so much that it dwarfs my number of victories, I still needed help, and if it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't win."
"Sometimes I wonder if you realize how much of an impact you made to me. I would've had speed blitzed Shiozaki and possibly killed her without you. I know I like the victory but not like this... With your help, I managed to temper my quirk and the rest is history."
Yaoyorozu looked at the floor, he reflects about his words.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that defeat is a hard pill to swallow, it's bitter, it doesn't taste good, but it will help you be better."
Yaoyorozu stood quiet, still looking at the floor, Kaminari still wonders if he did the right thing, said the right words, he hates to see a friend in such situation. As he motioned to get up the floor, Yaoyorozu interceded.
"Could you... Stay here a little longer?" Her request made Kaminari stop.
"Of course. Take the time you need, we will go when you're ready."
And so they did, not one word was exchanged between them for several minutes, Kaminari could still hear the buzzing from the crowd outside, wondering if Kirishima was faring okay.
"Kaminari-kun..." Yaoyorozu broke the silence. Kaminari looked at her, he could notice a faint blush on her cheeks.
"Yes?" Perhaps she's ready to go as she leans closer to him, maybe to held on his shoulder to help her stand, he thought. Soon would prove to be false as she leaned even closer. A secret? But there's no one here, why would she have to whisper? Even more close, mere inches from his face and still going. Alas, it may not be her desire to speak after all...
"There you are!" A random voice across the corner startles both of them. As they look over, the clear silhouette of Jirou is recognizable.
"I was looking all over the place for you two, Uraraka's match is starting, hurry up!"
Yaoyorozu looks one last time at Kaminari before standing up and rushing to the stands, with him following behind.
What was she trying to do? What would have happened had Jirou not appeared? No matter, it would be immature to think about this any longer. Kaminari went to speak with Jirou.
"So Kirishima won?" He asks Jirou, but no answer is given. He finds it odd, but only a mean look was all he received as Jirou fastened her pace, leaving Kaminari behind, confused.
...
Back at the stands, he sat alongside Tokoyami, as the girls huddled together. The next match was worrisome as Uraraka had to fight Bakugou of all people, whose dictionary had no knowledge at the words "mercy" and "holding back".
"Congratulations on your victory, Kaminari." Tokoyami took him by surprise.
"Thank you, Tokoyami, as do I for yours." He's not faking it, although sad for Yaoyorozu, he won fairly.
"Your strategy to win your match was very ingenious, how did you manage it?" Tokoyami, much like Midoriya, is curious to know how Kaminari managed to attack from long range, since his powers limit him to close combat.
"Well, thanks to some very much needed help, I developed a technique that consists in turning the enviroment into electric charged field over time whenever I activate my electric coil, caused by my accumulated energy that I passively store within my body. Soon this electric field is strong enough to surpass air's natural resistance and I'm able to make an electrical discharge." Kaminari's explanation soon caughts the attention of many. Midoriya's taking notes at a fast pace.
"But Kaminari-san, even if you can surpass the air's insulator capabilites, an electric current still follows the path of least resistance, and this means it doesn't guarantee a direct hit, how did you do that?" Midoriya's question is spot on.
"My blood." Kaminari showed the palm of his hand, the spots where the thornes had pierced them were still visible.
"My blood is heavily ionized because of my quirk, so it becomes almost like a laser target designator with the right conditions. When I attacked Shiozaki's vines, the thornes pierced the palm of my hand and blood got it on the vines. Finally, she didn't detached those vines that had my blood on it, so when the electric field was charged enough to break the insulator barrier, my blood became the guide line for the path of least resistance, that is why the electrical discharge went around the vine shield and connected to my blood." Kaminari continued.
He could go on and on, at how he needed to create positive charges at his upper and lower jaws so he could initiate the discharge as his hands were trapped, how the resulting discharge was still weak enough to not severely harm Shiozaki, but he got his point through as the class stands in awe.
"I-Incredible!" Tokoyami is amazed at Kaminari's deep knowledge and such progress around his quirk, as are the other students. "To know so much and implement it on your quirk is a tremendous feat of intelligence."
"Thank you, please don't think I developed this all by myself, I had some very much needed help." Kaminari looked over to Jirou, who was paying attention to his explanation but looked away when they made eye contact.
"It will begin." Ilda refers to the next match, soon all the attention is back to the arena. Kaminari can't help but to cheer for Uraraka to win.
"Eight match, start!" Present Mic shouts as Uraraka rushes at Bakugou!
...
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