Rise to The Top

## Upcoming Prospects

The U.A Sports Festival. A time of competition amongst students to not only gain bragging rights of their own, but to show off and display their abilities for the Pro Heroes watching. The competition had been going on for quite some time, and it had reached its Finals. This one match would determine who was the best of the best.

Amongst the four that would compete in the two Semi-Final matches was Nesuke Ichomuka, a student known to have great control over his quirk, Living Ink. He had been calming himself, he had never imagined he would have gotten this far. Looking up at the television screen in the waiting room, he gulped as he saw his name flash across the screen. It was his turn. Rising gingerly, he began to make his way over.

Halfway through the hallway to his end of the arena, he ran into Kinari, a…friend. It was difficult to describe their relationship. They were aggressive towards each other, yet they were close. “Don’t lose, shithead.” she spat, a smirk appearing on her face. “I might just have to lose because of what you said.” he responded, standing across of her. “Aren’t you funny?” she asked, her smirk becoming a smile. “i try.” the brown-haired boy responded.

They stood there in silence for a while, basking in each others company. After some time, Nesuke decided to break the silence. “I should get going,” he began. “I don’t wanna get disqualified for taking too long.”

Kinari nodded. “Don’t lose, Squid.” she responded, using her nickname for him. Nesuke laughed. “You got it, Kina.” he replied.

Nesuke began to continue his path, taking a quick glance back to see Kinari with a gentle smile on her face. Nesuke looked away, confidence flowing through him. *”Now I can’t lose.”* he thought to himself, finally arriving at his end of the arena.

How times have changed, this time last year he was just a support class student who needed to keep his grades up so he wouldn't lose his scholarship. One year later he's in the hardest program in the academy, one of the top students, and interning under the one of the world's greatest heroes, how times have changed. Despite all this change, Masato Takeo remained stoic.

"You nervous?" one of the upper classmen asked him. "Who am I kidding, you don't get nervous. You're gonna kill." he said before walking off to go get a seat for the match. Masato remained silent for a couple more minutes. He recalled his performace last year, and how much he's grow and improved as a fighter since then. After much anticipation, Masato rose. "Let's do this!" he said, heading to the arena immediately after.

Nesuke smiled. "Just like last year, isn't it, Masato?" he called out to his friend, a smirk on his face. Masato and him were close friends, bonding after their match last year. "This'll be fun, won't it? We'll get to see how far we've advanced since last year. Training under great heroes." he said, remembering how he had and still was training under the worlds greatest hero. Nesuke entered a fighting stance, pulling out Tenta-Hook. "Let's do this!"

Masato let off a quick smirk. "It's Vulcan to you, champ." he said, letting off a quick smirk. The two, as seen by the fact they're facing in the finals, were considered top of their class among second year students and prime candidates for the following year Big Three. As both of them grew side by side and watched each other grow, it's fair to say both were knowledgeable of each other's abilities. But unlike many other quirks which are pretty one dimensional, both Vulcan's and Squid's quirks held great versatility.

Summoning two shortswords, Masato took on his dual wielding fighting stance. "Good Luck, you're gonna need it." he snickered. Ready for the announcer to give him the queue.

"And for the final match, we have two heroism next brightest stars! On one corner we have the hero intraining Squid! And on the opposite end we have another second year in Vulcan. Who will win?!?!" he waited a brief moment, "Now, begin!"

Nesuke chuckled. "Thanks for the good wishes, Vulcan!" he exclaimed, launching himself forward. He knew the shortswords would put him at a disadvantage, two of them, especially in Vulcan's hands, were deadly. He was only a few inches away from Masato when he performed a straight thrust, something that usually wouldn't have been performed with a khopesh-like blade. Despite that, Nesuke let his blade continue its path, hoping to meet its target.

Immediately as his opponent dashed towards him, Masato launched the two blades into the air with unprecedented speed. Using the sun as a tool, it'd be to keep track of them due to the glaring light. Immediately as the two blade were swung into the skies, Masato summoned a new weapon, a custom bow and arrow. Leaping backwards to avoid Squid's attack, airborne, Masato launched an arrow of prime design, a type of metal that could not be cut down easily. "Never let them keep the same plan for too long..." Masato thought, attempting to throw his opponent of his game by showing the versatility of his quirk.

