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[The Infamous Rockinesis]
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| Days later… |
…
Taka and Jiro sat together at a table during lunch period, chatting casually as they ate from their lunch boxes.
"So, have you studied for U.A.'s written exam?" She asked, looking up from her food. "I'm not feeling very confident, to be honest. It's the top school in Japan, you know? No matter how much you study, they always find you lacking at something."
Taka didn't react much. He merely looked up from his food for a moment before continuing to eat normally as he answered. "I'm studying, but in case things don't work out, I'll just score the top spot in the practical exam. That way, even if I screw up on the written one, they won't be able to refuse me."
"You're seriously declaring you'll take the top spot?" Jiro pointed her chopsticks at him, her eyes skeptical. "I mean, your Quirk seems strong, but come on, it's U.A.—there's bound to be people with all sorts of crazy Quirks. How can you be so sure you can outshine them?"
Taka let out a calm huff, eyes closed, unfazed by Jiro's words. "Just because All Might graduated from there doesn't mean everyone's at his level."
He popped a bite of food into his mouth, chewed, then grew a little more serious.
"And even if there are strong people there… I'll just be stronger."
"That's some hell of a confidence." Jiro gave a wry laugh, idly rubbing one of her earlobes. "I have my Quirk in high regard, but even I'm not that confident in getting in."
"You overestimate them too much," Taka snorted. Then his tone softened. "But if you're that worried, just prepare the best you can."
"How?"
"Training, obviously."
Jiro winced, looking at Taka oddly. "Using our Quirks in public is illegal, you know?"
Taka raised an eyebrow. "… No one would see if you practiced at home."
"Still feels a bit illegal." She mumbled under her breath.
He huffed, annoyance slipping into his tone. "Well, either prepare and face the exam knowing you gave it your all, or accept whatever result you get, knowing you could've done more."
Jiro froze, chopsticks hovering halfway to her mouth. Moments later, she pulled them back and seemed to think Taka's words over.
But just as the silence stretched, another of Taka's comments came, "But I don't know what you're really fussing about. Your Quirk's solid. It'd be strange if you failed."
'Even more so when you passed in the original show.' He thought inwardly.
"Really? Well, if you say so…" she muttered, sheepish from the sudden vote of confidence.
Luckily, before things turned awkward—at least for Jiro—a group of girls approached.
"Jiro-chan, there you are!"
"We were waiting to have lunch together!"
"This is?" One of them squinted at Taka suspiciously.
"I think I've seen him around. Same year but different class."
"Could it be... Jiro-chan! You've got a—"
-SLAM!-
Jiro shot up, slamming her hands on the table, face faintly tinged red with frustration and embarrassment.
"He's a friend I made recently!"
The girls blinked at her outburst, then turned to glare at Taka. He just blinked back at them calmly and kept eating.
Suspicion lingered in them.
"Hmm~ why so suddenly? I don't think I've ever seen Jiro-chan hanging with anyone from the other classes." The girl in front smirked, glancing between the two of them.
Jiro's voice shot defensive. "Ugh... That's 'cause this guy's going to U.A. too! Come on, Takahashi, say something."
"Hey."
"Say something more than 'hey'!"
"What's up?"
"This guy—!" Jiro groaned.
Meanwhile, the girls exchanged confused looks.
"You're going to U.A.? The hero course?!"
Taka nodded.
"Cool!"
"Someone who's actually aiming for U.A.! I thought Jiro-chan would be the only one at our school."
"What's your Quirk? Just so you know, Jiro-chan's Quirk is amazing. She might give you a hard time if you face each other."
Jiro rubbed the side of her cheek, mumbling, "It's not that amazing…"
Instead of answering, Taka let go of his chopsticks mid-way through his mouth.
Normally, they would have fallen and sent the food stuck between them flying everywhere.
But to everyone's surprise, they remained stuck in place, as if frozen in time, floating in the air.
Then, to top it off, they began feeding Taka off his bento, as if they had a life of their own. Earning gasps from everyone save Jiro, who simply smiled faintly.
"Telekinesis?" one girl asked.
Taka nodded.
"How strong is it? Can you lift me in the air?"
Taka nodded.
"That's an amazing Quirk!"
