Shigure stared at the two unconscious bodies. 'Do I head for the centre or not?'
He pulled a watch from his pocket.
Thirty-two minutes left.
'I want to go—but what if I'm forced to use Reversal or drain my energy? One round still remains.'
He imagined a demon and angel on his shoulders, both dressed as Keigo in different outfits.
"Hmmm..."
'Though Nezu told me that the update in the quirk registry is going to be vague, this is still problematic. Even if things go south, I could just make up some things like I can't use Reversal on living people or those who are dead, and there's a time limit of like 1 hr real time of Speed Up or Slow Down and would go cooldown after that.'
The devil Keigo whispered, then drop-kicked the angel version in the gut.
The angel stayed down.
Shigure nodded and made up his mind.
He crept toward the battlefield. The tremors made it easy to locate, even from far off.
It took him 10 minutes to reach the centre without his quirk, avoiding everybody.
"What do we have here?" Shigure readied his staff, eyes on the chaos ahead.
He was standing at the corner. The battle was taking place in an open space—if you ignored the wrecked buildings that used to be there.
On the left, ice blanketed the clearing, scattered with jagged frozen structures.
On the right, visible tornadoes could be seen moving erratically—visible by countless flying objects.
A raven-haired girl soared overhead with what Shigure thought was a mixture of a glider and a jetpack. She was holding weird-looking guns with each hand, occasionally shooting.
"Yeah, this one's out of my league." Shigure instantly understood the sheer magnitude of the battle was out of his reach.
The only way he could be useful in such a battle would be either with his ability to use Reversal to just survive, or even in such a scenario, it'd drain him dry.
Shigure neither had the energy nor the will to participate in such a battle.
AoE battles are not his cup of tea. He would rather fight an enhancer like All Might rather than the people with quirks like these.
'Still… kind of cool. Watching Canon characters tear it up in person? Not bad. I need a popcorn and a safe place where I won't have to keep moving to prevent myself from becoming a casualty.' Shigure sidestepped some metal sharpnel—courtesy of the wind.
The fighters? Shoto Todoroki, Inasa, and Momo.
The former was only using ice, and the latter seems to be messing with the other two, at least that's what Shigure thought.
'My curiosity is fulfilled. Let's leave before I die like a cat.' Shigure started leaving.
"Shigure Hatsune?" He stiffened. 'A fan? It would be really a bummer if your idol eliminated you. Guess, I will just let her off the hook.' Shigure thought while turning around.
"Jiro?" he blurted, before he could stop himself.
The girl's eyes widened. "You know me?" The girl—Kyoka Jiro—looked surprised.
"It's written on your suit." He pointed at her costume's stylish lettering. 'Lucky me. I almost fucked up. Need to shut up.' Shigure cursed himself.
"You surprised me for a second. You didn't mention that you would be participating in these exams, much less about a hero career."
"I was going to do that today, after I pass the exams. Also, we are in Japan, so it should be more appropriate to mention "Hatsune Shigure". Anyway, what's your username? If you are a regular member, I would recognise you." Shigure said all that in one breath. Kyoka heard it all, thanks to her quirk.
"I rarely watch your streams. Mainly the funny clips from yt. Anyway, shall I test your claim about you winning this?" She jammed her earjacks into the gauntlets.
"Hey—" Shigure didn't finish. A sonic blast cut him off. He jumped sideways, barely dodging it.
'Fuck. If I am not careful, I am done.' Shigure tried to close the distance with his quirk. However, Jiro also noticed that and sent several consecutive attacks at him, maintaining the distance.
Moments ago, he feared taking out a fan—now, he was just trying to survive.
"Your heart's going 40 beats a second erratically. What the hell's your quirk?"
"That's a secret for later." Shigure started using his capture weapon as a grappler. 'Though her combat power is impressive, her attacks are predictable even if she is releasing them at the speed of sound. I can dodge most of them without my quirks if I use the buildings around me. Screw the property damage.' Shigure calmly dodged her attacks without using his quirk.