Nesuke was quick to react. He sidestepped almost instantly after the arrow was released, in order to avoid being hit by it. As the arrow flew by him, Nesuke used his Tenta-Hook to hook in the arrow. Using the speed and force it had been flying at to spin around in a circle, he released the arrow back towards Masato. The arrow soared towards the student, Nesuke preparing himself for the inevitable counter.

Masato was almost surprised at the fact that his opponent responded just the way he wanted him to. "No way..." he thought, thinking it was too real to be true. Despite his reasonable doubt, Vulcan followed through with his attack. As his own arrow dashed towards him, the true attack would reveal itself. Latched onto to the back of the arrow was a thin string of transparent aluminum which was borderline naked to the human eye, especially moving at such a speed. Similar to his opponent, Masato would grab the arrow. "Now shock!" he announced! as the two gloves he wore launched a steady current of electricity into the wire. The wire, which was pulling on Nesuke's back due to his circular motion response would not only be the main factor of his attack but also prevent him from flying off stage due to the force of catching the arrow.

Descending to the ground, he watched cautiously to see how his opponent would adjust and counter.

Nesuke smirked. As soon as he had released the arrow, he had anticipated something like this. As he had thrown the arrow, he had felt something else, a thread of sorts. Suddenly, from Nesuke's left bicep, a gorilla emerged, pounding its chest and roaring. "Toss me up!" he ordered. The gorilla obliged and tossed him up into the air as the current charged through the wire, shocking the gorilla. It roared it pain, and yanked off the wires, screaming in anger. Still in the air, Nesuke pointed his finger at Masato. "Attack!" Nesuke exclaimed. The gorilla rushed forward at rapid speeds. It went for a heavy punch towards Masato's gut; wanting revenge for being electrocuted.

Nesuke descended to the ground, a blank expression on his face, Tenta-Hook at the ready.

As the primate came charging towards him, Masato remained stoic. Using the same arrow he launched in his previous assault, he arched the arrow backwards this time a bit further to gather more force. But rather than simply launching his weapon, he remained in a nock position. Just as the beast was within a few feet, Masato's confidence finally showed as he let out a smirk. "Down they come..." he whispered, as the two blade that he launched into the skies earlier pierced the back of the beast. The crowd was impressed by such calculation and thought the aspiring hero had put into his attack. "Summoning such a beast for battle is just...disgraceful." Vulcan spoke, releasing the arrow; a trail of wind followed displaying it's incredible speed, literately piercing the air. Embedded deep into the ink with the wire attached to both of the blades, the arrow literately pulled the ape with it, yanking him across stage.

"Don't worry, I'll put it out of its misery." Masato spoke, before funneling powerful current with increased voltage into the wire to end the ape's short life.

"You'd kill an ape?" Nesuke asked teasingly. Nesuke had predicted that Masato would do something like this again, trying to electrocute the gorilla. Nesuke had total dominion over the animals summoned from his body. As the arrow sent the ape flying, the ape grabbed the blade embedded on its back with its hand, yanking them off. The gorilla crashed to the ground as the the arrow kept flying, the current hitting the blades. Yet the ape was safe. The crowd was impressed. Despite the fact that Masato had calculated this, Nesuke's ability to create strategies on the fly proved to be useful. Nesuke aimed his palm towards the gorilla, and it reverted back into ink, flying into Nesuke's palm. "Time to heal, ol' pal."

"Nice manoeuvres, Vulcan." Nesuke called out, swinging Tenta-Hook around his hand with ease. "Let's keep going."

## The Real Battle Begins

"I was unaware that you're creatures and yourself share the same mind. I'll be sure to keep that in mind from now on." he spoke, more so for the crowd than anything else. While this was a battle, it was more of a show than anything else. In a year, the two of them would be Pro Heroes, thus building a respectable reputation is very important. Unable to simply recall his weapons like Nesuke, Masato simply placed the bow over his shoulder. Yanking back to the two blades by pulling the wire, they returned to his hands. "But as you so well put, *let's keep this going*" Masato smirked, before rushing his towards his target at blinding speeds with his two blade at and ready to strike or defend at any moment.

