『Hakari Kotaro』
"Shit...!"
I leaped away from yet another attack and used a Candy Spider leg to vault over another pair of people. And shortly after, I had to bend my body to avoid a slash from a boy who looked like a Grasshopper.
"Those headbands are mine!"
"In your dreams."
Another boy leaped at my headband but ate a face full of dense and sticky candy, right to the face. Don't let its looks fool you; at this volume, getting hit by it may as well be like getting hit in the face with a stone hammer.
The event had been going on for several minutes now, and I was definitely struggling for sure. My ability sets revealed that they were not exactly optimal for these conditions. I couldn't easily spam whatever I had like Todoroki because I had to worry about conserving my stamina for the next rounds. And not only that, while I busied myself with collecting headbands, it turned out that I was basically public enemy number 1, other than Bakugou who had made sure to try his best to piss off everyone his voice could reach, even before the festival.
And, unfortunately, I was getting clipped left and right, whether it was that fucker with his scale machine gun or Aoyama trying to snipe me.
I was going to steal that bastard's cheese for this later. I know he has some good stuff stashed away.
Though I still aggressively snatched headbands and even managed to reach the 100+ points I needed. My main goal was keeping a low profile, and keeping myself defended and safe was rather difficult to achieve with just Hemokinesis and Candy.
Especially because as the end neared, everyone got more frantic and started expending themselves far more trying to get tickets. Mostly focusing on Todoroki and Bakugou, neither of which yielded any ground to anyone.
Bakugou was like a firework; he moved too fast and hit too hard to be able to reach his forehead and neck to try your luck and rip a band off.
Todoroki, on the other hand, was fucking Todoroki. His firepower was ridiculous. Whenever anyone approached, he just hit them with an Ice Wall nonchalantly. And if that did not work, he used an even bigger ice wall.
Another unexpected for others but totally expected for me runner-up was actually Toga herself, although her quirk was not useful here, she herself was. That girl was like a demon of agility and dexterity; nobody could touch her while she danced around them with ease, and gave them the slip while snatching their headbands.
""30 Seconds Left!!!""
I ducked another desperate attack and went around the arena. Todoroki was the undisputed number 1 due to having beaten over a dozen people for my 10,000,000 headbands, and having more than 20 headbands on him, including mine. Bakugou, on the other hand, only had 14. The strategy of freezing everything below the neck and then just snatching the headband was a bit too overpowered compared to Bakugou's hyper aggression.
But it would not be as overpowered as the strategy I was about to pull.
""6 Seconds left! 5! 4-! WHAT!?!?!?!?""
Waiting until the very last seconds, I held my right hand up while near Todoroki and applied (-) polarity on it at full blast. And the (-) polarity that I had assigned to the headband before throwing it away reacted to it, making the headband get ripped from Todoroki's head and onto my hand before I quickly tied it as he looked at me with what I could only describe as existential disbelief.
Ahh... it was worth crippling myself by saving Polarity in one ability slot while using only the other two until this moment. If I used any polarities before this, I risked revealing my hand too early.
""It's OVER!!! And that's the end of the Second Round Free for All! Hakari Kotaro once again ranks first place by the slightest margin!!!!!""
The cheers deafened all noise. Todoroki looked at me with eyes that could curdle milk. Unlike how it went down with Deku as I remember in canon. This guy took this personally to the next level.
""Second place is Katsuki Bakugou! The Third place is Shoto Todoroki! And the Fourth Place, an unexpected dark horse, Himiko Toga!""
Toga jumped on her feet and blew kisses to the audience while Bakugou flexed a dictionary of curses towards my direction, while also gloating at Todoroki. As I looked at the scoreboards, I noticed that basically everyone in our class had made it to the Third Round, well, everyone relevant anyway, I think Tail Guy, Lightning Guy, and Sugar Guy were missing.
Surprisingly, both Mineta and Toru had unexpectedly high scores. Toru seemed to take advice from Toga and used her agility to snatch headbands while invisible, while Mineta had unexpectedly locked in and managed to gather a decent stash of points due to his small size and his large sticky balls.
""Now! We'll take a break for lunch before we start the Afternoon Festivities! See ya all then!""
I let out a deep breath as people started walking away and quickly dipped into an exit. Just feeling good about not having to perform for the people. It was easy to ignore them while fighting, but not so much during the awkward phase where you have won but have nothing to do while they watch you with expectant eyes.
Also, I feel like utter shit, so I could really use some food and a nap. But before that, I had something to do.
Feat Achieved! Win First Place in the Free For All
+1x Platinum Trait Gacha ticket
"Yoho~! Hakari-kun! Your adorable Toga-chan won fourth place~!"
I felt Toga jump onto my back without me even noticing her as I was preoccupied with my ticket. Her arms and legs wrapped around me like a little adorable monkey, and I let out a small sound of amusement as she leaned in and half-whispered in my ear.
"Toga, good timing. Stay there, I need your luck for this one."
At this point, this wasn't even surprising for her as she shrugged her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek into mine.
"Alright, good luck Hakari-kun~."
I nodded, with a new supply of Deluxe Toganium, I was sure to roll something good.
Rolling Platinum Trait Gacha...
An Elite Trait!
[Pugilist]
|Elite Trait|
You are natural in martial arts, how to move your body efficiently and powerfully comes as second nature to you. You learn and develop martial arts far faster and have a unique intuition when it comes to combat.
