Chapter 97: Sports Festival (11)
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The next match had a 30 minutes break. Both Bakugo and Neji were taken to Recovery Girl one after another.
After Bakugo was healed of the small bruises he had, Neji was led to the room by a nurse who then left him alone with Recovery Girl.
"You don't have to heal me, please," Neji said with a raised arm. He didn't like being kissed by an old granny. "That quirk of yours should have some toll on you as well. As you can see, I am not even scratched, so no need to exert yourself out."
Recovery Girl smiled as her eyes formed crescents. "It's been quite a while since someone worried about me, but…" her eyes opened. "No, ehe."
"..."
—★—
After washing his face with a good face wash that he had in his inventory, Neji went to the waiting room.
This time, Momo wasn't there since he told her he would prefer some alone time, instead.
The alone time was spent... scrolling through youtube feed. Sometimes watching the 3rd-year Sports Festival live streaming.
Nejire was doing fine, too. She was at the finals, against Mirio.
'Guess 2nd place isn't so bad either.'
The 3o minutes passed in a blink and soon Neji's name was called by Present Mic.
He walked out of the entrance tunnel as the crowd's cheer vibrated his eardrums. His smile eternal, Neji walked onto the stage. This time he wasn't the last one to reach, and only seconds later did Bakugo walk into the arena.
Bakugo didn't say anything and neither did Neji. At their silence, the crowd also went silent, causing the arena to enter an eerie silence.
Midnight cleared her throat after slamming her whip down on the platform.
"Be careful, both of you. Remember, you are not trying to kill one another, you are just here to make an impression and only then get the victory. I hope Cemestos wouldn't need to intervene like last time." She said the entire thing whilst looking at Bakugo. She then turned to Neji. "Remember, even if you believe you have good control over your quirks, both of your quirks can kill any normal person. No need to be too flashy… We have seen our part."
Neji nodded nonchalantly while Bakugo did so while frowning. Why did the words directed towards Neji sound soft whilst the ones directed at him sounded harsh? This wasn't fair. Who the fuck did this woman think she was.
'Guess being a pretty boy gets you whores' attention.'
He scoffed under his breath.
'I will see how that pretty face does against a full-blown explosion.'
"Are you ready, kids?" Midnight asked as both of them nodded. "Then begin!"
Midnight jumped away like usual, while Bakugo thought for a moment…
From what he had seen, Neji was very dependent on his Quirk. The only time he used his physical strength was when Bakugo and Inasa leapt into the sky in the 2nd round, Neji punched both of them which made them go unconscious.
But Neji had obviously boosted the impact of his punch with his shockwaves at that moment. Neji's strength and durability wasn't anything that different from a normal teenager. He should just have a bit stronger arms as side effects, just like Bakugo whose arms were very durable and strong after having being used to his explosions.
Meaning, Bakugo just had to get closer to Neji and start blasting his face whilst dodging his boosted punches. It would be relatively easy to dodge since even if the impact is boosted, the speed of his punch shouldn't be much different than normal.
All this thought happened in a second, and by the time Bakugo finished thinking, he was already above Neji.
Bakugo's face formed a grin as his hands sparkled up, going to catch Neji's face.
"Die, you albino-"
He tried to finish, but he couldn't as Neji's hand slipped in the air and struck Bakugo's abdomen.
Bakugo's mouth went agape as saliva spat out, which Neji dodged with a tilt of his head.
"As I said before, nobody calls me that other than my sister."
He had actually never said so before, he just thought it in his mind. But not that Neji truly cared.
Bakugo without even regaining his composure blasted his hands and flung backwards. He dropped to the ground unsteadily as he felt his head dizzy. His vision saw multiple Neji standing which caused him to shake his head rapidly to throw the feeling away.
'...What was that?'
He didn't even see the punch coming, and nor did Neji boost the punch's speed with his quirk since there was no shockwave present.
'Is he that strong even without his quirk?'
Bakugo's jaws clenched.
'Impossible.'
