Arthur POV
He was naked!
Why was he naked!
Immediately I shut my eyes, my face burning with embarrassment. This was definitely not what I had expected when Mirio asked to spar.
I felt the wind on my skin as something moved past me at incredible speed. I tried to listen carefully, using my enhanced hearing to track where Mirio was coming from, but I realized something strange, I could hear something moving, but it was too small, too subtle to be Mirio's full body. It was like only parts of him were making contact with the air.
However, just as I was processing this information, I felt the air in front of me shift dramatically as something large displaced it. Even with my eyes tightly shut, I could tell exactly what it was, a fist, moving fast and aimed directly at my face.
My enhanced reflexes kicked in, and I let myself fall backward in a smooth motion. I felt the rush of wind pass over my face where Mirio's punch would have connected, missing me by mere millimeters, then it was gone.
Narration POV
Mirio knew Arthur was faster than him, much, much faster.
In fact, Arthur's speed was so overwhelming that if he had begun the match by rushing forward immediately, Mirio doubted he could have activated his permeation quirk in time to avoid the attack. The vigilante's reflexes were simply too sharp, his movements too swift for most people to even perceive, let alone counter.
However, Mirio also understood that because of Arthur's incredible speed, this match would probably end in a frustrating stalemate. Arthur could easily outmaneuver him even in this enclosed space, dancing around his attacks indefinitely without ever being caught.
So Mirio decided to use the one advantage he had, the element of surprise.
And thankfully, since he wasn't wearing his hero suit designed to work with his quirk, the surprise came naturally. His regular clothes permeated right through his body as he activated his quirk, leaving him completely exposed, which he knew would be shocking enough to throw off even someone as experienced as Arthur.
Taking in one massive breath to sustain himself, Mirio began to rush toward Arthur. Only the soles of his feet and his eyes remained solid, allowing him to run and see his target. Everything else phased through the material world.
He drew back his arm and punched forward with all his strength. At the exact moment his fist was mere millimeters away from Arthur's face, he made his knuckles and fingers, basically his entire hand, solid again.
This was it. All or nothing.
Mirio had to hope that Arthur was distracted enough by the unexpected nudity and the confusion of fighting an opponent he couldn't physically touch. The punch moved closer and closer, cutting through the air, wait cut? Do fists cut air? Questions for another time.
However, just as it was about to strike Arthur square in the face, the blonde boy fell backward in a perfectly controlled motion, avoiding the punch with an almost casual grace.
Mirio quickly distanced himself from Arthur and deactivated his quirk on his torso so he could draw another breath
He made his larynx, vocal cords, and mouth solid once again so he could speak. "Didn't work, huh?" he said, genuinely impressed despite his failed attack.
He also deactivated the quirk on his ears so he could hear Arthur's response.
"Why are you naked! Nejire, why is he naked!" Arthur shouted, his voice cracking slightly with embarrassment and confusion. He kept his eyes firmly shut, his face burning red.
"It's part of his quirk!" Nejire yelled back from where she was outside the ring.
Mirio on the other hand made his throat and mouth normal and laughed, a sound full of genuine amusement and no embarrassment whatsoever. He took in a deep breath and made his whole body phase through the floor.
He sunk as he ran towards him. Then reappeared behind him, once more making his fist normal so as to strike.
Arthur his eyes still closed, sidestepped the attack smoothly. In the same motion, he spun around and launched his own counterattack, his hand shooting toward where he estimated Mirio's wrist would be.
But his fingers closed around nothing but air. His hand passed right through where Mirio should have been.
"Hmm, I was sure that..." Arthur began, then immediately cut himself off as he sensed another attack coming from a completely different angle. He sidestepped once more, frustration beginning to build.
Again, he tried grabbing Mirio's wrist. But obviously, it didn't work. Arthur's own hand passing harmlessly through Mirio like he wasn't even there.
Arthur POV
Yeah I had to think of some other way, because what I was doing wasn't working.
I thought for a moment, Mirio's quirk.
Permeation.
It allowed him to phase through everything. It sounded like a powerful quirk but thinking about it, doesn't that mean that air, sound even light would phase through him?
He wouldn't be able to breathe, hear or even see.
So how come he could keep fighting and how come I felt the air shift inches from me from his punches but I couldn't reach him? Could he really control what exact parts of his body to permeate at the exact right time, all the time?
That sounded harder than even when I had used continuous mana bursts to fight against both Nomus when my speed was taken from me.
I stepped to the side once more.
Mirio was incredible, huh.
I smiled, a plan forming in my mind.
But if he needed to breathe, then there had to be moments, however brief, where parts of his respiratory system became solid. And if I could hear those moments...
I focused all of my enhanced hearing, filtering out the ambient noise of the gym, Nejire's quiet commentary from outside the ring, the beeps and boops of the training machinery.
