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[Real Battle]
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| Chiba Prefecture… |
…
After a small incident in which bullying somehow turned into a breakdance lesson, and bullies and bullied walked away as best pals, school finally ended. Mina Ashido hopped out of the school gates with her usual happy bounce, her two friends chatting beside her.
"Say, I know I said we should go to the store… but why don't we hit the karaoke instead?" one friend suggested.
"Eh, no waaay! I was thinking the same thing!" Mina perked up. "There's this song I got into recently," She added with a smug little grin.
The other friend gave her a flat look and a teasing smile. "Don't tell me it's that vigilante's song?"
"Ah?! How did you know?!"
"It's trending everywhere, Mina. Kind of obvious."
"Well, am I wrong for wanting to sing it?!"
"Nah, you're valid."
"Hmph. Thought so." She crossed her arms with a proud smirk.
After a small pause, however, she tapped her lips in puzzlement.
"But… Do you think karaoke rooms allow breakdancing?"
The two stared at her, baffled. "Eh? I mean… I don't think there's a rule against it, but the space is pretty tiny. Why?"
Mina suddenly started swaying left and right, doing all sorts of random movements in a mock dance. "Since I'm gonna be singing it, I also wanna try to imitate that guy's sick moves. They are the reason why I got into the song in the first plac, after all!"
"I don't think that's humanly possible, Mina."
"You never know until you try!" She pumped her fist, face full of determination.
"Well, just know that the hospital isn't that far away. So that's one worry less."
"You—!"
Giggling together, the trio made their way into town, passing storefronts and busy sidewalks.
Minutes later, the karaoke building came into view—
"AH!" Mina suddenly froze, eyes wide as though she'd remembered she had left the stove on.
"What's wrong, Mina?" her friends asked.
Mina turned around and waved them off with a wry smile. "Go ahead without me! I'll buy us drinks. The karaoke ones are way too expensive!"
The two gasped in awe. ""Oooh~! Mina, you must be a genius!""
"Hehe!"
"But hide them in your backpack, okay? We don't wanna get banned."
"Of course!" Mina giggled, putting a finger to her lips before taking off.
Her friends continued onward, the Karaoke being just a few more streets away.
Meanwhile, Mina jogged toward a vending machine she'd spotted earlier, the one that had inspired her plan to dodge the karaoke's overpriced drinks.
She scanned the options with a dramatic squint. "Let's see… lemonade would be nice, right? Don't want my throat to die mid-song… but iced tea sounds good too… ah! Why is this so hard?!"
After a bit of melodramatic suffering, she finally chose drinks for all three of them.
Money in, beep, and moments later, the cans clattered down into the retrieval slot. Mina scooped them up—barely managing to hold two in one hand—and stuffed all three into her backpack, away from prying eyes.
Snickering to herself, she dashed back toward the karaoke.
—and stopped dead as she rounded the corner.
"...?!"
There, standing outside the entrance, were her two friends. But looming in front of them was a massive, robed figure—towering, broad, overwhelming.
His very presence pinned the girls against the wall, making them shake in terror.
And even though Mina wasn't directly in front of him…
She felt the fear too.
The figure emanated intimidation. Intentionally, not? It didn't matter.
He simply had a presence that froze her blood solid.
But then, it became worse. Not just the presence anymore.
"Where is the agency of the Hero Spriggan?"
The figure's deep, raspy voice rolled over the girls, making their shivering intensify. Terror swallowed their eyes.
When they failed to respond, his tone darkened. Hostility seeped out of him like poison.
"You're hiding it from me, aren't you?"
The wall behind the girls cracked—whether from the weight from his hand or his rising agitation, Mina couldn't tell.
"WHY WON'T YOU TELL ME…!"
The killing intent grew so heavy it felt like the air itself was being crushed.
But somehow, that had been what she needed.
Mina's eyes snapped wide open, a realization dawning on her at that very moment.
If she didn't move now, her friends were going to die.
"Kgh—!"
Forcing her trembling legs to obey, she shot forward.
He wanted to get somewhere, right? She only needed to say a fake direction, and he'd leave them alone.
She hoped so, at least.
But, just as she was about to wedge herself between her friends and the towering figure—
"Oi."