Bakugo kicked the ground, blasting at Neji again. This time his eyes were firm as cautious.
He circled around Neji instead of attacking outright. Neji didn't follow his movements and simply stood in his spot with his head straight. This time around, he didn't have his hands in his pockets unlike in his match against Todoroki.
That gave Bakugo a strange pleasure of contentment.
'At least he knows who's actually dangerous and who's not.'
This gave a boost to Bakugo's courage as he kicked and rushed at Neji's back. His hand went to grab Neji's neck, sparkling with fire.
"Die!!"
His hand blasted, but it hadn't grabbed Neji's neck. Neji simply stepped to the right like taking a stroll in the garden, evading the attack.
Bakugo didn't seem discouraged and swung his arm horizontally at Neji's face.
However, Neji again stepped beside soft and casually, dodging the attack in the process.
"Guess I was thinking too highly of you," Neji said, putting his hands in his pockets.
"...You bastard!"
Bakugo's head rang in anger as he roared and blasted at Neji. His hand lit up, flashed, and exploded again and again, again and again.
Each time, Neji stepped at the right moment to evade the attacks. It looked as if a man was walking under a raining sky, successfully dodging all the droplets of rain by stepping away.
This was happening because of the
"Stop dodging! Face me like a real man!!"
Neji dodged another one of his attacks.
"That sounds gay as hell, bro. I would rather not."
"Youuu!!!"
Bakugo's eyes were practically crimson at that moment. He decided to use his
So, he instead decided to use another of his techniques.
Bakugo jumped back to a distance first before he pointed his right palm at his left side and his left palm at his right. Then, he blasted them both one after another which created a spinning motion that propelled him into the air.
Dark smoke surrounded him as Bakugo spun fast, creating a tornado of black smoke a few meters above the arena.
This tornado built up oxygen that would fuel the incoming explosion. After colliding with the target, Bakugo would release the explosion which would be as lethal as an actual missile.
Then he blasted down from the sky at Neji. This time… Neji didn't seem to want to dodge as he simply raised an eyebrow.
Bakugo grinned at that and reached out his hand for Neji's head.
'Guess he wants to show off. That would be his death!!'
Then his hand touched Neji's skull.
"Howitzer Impact!!"
Immediately, a huge explosion left his hand in a brilliant light. The explosion was awfully big, strengthened by the oxygen in the tornado. It made dozens of mushroom clouds that engulfed half of the arena in a brilliant yellowish red.
Neji vanished within the fire as Bakugo dropped to the ground.
Bakugo didn't show any sign of joy and instead prepared to attack again.
He placed his palms side by side and started to concentrate on the meeting point of his plans. Small sparks started to dance on that spot before multiple explosions left his hands at a successive motion.
If an explosion reached a metre far, at the end another started. Like that, as if an energy beam from the comic books, a pillar of explosive fire flared into the other explosion.
Bakugo gave almost his all into the beam as he moved it across the arena since he wasn't sure of Neji's location.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw Cementos almost moving, but Midnight told him something with a grim expression that stopped him.
Bakugo's beam finally ended 10 seconds later. That would have killed dozens of people at once if they were placed on the front of it. But Bakugo knew Neji didn't die, that would be pathetic, but he knew Neji must have been greatly injured and therefore defeated even.
The explosion ended and smoke slowly cleared up as Bakugo waited with a grin while breathing heavier than he ever did in this Festival.
Slowly, his grin dropped as Bakugo's mouth and eyes widened.
From under the smoke, Neji's figure came out enshrouded in a flaring cloak of golden shockwave. Because of the sparkling golden energy surrounding him, his body wasn't clearly visible, but Bakugo could tell... Neji was scratchless.
"What the fuck is that?!" He asked amidst breathing heavily.
Neji took his hand out of his pocket… to brush off the dust from his shirt as the gold cloak simply flickered out of existence.
"Gold Dragon's Dance was my 3rd technique of this skill-tree, and the Dragon's Breath was 2nd. This is the 1st technique of this skill tree. I call this «Gold Dragon's Cloak»-"
"Shut up with that gold dragon bullshit!!"