'She has got quite the potential. Then again, guess all people who get into U.A. do. I guess, in the Canon, her potential bloomed due to being the main cast— more specifically with the pressure they dealt with each Canon event. It was inevitable. A friend said even the tail guy cracked the top 30. I still fucking don't know how.'
Lost in thought, he dodged on autopilot. Jiro also noticed that he was not even paying attention to her attacks.
"Guess, there was some truth in your words." She muttered, raising a brow. Internally impressed.
Suddenly, she dropped to the ground and touched the ground with her gauntlets.
Shigure, who was on the ground, got caught up in his thoughts due to the intense vibrations he felt—almost like an earthquake.
"Fuck." He was too late to react as he lost his footing, unable to jump away with a sonic blast coming at him.
'Can't use Speed Up... Or can I? Let's try that.'
He used Speed Up on the ground—
—then stopped.
'Too big for my domain. Can't affect all of it. I'd still fall like a dumbass. I will just use Reversal. At most I could get is some broken bones.' He braced himself for the impact, crossing his hands to protect his head.
Both of them knew that Jiro wasn't attacking him at full impact as they were in a provisional-hero exam, not a provisional-villain exam.
Shigure had also noticed that all the participants till now were mindful about that.
"Huh?" Suddenly, something yanked his staff hard—hard enough to lift him.
He felt his body moving backwards—in the air, but the pull was not strong enough to outspeed the speed of sound, so Shigure used 'Slow Down' on the air in front of him, momentarily slowing them such that he exited their trajectory.
He felt somebody grabbing him from behind.
"So that's why you swapped my normal weapon for this staff. Was that all to get a chance to molest me?" Shigure said without looking back.
He was currently floating in the air. Who was grabbing him from falling was none other than Momo. She had somehow used magnetic force to pull Shigure's staff.
"Molest? Aren't you being too dramatic? But if you don't like it, guess I can't help it." Shigure released the hold on him, dropping him.
"Kidding! I love your hold! Please don't drop me!" He launched his capture weapon up—looped around her ankle just in time.
"The fuck?" Her unique glasses barely masked the disgust. A second of silence passed between them. Luckily, Shigure was facing the other side.
Suddenly, the backpack behind her released slight flames in the right direction, pushing her and the hanging Shigure to the left, dodging an ice lance.
The next second, a sonic blast came at them. Shigure almost used his quirk before feeling a pull on his rescue weapon. Momo yanked him up, grabbed him tightly, and jetted away, dodging the sonic blasts.
"Can't you just give me, you know, a jetpack?" Shigure said, squinting his eyes due to wind pressure and looked at Kyoka, who was sending sonic attacks.
"Waste of energy. Also, didn't you say that you liked my hold?"
"..." Shigure didn't say anything, afraid that she would drop him for real. He was down to 40%—too risky to blow everything now.
"Anyway, weren't you bragging before how the exams would be boring and all that shit? Didn't you get handed out by some kids? I am already feeling second-hand embarrassment." Momo spoke.
"Careful with your words. She can probably hear us even from this distance." Shigure pointed, deflecting the jab.
"Tch. Anyway, she is quite annoying, especially the support gear she is using. Let's get rid of it." Momo conjured a gun and fired at Kyoka.
...Nothing came out of the gun.
"Wait—where's the bullet?" Shigure muttered, confused. He didn't see anything coming from it.
In the next instant, sparks flew from Kyoka's boots and arms. Then—silence. No more sonic blasts.
"It was an electromagnetic ray... or something like that. Out of the visible spectrum. Details later—just handle it." Before Shigure could blink, Momo yeeted him away.
"Use this to land safely." A gun found its way into his hand before Shigure felt an intense force hit him in the back.
The next second, he rocketed toward Kyoka like a bullet.
"FUCK YOU MOMO" Shigure cursed.
***
A/n- To be honest, Momo's potential is ridiculous. I think the only thing that held her back was energy consumption, which still does, but not as much as before. I will shed light on her abilities a little more after these exams end.
***
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