A/N: For anyone asking, I haven't forgotten about any of the tickets Hakari hasn't spent. I am just saving them for later for pacing.
~Kotaro Hakari~
After my little date with Toru I retired home, I did not decide to push Toru into intimacy so early after confessing, because despite me being... well me, I still had a sense of romance, and in life, the more you try to push things one way the more they will push back. So, I'll let her get her feelings properly in order first.
Not like I am in a hurry to get Toru in my bed, if I am feeling like I need some fun time in bed I have Toga who is always up for fun. To a concerning degree, I might even say.
Regardless, I spent the rest of my day at home doing some training and using Gene Refinement to finally get Regeneration to Rare rank.
[Regenaration]
|Rarity: Rare| |Class: Recovery|
Allows you to quickly heal your body over time using energy. You can close small cuts and bruises in seconds and even lost fingers can be returned after a few minutes, you can further speed up regeneration by expending more energy.
Indeed, this got a fairly strong upgrade, with Regeneration and Battle Continuation working in tandem, as long as my brain doesn't get damaged or my neck severed I am practically immortal, in fact, I am fairly certain I could even thug out my heart being ripped out long enough to use [The Fool] to survive.
So then, I have recovery down pat with Regeneration. Brute is my strongest suit with Scary Monsters and Phase Shift, those two paired with tough claws I can shred titanium like its paper mache. I have a great defence with Scary Monsters again and Exoskeleton. For range I have Frostflare.
Then I suppose I have some leeway to experiment with Gene Refinement seeing as I don't have immediate needs in terms of abilities. With this leeway, I decided to start refining Rare+ Blink. Elite abilities were always incredibly potent, they were stronger than rare ranks were stronger than uncommon.
Would something interesting happen if Blink became Elite? It was already an incredibly useful ability as an instant teleport and it was also very easy to train which would make refining it much less of a hassle.
Thankfully, for now, there weren't any looming threats over me. The closest event is Stain and I will not only bring a Platinum ticket into the fight but there is also the fact that there is no way he can threaten me.
He is not faster than Offensive Form, and he sure as hell cannot get past my defence. He may be fairly strong, enough to shatter tens of tons of ice but with Scary Monsters, Exoskeleton and Defensive Form I could recreate the scene from Metal Gear.
Overall, there should be no risk other than the annoying Nomu during the incident, or I could take the initiative and hunt him myself using Destiny's Child to find where he is and silently capture him before the incident.
...Nah, too risky. No need to change things when they are already beneficial to me. Sure, maybe the remix curse could cause some problems but it only made minor changes.
It's not like it would pit me against All for One himself while I am trying to deal with Stain. I shouldn't have garnered enough butterfly karma for a reaction like that.
So, knowing I didn't have any looming threats I could just do some general training without worrying.
After doing some physical conditioning on my base form and then practising blink for an hour before hurling my dinner from nausea I went to bed early for the day.
Chances are, knowing my luck I would face either Bakugou or Half Shit in the first round.
⚀—⚁⚂⚃—⚄—•⚅•—⚄—⚃⚂⚁—⚀
~Kotaro Hakari~
Apparently, the RNG gods have decided to grace me with a bit of relief since my tournament chart does not look like a boss rush with Bakugou, Dekubro and Half Shit in a row.
We were currently in the middle of the UA Stadium with the tournament chart in front of us, to be completely honest, I arrived a bit late and mostly zoned out for the tournament explanation but thankfully Momo summarized it for me. Although I was rather saddened to see the girls not wearing cheerleader outfits, maybe I could ask Toga later?
Shaking my head I looked at the matchups for the tournament closer. More specifically of the people I knew. Toga was fighting against iron-flavored Kirishima, Ochako was against Shoji, Toru against Bellybutton Boy etc. Most of the girls got fairly easy fights except...
-Mina Ashido vs Shoto Todoroki
...Yikes.
Just... yikes.
I don't think Todoroki is in a particularly good mood after getting stomped into the dirt by me in the last two activities.
I'll take her out to eat afterwards to console her.
As for my match, I was against Itsuka Kendo, the orange-haired martial arts girl from 1-B. Honestly, I pitied the girl, it would have been far more fair if I were matched up against a hard hitter.
It did not take too long for the venue to get cleared and for the tournament to start, with me going first against Kendo. We both stepped on the large rectangular concrete stage as the announcer blared.
"The finals you have been waiting for are starting! For the first match we have Kotaro Hakari from the 1-A Hero Course, the golden boy with endless tricks! Seriously, what the hell is his quirk!?"
"Versus Itsuka Kendo from the 1-B Hero Course! The girl with the giant fist and a sharp tactical mind!"
"The rules are simple! No lethal attacks! If your opponent is incapacitated, unconscious, out of bounds or gives up the match is over! Otherwise, feel free to go wild!"
Kendo got into a stance while I still stood relaxed, I could see her sweating, probably expecting me to pull Behemoth again and charge her or something.
I faced Kendo while holding my breath, analysing her stance. Karate, I faced Karate practitioners before in Tokyo when the boss ordered me to find one of the practitioners there who had defected.