I closed my eyes as I felt a wave of heat wash over my body, my brain felt like it was tingling as my connection to my very being just became more... whole. I felt like someone who went from waking up to a coma to getting full control of their body. I felt my breathing, the blood in my body, and the tingling of the hairs on my arms.
Oh yeah, this will do, this will definitely do.
Reaching behind me, I picked up Toga like a kitten as she stared into my eyes.
"Did'ya get something good?"
I couldn't help but break into a grin.
"Definitely."
Toga let out a victorious grin, and I couldn't help but want to pin her down at this exact moment, but I could not understate just how obscenely tired and bruised I was. I really needed the calories and rest right now, so I just gave her a kiss instead while she giggled.
"Alright, let's grab some food. I bet Lunch Rush cooked up something mean for the festival."
"Aww yeah! Hopefully, they have some sushi. I wish Lunch Rush-sensei would give out some cooking lessons. If I could intern under him, I totally would. It feels frustrating to know that my housewife skills lose out to his cooking."
She grumbled as she walked beside me, and I rubbed my chin.
"...I'll ask Nezu-sensei to see if he can put in a good word for you."
Toga was already the best, and I was worried that if she got Lunch Rush's cooking skills, she might collapse into a singularity of wife material; you could only put so much of it into one person before they become a black hole.
...Do I have another concussion?
"Hehe~ thank you, Hakari-kun, I know just how to cheer you up too~."
I raised an eyebrow at her ominous words, but shrugged my shoulders. I learned that to question Toga's intentions was an exercise in futility.
"I'll look forward to it, I guess."
⚀—⚁⚂⚃—⚄—•⚅•—⚄—⚃⚂⚁—⚀
『Hakari Kotaro』
After devouring enough of Lunch Rush's food to put myself into a minor coma and taking a short nap in the infirmary thanks to Recovery Girl's grace, I was in somewhat decent condition. Not peak, but it'd do.
Now that the Lunch Break was over, everyone started naturally heading to the Stadium again, but strangely, I saw no sight of Toga or the other girls, even as we started walking in and started hearing Present Mic's announcements.
""Now that Lunch Time is over, it is time to reveal the Final Activity of the U.A Sports Festival! But before that, there is good news for everyone who did not make it to the Finale! There will be a series of recreational games before the finale!""
Some of the lose- ahem, no, actually, the losers looked quite relieved at the news of getting to show off even if they lost. But the Present Mic did not stop there as he pointed to some cheerleaders entering the stadium, they looked mostly foreign, and the moment they entered, they did a synchronized move.
""And we have even brought cheerleaders from America to cheer our teams on! -Huh?""
I also blinked in succession as the rest of our class walked out from the gate, except the girls were dressed in... cheerleader outfits, all of them wore grim expressions except Toga, who looked ecstatic, and Toru, who did not have a visible expression.
""Class 1-A!? What kind of fan service is that!?""
Naturally, my eyes turned to Mineta, who looked just as shocked as I was and hurriedly made an X with his arms and shook his head desperately. So I turned to Momo, who looked like she had the wind completely taken out of her sails.
"T-Toga-san! You said there would be a cheerleading competition, did you not?"
Toga, in response, stuck her tongue out and knocked on her own head.
"Oops! I think I misremembered, sorry Momo-chan~."
Jiro looked about ready to pop a vein as she threw her pompom to the ground, while Momo looked devastated.
"No way..."
"Argh! Now I look like an idiot!"
I had to digress; this was a blessing for the eyes. The U.A. Cheerleading Uniform was excellent; the midriff was shown, and the skirts were short, displaying the thighs of the girls and emphasizing their 'assets'. Ranging from Momo's heavy artillery down to Jiro's silenced pistols, it was like a buffet for the soul and mind.
Toga patted Momo's back with a reassuring smile.
"Don't say that, Momo-chan~ since we are dressed up already, let's cheer our class on! Think of it as PR training!"
Toru joined in as well, and I feel like she had a hand to play in this.
"Yeah, yeah! C'mon guys! Let's work off the nerves before the finals! 1-A! 1-A! 1-A!"
She started waving around her pompoms in an almost infectious manner that she even managed to cheer the others up enough to forget about Toga's deception.
""Well! The extra cheering force aside! We will start the recreational activities! And when that's over... the top 16 from the Free For All will duke it out in a 1v1 Tournament Style!!!""
I took a deep breath and focused my eyes as a tournament bracket appeared on the screens.
So it was going to end up like this anyway.
But from the corner of my vision, I saw Toga mouthing something at me.
'Feeling better?'
It was impossible to stop the smile tugging at my lips after she went all the way to do that for me. I shook my head.
That girl...
If she was going to be doing all that, I didn't have the right to be losing my nerves here.
Whoever I was about to face, better watch out, because it's time for crab!
A/N: Hakari is a sneaky fucker. That much is for certain. I wasn't originally going to go with this, but then I looked over his abilities and this method of victory stood out to me, and it was so in character for Hakari too. Originally, he was not going to rank first in this, but, well, he gambled, and he won.
Toga best girl! Uncontested, she is the king of the hill! With his character development, Mineta did not pull the sneaky here, but the same does not go for Himiko Toga, who will go to any lengths to cheer her boyfriend up. And the Pugilist trait came in clutch. I have a vision now for how Hakari's loadout will evolve. I hope you guys are looking forward to the tournament!
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