A voice called out. Deep. Commanding.
It carried the same oppressive weight as the giant's… yet somehow, it wasn't frightening at all. If anything, it felt reassuring.
The three girls—and the giant—turned toward the voice, and soon, they saw him.
A man in a black hoodie and mask stood behind the villain, arms crossed.
"Who are you?" the giant growled, brows tightening under his hood.
The masked man didn't flinch. His gaze held the giant's effortlessly.
"Leave."
Silence descended after that. Thick and suffocating for the girls, the people around watching, and even the animals in the vicinity.
They felt like prey standing before the imminent conflict of top predators.
All they could do… was watch from the sidelines.
Then—
"Why… why does everyone want to hide it from me?" Sorrow warbled in the villain's voice. His fists clenched, looking ready to snap.
But before he could do anything—
-Swish!-
The masked man raised a hand.
—SWOOSH!—
In an instant, the giant was blasted skyward.
Everyone froze, stunned.
It had all been too abrupt. They had expected words to be exchanged, an interchange of blows, something.
But the seemingly tense standoff was over just like that.
Or it was—until the man too moved.
—BAM!—
As everyone's eyes fell on him, the concrete beneath him fractured, and his figure vanished from its previous spot.
For a moment, they didn't understand where he had gone.
But soon, someone pointed it out.
"The sky!"
Everyone's head snapped up at that instant.
Indeed, there he was, soaring like a rocket at a tremendous speed. All while following behind the figure of the giant, which also continued moving up.
Basically, they had left.
As everyone struggled to understand the events that had just occurred, Mina sprinted to her friends, throwing her arms around them as they all broke into tears.
"Mina… I was so scared!"
"Me too!"
"Waaah…!"
Nearby, a black-haired boy stared, caught between awe and disbelief. His gaze followed the two distant figures rising into the sky, eyes sparkling.
"…Manly."
…
°
°
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| Taka's POV: |
…
"Shut up already." I groaned, dismissing the annoying pop-up as I squinted toward the still-ascending giant.
He was slowing down now—just about to start falling.
And judging by how his robe shredded apart as his body expanded, it seemed this fall was about to be a heavy one.
Too bad I'm in the falling zone.
'And I'm not moving.' I thought, squinting my eyes as the robes of the giant finally ripped apart, and revealed the real identity of this guy.
One that I already knew of.
Gigantomachia. All For One's most powerful minion at the moment, and my opponent today.
This sure wasn't going to be easy, huh?
"RAAAH!!!"
He roared as his figure descended on me, now being at least twice as big. Enough to bloat the sun, and to seem like a humanoid-meteorite rather than the guy he was.
I snorted.
'Yeah, this won't end well at all,' I groaned internally.
But I kept flying upward.
There was, after all, a reason I'd launched him into the sky in the first place.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: 128
▸ Defence: 2627
▸ Aura Projection: 10,000
─────────────
Total Aura: 12371
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
I glanced at my status, more specifically, towards the AP stat.
I needed more.
Sighing, I lifted my eyes back to the falling mountain of hard-as-rock muscle. My gaze narrowing in preparation.
This was why.
He had no foothold.
And without a foothold, no matter how sturdy he was, he wouldn't resist being tossed around.
Up here… he was just a big target.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: 150 → 128
▸ Defence: 2221 → 256
▸ Aura Projection: 10,000 → 12371
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
With a quick shift in stats, I accelerated—my figure blurring through the sky.
The world stretched around me, and the distance between Gigantomachia and me shrank to mere meters.
Then—
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: 128 → 10,000
▸ Defence: 256 → 2000
▸ Aura Projection: 12371 → 755
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
I wound up a fist, pouring my entire back, waist, and aura into it.
Gigantomachia mirrored me with one of his own—his giant fist dwarfing my entire body like a boulder looming over an ant.
"AAAAAH!!!"
"AAAAARGH!!!"
We both roared as we charged. I roared because I needed the confidence boost for what was about to happen. He… probably because he was angry or something.
And then… we clashed.
—BOOOOOOOM!!!—
The shockwave was monstrous, loud enough to resemble a damn thunder strike. I swear I saw the air itself split for a moment.