I had to fight the entire Dojo, barely made it alive and still managed to whack my target, I wasn't much for traditional martial arts myself but I knew how to fight effectively.
So, I channelled Scary Monsters and transformed myself just enough to put me on superhuman levels as a cold sweat ran down Kendo's brow.
"I look forward to fighting you Kendo-san. Don't worry, I won't just go full monster and finish this, I want to experience fighting you. There aren't many martial artists here after all." Going so overkill against her would get me bad pr and I wanted to give her a chance. Besides, I had my code of conduct against pretty girls and Kendo certainly counted.
This was a competition but at the same time if I just crushed her I would take away her chance to get good offers, especially considering her fate in the original timeline, so might as well let her show off a bit.
She hung her head a bit and gave me a wry smile.
"That kinda hurts, I'd complain about sportsmanship but seeing the first two rounds myself, I will just say I appreciate it." And then she made her move without waiting.
Kendo stepped forward and threw a strong punch toward my centre but I was able to parry it without much problem, my visual acuity was far, far beyond even the best of heroes.
She threw out a few more jabs at me which I weaved around and parried before feinting a straight with her right then kicking me with her left leg which I braced for, it was pretty heavy but not enough to make me stagger. She packed some serious force for her frame like Toga.
But just as I caught her leg she thrust her right fist towards me, confusing me since neither was it a move in karate and neither could she get leverage from this position. But my doubts were quickly quelled when the fist quickly grew to the size of a car and hit me head-on with the mass behind it and the speed of its enlargement which was pretty damn fast, sending me flying back before I flipped mid-air and slammed my feet into the concrete, digging my feet in and stopping myself.
I felt that, smirking I looked at the girl who took up her stance again, looking at me warily.
"You're quick on your feet. I didn't expect the sudden giant fist." Kendo smiled lightly at my compliment.
"Thanks, they rarely do."
Words over, I rushed forward and stomped on the ground, creating a cloud of dust as the ground was smashed under me, she was briefly surprised but quickly responded by enlarging her hands to the size of a car and simply waving the cloud away. But her eyes widened when she did not see me, as I had dropped to all fours before quickly moving to sweep her feet from under her.
"Ugh!"
She got her legs swept from under her but managed to turn it into a flip to re-orient herself, she tried to reach out towards me and pull the sudden big hand trick again but I jumped to the side to avoid her car-sized hand. She landed back on the ground and this time only expanded her hands to the size of my torso before going on the offensive.
She lunged at me with a series of punches, the size of her fists seemed to have no effect on her speed which made it quite difficult to dodge than regular fists due to their size.
But my speed and reaction times were still too fast for her to get a decisive hit in, I either parried or dodged her fists and occasionally countered with a kick or a jab of my own.
A flaw I noticed in her very aggressive style was her fists themselves. Simply put, since they were so large they were also blocking her vision significantly, regular arms are already very good at blocking your own sight while you fight and that paired with large hands wouldn't be of much help to her.
Still, about time to wrap this up, it's clear that Kendo doesn't have many more moves to show, dragging it out more would just be that, dragging it out.
"Sorry about this, but I'll have to start wrapping things up."
"Huh?" Kendo muttered confusedly before I swapped out my loadout to put an end to this round instantly.
I added Phase Shift and increased the power of scary monsters and even Cellular Overdrive to boost my speed to absurd levels.
The ground beneath my feet shattered as I broke the sound barrier and grabbed Kendo by the waist with a hug, making sure to not shatter her bones with my speed before carrying her to the bounds of the arena faster than her brain could understand.
"Eh?"
She made a noise of confusion as in the blink of an eye I went from in front of her to hugging her while gently placing her feet out of bounds
I looked at her with a slight smirk as she blushed.
"Thanks for the match, we should spar again sometime."
"U-uh, yeah?"
Kendo averted her eyes and blushed from the proximity as I released her and the crowd roared out cheers.
"And our golden boy Hakari wins! What a gentlemanly finish! Such romanticism from today's youth!"
"Oi, keep the blatant favouritism to yourself. All things considered, Kendo performed very well against an opponent that outclassed her in every way. On the other hand, holding back against your opponent like Hakari shouldn't be done since they may be capable of turning the situation on your head, making you lose solely because of your hubris."
As the Microphone and Erasure head commentary ensued I viewed the notification assuring me of my victory.
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Feat Achieved! You have defeated Itsuka Kendo +1x Bronze Skill Gacha Ticket
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...Oof, only a bronze ticket makes me feel kind of bad for her.
A/N: Surely Hakari's monologue isn't foreshadowing anything, surely the Stain arc will pass peacefully without any big problems, surely All for One is not foreshadowed in any way. Don't worry about it, there is nothing going on in the shadows.
Also, poor Kendo, Hakari is too strong at this point for Kendo to be worth a notable roll, it's rated bronze because it would be more impressive for Hakari to somehow lose against her. But she will get a lot of love later to make up for her bruised ego. The next matches in the tournament will be more exciting for sure. What did you guys think about the Kendo fight and her introduction? I'd love to know.
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