I stepped to the side as I felt another punch whistle past my ear, but this time I was listening for something specific.
I sidestepped again, moved forward a step, moved back, ducked low as I sensed an attack aimed at my head. All the while, I was concentrating on the subtle sounds of human physiology, the intake and release of breath, the slight sound of air moving through lungs.
Then I heard it.
Fnoof.
It was quiet, but to my now focused ears it sounded like a freight train, the unmistakable sound of someone taking a breath. And more importantly, I could pinpoint exactly where it was coming from.
My heart rate spiked as I prepared to use mana burst. The familiar energy coursed through my system, reaching my leg muscles and exploding outward in a controlled burst of speed and power.
In an instant, I moved to where I had heard the breathing. I pulled back my fist and punched forward, but I was careful to control my strength, this was a sparring match with a classmate, and Mirio however good he was still didn't have enhanced durability.
I didn't want to seriously hurt Mirio.
BAM!
The impact of flesh meeting flesh told me I had connected. My fist had found its target. Then came the sound of his body landing on the floor.
"Mirio, you okay?" I called out, immediately concerned that I might have hit him harder than intended despite my restraint.
I could hear his body functions clearly now, his heartbeat, his breathing, the subtle sounds of his circulatory system. He wasn't in that phasing mode anymore, which meant he was fully solid and therefore fully vulnerable. He was also still naked though, so I kept my eyes firmly shut.
I heard his feet shuffle against the mat as he pushed himself back to a standing position. He coughed a couple of times, clearing his throat.
"I'm fine, cough, I'm fine, cough," he said, though I could hear the slight strain in his voice.
"Sorry for hitting you so hard," I said, genuinely apologetic. Even with my restraint, my enhanced strength could pack quite a punch.
"Don't worry, I can take it!" Mirio replied, and I could hear him slapping something, probably his own chest, at least I hope it was his chest.
"Are you still naked?" I asked hesitantly, really hoping the answer was no.
"No, not anymore. Don't worry, I put my clothes back on," he assured me.
I opened my eyes timidly, peeking through barely separated eyelids. I sighed with relief when I saw he was wearing pants. Thank God for small mercies.
"So how come you knew where I was with your eyes closed?" Mirio asked as he walked forward, seemingly none the worse for wear from our brief scuffle.
"I have good ears," I replied simply.
"You have good ears, huh?" he repeated, clearly impressed.
"Yeah, I could hear when you took a breath, even if it was for less than a second. So before you could even finish drawing that breath, I used my speed to rush at you."
"Yeah, I understand your tactic now. Still, that was amazing," Mirio said with that ever present smile of his.
He extended his hand toward me, God his smile really did look like All Might's.
"Nice spar!" he called out enthusiastically.
"Yeah, nice spar," I agreed, shaking his hand firmly.
"That was amazing! Both of you did great!" I heard Nejire's excited voice as she flew over to us, landing gracefully behind me.
She placed her hands on my shoulders and used me for support as she lifted herself up slightly, her enthusiasm bubbling over.
"How did you know that permeation wouldn't allow him to breathe though? Also, how much can your ears actually listen to? Oh, and are your other senses enhanced as well? What is your strongest sense? What about..."
"It was more of an educated guess than actual knowledge," I interrupted gently, smiling at her rapid-fire questioning style that I'd grown accustomed to over the past week. "As for my hearing range, I'm not entirely sure, it depends on how much I focus on it. I can definitely pick up things most people can't. And yes, my other senses are enhanced too, though I'd say my sight is probably the strongest overall. It's the most important sense for maintaining my speed safely, need to see where I'm going, after all."
We continued talking for a while longer, discussing both Mirio's permeation quirk and my own enhanced abilities, then we talked about more normal things, like school life, their hero agencies, wait was that normal, eh.
The sun had fully set, Mirio finally announced that he needed to head home.
"Thanks for the spar, Arthur. We should definitely do this again sometime," he said, gathering his things.
"Absolutely. It was a good challenge," I replied.
After Mirio left, Nejire walked with me back toward the dormitories, our conversation ending as we fell into comfortable silence, we walked side by side, something I realized was that when you walked along with someone one of you almost always ended in the rhythm of the other.
"Night, Nejire," I said cutting through the silence as I reached my door and pulled out my keycard to unlock it.
She began to float away toward the girls' section of the dormitory, which was located deeper in the building.
"Good night, Arthur."
A/N: Sorry for the late chapter. Also yeah even though Mirio can phase through anything his body is still normal, well as normal as mha bodies are, because some of the shit they do makes me think they have super strength and durability (use the doakes knowing but can't prove it meme)
I think that I am gonna start the sports festival on the next one. Oh and those bonus chapters, just remember not to fall from the 5th or 3rd place before they reset and you shall recieve them. That's it for today.
Thx for reading. See you all tomorrow. Author out.