Chapter 6: The Sniper is Born
Usopp scrambled up the fire escape of a three-story building overlooking a main intersection. From this vantage point, he had a clear view of three separate streets. He crouched low, resting his makeshift slingshot on the metal railing.
Below him, a group of three 1-pointers and one 3-pointer were cornering a few exhausted examinees.
Usopp took a deep breath. The sounds of the battlefield seemed to fade away. Whirrrrr-bzzt. His pupils physically extended. The world zoomed in.
He didn't just look at the 3-pointer robot; he analyzed it. His Quirk allowed him to see the microscopic scratches on its metal plating, but more importantly, he zoomed in on its primary red sensory lens. He could see the delicate, exposed wiring directly beneath the glass casing, a tiny structural flaw in the U.A. design.
"Wind speed is negligible. Distance is one hundred and twenty meters. Angle of elevation is twenty degrees," Usopp muttered to himself, loading a heavy steel nut into the pouch.
He pulled the industrial elastic back until his scrawny arms shook with the effort. He anchored the pouch near his cheek. He exhaled slowly.
Thwip!
The steel nut launched through the air with a sharp whistle. It traveled the entire hundred-and-twenty-meter distance in a perfect arc and smashed directly into the center of the 3-pointer's red lens.
CRACK!
The glass shattered. The heavy nut severed the delicate wiring inside. The 3-pointer violently sparked, let out a garbled mechanical screech, and completely lost its balance. Blinded and malfunctioning, it stumbled forward and crashed heavily into the three 1-pointers, crushing them under its massive weight before shutting down entirely.
"Yes!" Usopp hissed, pumping his fist. "Six points with one shot! The Captain is in the game!"
For the next four minutes, Usopp became the ghost of Battle Center B. He moved from rooftop to rooftop, never engaging in close combat. Whirrrrr-bzzt. Zoom in. Find the weak point. Fire.
He shot a bolt into the exposed knee joint of a running 2-pointer, causing it to face-plant into a brick wall. He shot a piece of jagged debris into the exhaust port of another, overheating its engine and shutting it down. He was racking up points with terrifying efficiency, a sniper raining localized destruction from above.
"Two minutes remaining!" Present Mic's voice echoed.
Usopp had twenty-eight points. It wasn't the highest, but for a guy who hadn't thrown a single punch, it was a miracle.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over the entire fake city. The ground didn't just rumble; it violently quaked. Windows shattered from the vibration.
Usopp looked up, and the blood instantly drained from his face.
Rising at the end of the street, towering over the buildings like a mechanical titan, was the 0-Pointer. It was incomprehensibly massive.
"Run away!" someone screamed in the street below. The examinees scattered like terrified ants.
Usopp didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed his slingshot and turned to flee down the fire escape. But as he turned, his enhanced vision caught movement.
Whirrrrr-bzzt.
He zoomed in. A hundred meters away, near the base of the 0-Pointer, a massive chunk of concrete had been dislodged from a building. It was falling rapidly, and directly beneath it was a boy with slicked-back hair, his leg trapped under some rubble.
Usopp couldn't run there in time. No one was close enough. The boy was going to be crushed.
Usopp's heart hammered against his ribs. Every survival instinct screamed at him to run. But the image of his mother's tired smile, and the kids handing him that cheap yellow pen, flashed in his mind. Heroes don't let people get crushed.
He spun back toward the street. He didn't have a projectile heavy enough to shatter that falling concrete. He needed a different angle.
He zoomed in to the absolute maximum. He analyzed the falling debris. He looked at the surrounding environment. There! An exposed steel support beam sticking out from a ruined wall, right in the trajectory of the falling rock.
Usopp loaded the heaviest, sharpest piece of metal he had into his slingshot. He pulled the elastic back so hard the thick rubber began to tear.
"Hit the beam... change the angle..." Usopp gritted his teeth. "Go!"
THWIP!
The metal projectile cut through the air. It didn't hit the rock. Instead, it struck the exposed steel support beam with massive kinetic force, bending it sharply upward just milliseconds before the concrete chunk reached it.
The falling concrete slammed into the newly angled steel beam, ricocheting off it and crashing harmlessly into the empty street, mere inches away from the trapped boy.
"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic's horn blared across the center.
The 0-Pointer ground to a halt. The dust began to settle.
Up on the fire escape, the industrial elastic of the slingshot finally snapped, whipping back and stinging Usopp's hand. He collapsed onto the cold metal grating, his arms feeling like wet noodles, his chest heaving, and his eyes aching from overusing his Quirk.
He looked up at the sky, a tired, disbelieving smile spreading across his face.
"I did it..." he whispered, before passing out from sheer exhaustion.