Taka nodded.
"That's like Rockinesis' power!"
Taka was about to nod again, but blinked in confusion as a stranger's name popped up.
"Who?"
Jiro's smiling face turned shocked as her head snapped at him. "You don't know him?!"
Taka shook his head, tilting it faintly.
Quickly, she pulled out her phone, scrolled, then shoved the screen in his face.
His eyes twitched faintly at what he saw.
{"So what if you can see the dark inside of me!"}
It was him—playing his new song at the incident a few days ago.
However, already a master of his act, he managed to keep his poker face despite the little eye twitch.
"A singer?" he asked, acting clueless.
"So you really don't know?!" Jiro said, taking her phone back. "He's a vigilante who's been hitting it lately online! He raids hero and villain fights just to play his songs!"
Taka stayed silent with his usual poker face, as if prompting Jiro to continue explaining.
She did, eagerly at that. "Well, I suppose it's not that crazy you don't know him. He wasn't that well known until a few days ago, when he actually took down a villain, then proceeded to defeat a team of heroes and run away from an entire batch of police officers as they tried to arrest him!"
"Yeah, it was all over the news!" One of the girls commented, sounding almost offended.
Taka averted his gaze, looking a bit disinterested. "I don't usually watch the news."
However, he was forced to look back when Jiro shoved her phone in his face again. This time, she showed the news footage of him flying away from dozens of vehicles, along with sporadic short clips of him handling the three heroes, like slamming Pidgael into the ground, flicking Hand Breakable, or leaving Plasma Pop stranded in a building once he crushed the helicopter's propellers.
Taka had to suppress his smirk as he saw himself on screen, beating down the heroes with ease.
'Damn I'm cool.'
While Taka struggled to hide the arrogance bubbling up in his chest, Jiro went on with her explanation. "He's been shown lifting all his instruments without touching them, and stopping attacks midway from afar, so it's been speculated he has a Telekinesis Quirk like you do, hence the nickname Rockinesis, since he also plays rock songs at his shows."
Taka nodded.
'It's not a bad name… I think.'
"Honestly, for a moment I thought your Quirk was kind of similar, since both are literally lifting things from afar," Jiro suddenly said, chuckling wryly. "But after the incident he was involved in days ago, it became clear his Quirk is not quite Telekinesis."
"Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. It was crazy!" One of the girls chimed in.
"I felt my mouth drop when I saw it live." Another said, looking excited as she recalled it.
Taka was a tad confused.
He'd been worried they would figure out his identity as Rockinesis for a moment, but it turns out they had already discarded him as a candidate.
Why though?
Fortunately, Jiro was quick to explain.
"You see, during the last part of the pursuit, Rockinesis ended up being confronted by a pretty strong hero, Super Monkey, you know him?"
Taka did his best to hide his sour expression.
"Yes."
Jiro nodded, continuing. "That guy, even though his costume is ridiculous and he stupidly seeks to rank 69th in the hero rankings on purpose when he could very easily rank higher, he's quite strong. Even Rockinesis ended up being thrashed once he clashed with that guy, despite having dealt with three heroes himself earlier."
'I wouldn't say thrashed.' Taka complained inwardly.
"But then, just as it seemed they were about to arrest him for good… he goes and disappears! Just like that, no explanation, no warning, he suddenly began vanishing, as if he was ceasing to exist."
"He died?" Taka asked, feigning confusion.
"No no, that's the thing. His channel uploaded a recording of him doing his show not too many hours after he seemingly vanished, so he's hardly dead. Thanks to that, there's talk online that says he has a cloning Quirk, or something with similar properties. Some speculate that's why his flight speed suddenly slowed down so much after entering a parking lot during the pursuit and disappearing for a few minutes. Because he'd been a clone, one with a fraction of the power of the original, who calmly slipped away as the police chased after a decoy!"
Jiro finally finished explaining, looking exhausted but otherwise a bit too excited.
"You sure know a lot, huh?" Taka commented, a bit speechless.
The group of girls giggled in response to his comment.
"Jiro-chan is quite the fangirl of that guy. She's been pestering us about him from day one, when he made his appearance."
"Yeah, she's the one who keeps us up to date with whatever crazy thing that guy has done."