Still swinging the Tenta-Hook on his one hand, he quickly flicked it over to his right hand. He sidestepped, interlocking the curved part of his blade with one of Vulcan's own. "Excellent moves!" he announced louder than he would have normally, wanting to entertain the audience. Despite their rivalry, Nesuke and Masato were often on the same wavelength. He knew that they should also entertain the audience for some more time. "However, can you counter this?!" Nesuke challenged, trying to perform a technique he had seen in a fight that had been shown on the Television. He moved towards Masato's back rapidly, after feinting towards the opposite direction. Now behind him, his blade still hooked on to one of Masato's blades, he yanked it towards him. This would hopefully cause Masato to turn towards him. Before Masato had even turned, Nesuke went to headbutt him.

Nesuke's speed was incredible but not surprising. As stated, Masato and Nesuke have been training side by side for over a year now. They're both familiar with each other's fighting styles and quirk's so this was more of a battle of wits than anything else. As Nesuke's weapon hooked on to one of Masato's, Vulcan would simply let go of the blade, not allowing his enemy to control how the situation would unfold. Removing the bow from his shoulder, Masato dramatically pivoted completely to face his opponent and then leaped to the skies. Using his quirk, he'd summon three then launched arrows in quick succession. "Level One is almost over..." Masato thought to himself as he continued to follow through with his plan.

Masato having let go of his blade was a beneficial factor on Nesuke's end. He now had two weapons, a blade and his Tenta-Hook. As Vulcan released the three arrows in rapid succession towards him, Squid used the blade that Vulcan had...gifted him to block the arrows, slicing them in the air. He spun the blade around with one hand, before leaping into the air after Vulcan. Having sheathed Tenta-Hook, Squid lifted his palm towards Vulcan, to reveal an Octopus tattoo. The creature came into existence, and Nesuke commanded for his eight-tentacled friend to release a stream of ink straight towards Masato's eyes.

"He's gotten better at summoning the creatures in battle now." Masato thought, recalling how Nesuke used to remain still and vulnerable as he summoned his creatures. How times have changed. But Nesuke wasn't the only one who's grown over the years. As Nesuke called forth his tattoo beast, Masato summoned another arrow, this with a thick line connected. Revealing his true arching speed, he quickly sent the bow back to the stadium, and held onto the short line which yanked him away from the black ink. Unfortunately, some did get into his left eye which would blind him partially. But despite his weakened condition, he did not hesitate to summon another weapon, one his favorites. Placing the bow over his shoulder once more, after a brief moment, a massive war hammer emerged in his hand. "Mjölnir!" he chanted, as he swung the massive hammer at his target. Even it didn't hit, the sheer force would gather winds, send his foe higher to the skies.

*"Shit."* Nesuke thought to himself as the hammer flew towards him. Nesuke had gone to sidestep, but the hammer hit his left wrist. Nesuke grimaced as he grabbed it, flinching slightly from the pain. He couldn't let the audience see that we was in pain. "I haven't seen that one before," Nesuke began. "When did you come up with it?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, a cheetah emerged from his back. It snarled before launching itself towards Vulcan. It went to attack towards Vulcan's now somewhat blindside, the cheetah wanting to take down its prey.

Not the time for conversation, Masato didn't respond to his opponent's question. Rather he focused on the cry of anger Nesuke's newly summoned pet made. Panting, took a deep breath. "Can't keep recklessly summoning like this. I'm gonna burn out." he thought, gazing to the crowd for a brief moment. Circling his hammer at incredible speeds, just as the ink beast was about to strike, Masato used the momentum and force of the war hammer to pull him to the skies once more. "Solemn Strike!" Masato yelled, before utilizng the force of gravity to pull him downward in order to slam his massive weapon into the stadium to summon as massive shockwave to hopefully knock his opponent off the stage.

Nesuke was amazed. 'Solemn Strike' as Masato had called it was amazing, and much more powerful than could be told from merely viewing it. It launched Nesuke upwards, and soon he began to fall downwards. The cheetah had been killed, but Nesuke still had some moves up his sleeves. "Let me show you something no one's seen yet," Squid began. "A tattoo that even Kinari hasn't seen yet."

Ripping off his mask, a tattoo on Nesuke's neck was revealed. It seemed to be a...dinosaur? It emerged from his neck, a complete beast, an Allosaurus. It slammed onto the ground with ease, and Nesuke managed to land on it. It roared, sending shivers down the spines of everyone watching. "Charge!" he yelled, as the large beast went to attack Masato.