Bakugo interrupted with a frustrated yell.
"Diee!!!"
He used his
He reached above Neji and then stretched out one of his hands while using his other to form a circle on the palm of his outstretched hand.
With a grit of his teeth, Bakugo then fired an explosion through the circle, which created a concentrated blast beam to rush at Neji.
This was AP-Shot. It was similar to his Corrosive Explosion technique, but on a much-concentrated scale as this was more like a thin laser beam if anything.
Bakugo was pushing his body's limits with this technique. This would have permanently injured his hands, normally. But he knew Recovery Girl would heal him anyway. So this could be his winning technique if it landed on Neji, as this was "Armour Piercing Shot". So even that bullshit armour technique won't help Neji.
Then it happened… Maybe Bakugo had mistaken it, but Neji's blue eyes flashed red for a millisecond before returning to normal. Neji's head slowly and gracefully moved as the AP shot flared just beside his ear.
Bakugo couldn't muster enough strength to move his hands and redirect the attack before it ended because of the lack of energy.
From the air, Bakugo started to fall with his eyes sharp and angry but his hands were in pain.
But he couldn't fall as Neji simply tapped on his chest from below, causing his body to lunge back into the air a few metres above.
Then, Neji put his hands back in his pockets before grinning. This was his first grin in this festival, all the previous smiles were gracious and small, but this was majestically evil.
"Let me show you the difference between original and copy."
Neji said and then parted his mouth wide.
"This is the Gold Dragon's Breath, the original."
His mouth widened further as a small ball concentrated on top of it. Bakugo's body started to fall down from the air, as the ball shone goldenly. Then the beam of destruction leapt ahead.
In a brilliant golden light, devoid of any heat, the Gold Dragon's Breath engulfed Bakugo immediately. There was no burning sensation that one would expect from a so-called 'Dragon's Breath', but the pain and damage it did were more than any fire or explosion could ever think of.
Inside the golden pillar of extreme shockwave, Bakugo felt even his cells shake. His brain thumped inside his skull and his heart beat faster than it should be possible. He felt his body would burst open, entirely. From the bit he could see out of the golden energy, Neji wasn't even trying. If he pushed just a bit further, Bakugo would be dead with his body mashed into goo.
A large shriek of pain, something he's been trying to hold for 3 seconds, left his lips as Present Mic's muffled voice came from all the mics around.
Cementos couldn't build a wall in the air, so Midnight had to run to stop Neji. But she didn't have to go too far as Neji closed his mouth, ending the technique, just as Bakugo's limp and unconscious body, shaking and trembling even then, fell to the ground softly.
Midnight drew back the leg she had risen on the arena platform and sighed.
"With that… Neji Hado wins the Sports Festival."
The crowd's cheers, as always, were deafening even though her announcement was filled with tiredness.
Neji's name was being yelled around like a politician by his followers.
The kids who had taken Neji's speech as an insult and decided to gang up on him looked genuinely scared and gulped, while a minority only got angrier.
Going back to her platform, Midnight rubbed her temples in annoyance.
And here she thought the kid was merciful, but he didn't hold back at all.
But then again, nor did Bakugo hold back. Cementos would have barged in when Bakugo was doing his flashy attack if not for Nezu's sudden call. Nezu was in the 3rd year stadium, acting as a referee, so his being here meant the winner there has been decided. The mouse had then come here to observe the 1st year and told Midnight to let the match continue.
Of course, she couldn't refuse the Principal knowing he was rarely wrong and didn't want the students' bad. That's why that kid had won… if not, Neji would have lost if Cementos had intervened.
"...Maybe I should invite him to my agency."
Midnight thought as she looked at Neji who rubbed his neck and apologised to Cementos who was giving him a speech.
"...Then again, who will want to go to that dead place."
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Author's Note: If you remember, the first time Neji's quirk turned level 5 (chapter 13), he could solidify his shockwave rings for a brief moment. His Gold Dragon's Cloak is a broader version of that technique.