"Shut up, all of you! I'm not a fangirl, he's just… you know, he's like a rockstar while also being a hero at the same time. He's practically the vivid image of what I'd like to do with my life!"
"He's a vigilante, you know?" one of them said.
She snapped her head toward her, looking frustrated. "Yeah, but he hasn't injured anyone, and even during the fight a few days ago, he made sure not to hurt the heroes too badly, even though one of them almost destroyed a whole apartment just because she lost her cool!"
The group of girls looked at each other before sneering and pointing at Jiro with their thumbs. "Like we said, fangirl."
Taka just ate silently, giving Jiro a pitiful gaze.
"Oi, what's with that look?!"
"It's fine, everyone has their likes and dislikes. I don't judge."
"Takahashi, you—!"
…
°
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| Minutes later… |
…
Having finished their lunch, Taka parted ways with Jiro as she went off with her classmates.
He, on the other hand, was casually walking through the hall, passing by countless students without any clear aim. His focus was elsewhere.
'Rockinesis, huh? Maybe I should change the name of my channel to that.'
After all, "the mysterious guitarist" was a bit boring. If he wanted a clear identity that made him more recognizable—and thus let him gain aura more easily—then Rockinesis didn't sound too bad.
Just a bit dumb.
Or was it very dumb?
'Rockinesis... Rooockinesis... Rockinesiis... Rockinesissss... Alright, it lost all meaning now.'
Rolling his eyes, Taka opened his status.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: 83
▸ Defense: 166
▸ Aura Projection: 1897
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Total Aura: 1897
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Skills:
▸Clean
▸Trouble Radar
▸Connoisseur
▸Pain is Just a Feeling
▸Innamovible Object
▸True Speaking
▸True Breathing
▸True Walking
▸Good job beating me… But that was merely a clone!
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
'About a hundred and a half aura gained in just three days, both from passive gains and a few incidents.' He caressed his chin, looking at the number with satisfied eyes.
His passive gains had spiked again, jumping from the 10 per day they had been a month ago to around 25 per day. That meant 5000 aura by the time U.A. started in seven and something months.
And it was no wonder. The clip from his concert a few days ago had already reached 100k views—and it had only been three days.
Albeit, obviously, the views would decline as the days passed, but even then, it was a surprising feat.
But would it really decline?
Right now, he had enough infamy that anything he did would get the media's attention. If he stayed consistent and kept getting involved in things, public awareness wouldn't just hold steady... it might grow even bigger.
Maybe using clones was a good idea too. If he sent them to handle things, not only would he avoid getting tangled or linked to vigilante activity, he'd also maintain a proper level of consistency by not having to overexert himself.
The only problem was the weird feeling that hit once the clones dispersed. He didn't like it, but if it meant farming more aura, he supposed he could deal with it for a while.
Seven months, 5000 aura promised just from passive gains—and even more if his fame grew.
'Well, seems like I've got work to do ahead.' Taka smiled helplessly, already picturing the months ahead filled with countless villain battles, police chases, and concerts in the middle of the street.
But when the moment came to crush everyone at U.A. and finally step into the big game, it would all be worth it.
Taka smirked.
<[+5 Aura]!>
His smile widened a little as another batch of passive earnings came knocking.
His smile froze, however, when the system chimed in again.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[Your Aura has reached the nineteen hundreds! Good work, it must have been one hell of a road. However, you must know by now, the path of the Aura Farmer never ends, and even bigger numbers are awaiting you. For that, it's important to template the body properly to be able to handle it, and for that, being able to make the most efficient use of the energy your body intakes is fundamental!]
Conditions for completion:
▸Consume at least 4000 kcal each day, for an entire week.
▸Drink at least 3 liters of water a day for an entire week.
▸Run at least 1 hour straight daily, for an entire week, and without augmenting your physique using aura.
Reward: +350 aura | Skill gained: [Efficient Body]
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Taka blinked perplexedly as he read the conditions of the mission.
"The fuck is this…?"
...
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: And so, another mission pops up. Like I said earlier, most skills won't be focused straight on amping Taka's power, but on giving different effects and helping with the aura farming. All sorts of miscellaneous skills are ahead.)