But the sound wasn't my concern.
'Wha—what happened?' I squinted, dizzy as all hell.
Seconds later, I managed to recompose myself, aura stabilizing me mid-air after I'd been launched who knows how far.
When I finally stopped, I looked down—then winced hard.
"Shit…"
My arm was broken.
And the worst part? I'm pretty sure his fist didn't even fully hit me. I dove under at the last second—his punch only grazed me as I passed, before I slammed my own into his abdomen.
Yet that much contact had been enough to wreck my arm this badly.
'No way natural recovery is going to be enough fix this…' I sweatdropped.
I was either gonna have to master healing by the end of today, or come up with a very suspicious excuse for Seiji about why my arm was turned to shreds in one evening.
—If that was all I ended up with by the time this battle was over. Maybe this was even where I died today.
Sighing, I shifted my focus back to Gigantomachia.
Luckily, I hadn't been the only one affected by the clash.
He, too, had been launched away by the sheer force of my punch—cutting through the air like an arrow.
A very, very big arrow.
And, just as planned, he was flying toward the bay bordering the town.
'There. At least I won't have to worry about anyone getting killed during our showdown.'
Yes, that had been the point of throwing him upward in the first place: to drag him somewhere isolated before things got messy.
Because honestly, even if he had a huge disadvantage in aerial mobility, his durability alone more than made up for it.
I bet that 10,000-aura punch barely even tickled him.
'That's like five tons, you know?'
Clicking my tongue, I shifted my aura back into AP and shot after him.
This wasn't a battle to win. I'd already made peace with that. This guy's level was simply way too much for me to handle right now.
But that didn't mean it had to be a loss.
I'd already thought of a few ways not to perish today. None of them was remotely safe, so I was gonna have to brace myself for a very possible fight—and, by extension, for a lot of broken bones.
But that was part of the risk I'd accepted the moment I decided to butt in unnecessarily into this situation.
…Or was it really unnecessary?
When I arrived at the scene, I recognized exactly which moment from the show this was.
Kirishima's and Mina's backstory.
In the original, Mina tricks Gigantomachia so he leaves them alone, and then she and her friends all run away. All while Kirishima watches from the sidelines, feeling powerless.
Normally, that would've meant I didn't need to intervene at all. The situation was supposed to resolve itself.
But then I heard it:
{"Where is the agency of the Hero Spriggan?"}
That single line made me consider something I hadn't before.
What was he planning to do at a hero agency?
This guy was, after all, All For One's most powerful lackey. The only thing someone like him would be doing in a place like that… was stealing Quirks—or the people who had them—for his master.
Not to mention, wherever it was that Mina planned to lead him, nothing guaranteed the aftermath would go smoothly.
She ended up unharmed in the show, sure, but that didn't automatically mean there weren't consequences for other people.
And I, standing here, couldn't just let them happen—whether they were canon or not.
The show was, after all, a shonen. They weren't exactly known for having the most… sanguinary authors, nor ones who consider such events to happen.
This, however, was real life, and here, anything could happen.
Which is why I was now here, with a broken arm, sprinting toward a guy about ten times my size, and knowing I have literally one or two percent chances of winning this shit.
I would stall for time—long enough for stronger heroes to arrive or, alternatively, long enough to show this guy that even if I wasn't at his level yet, he really didn't want to fight me to the death.
I'm not top-tier strong, but I am strong.
And I'm going to engrave that into his very being.
…
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-To Be Continued…-
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(A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I am quite the mischievous individual. The next chapter shouldn't take much anyway.
For those who are wondering how powerful Gigantomachia is compared to Taka, I am thinking of him to be stat-wise in the 50,000s. If you disagree, then please tell me so, because I'm honestly not too sure.
And since I'm entering into power scaling shit, I might as well tell you about other prominent characters that lead the power system of this world.
Have in mind this is just my musing, and I might be completely wrong and suck.
All Might: 500,000 (Prime); 30,000~60,000 (Weakened); 100,000 (Last fight against AFO)
Black anti-All Might Nomu: 20,000 (His Quirks do the rest of the job in letting him fight All Might toe to toe)
AFO (Physically speaking, his attacks probably can get further): 50,000)