[21:Always Above]
So, after my intense, thrilling, and super close match that had everyone on the edge of their seat, I went back to the viewing stands with the rest of my class.
That was sarcasm, by the way. I think I beat him in less than a minute. It would be amazing if Shoto weren't here, because of what he'll do to Hanta. Or Sero? The elbow tape guy.
"That was so cool, Eleanor! The way you stood there while your coat was fluttering in the wind and those drones were flying all over the place!" Mina was the most excited about this.
"Alright, alright, calm down. It was only the first round. There's still more to go. Now, if you and everyone else doesn't mind, I'm going to go eat." Unfortunately, while I was about to leave, I got interrupted again.
"Wait, Eleanor!" It was Ochaco.
"What is it?"
"You're kind of smart, right?"
"I mean, I wouldn't say I'm smart. I certainly don't know everything, and I lack some knowledge in certain fields, and even the fields I am good in, I always strive to learn more. I can read multiple books and studies, but it'll never be enough, because I'll never know enough. And besides, a single book on a subject can never teach anybody in full detail. There's no such thing as a 'perfect' or 'infallible' book. If you ever meet someone who says or thinks they know everything because they read one book about it, they are posers who shouldn't be trusted. People who actually have a desire to learn stuff, will always tell you that they can learn more and they don't have all the knowledge on it."
"Um…wow."
"But I guess from your perspective…yeah, I'm smart."
"Can you help me with my quirk? When me and the other girls were in the changing rooms, Toru was talking about how you analyzed her quirk like what Midorya does, but it was different. She said you helped her realize that her quirk may be more than what it is. Can you help me before my own fight arrives?"
Oh no. No, no, I am not doing this again! I don't have the time! But she also seems really desperate to get better. I can see it in her eyes. She really wants to help her family; a noble cause. I can't just deny her so easily.
"Okay, just a few minutes, 'cause I want to go eat. What's your quirk?" I asked Ochaco.
"My quirk allows me to make things weightless and float by touching them. But I do get nauseous if I use it on myself or go past my weight limit."
I took a deep breath in and out. I rubbed the temples on my head to calm my brain from working too hard on these nonsensical powers.
"Are you okay, Eleanor?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. And what's your limit?" I let out a deep breath.
"Around 2,700 kilograms."
2,700 kilograms? What is that in tons?
And before you say anything about this, when I do this stuff in the metric system, it's because those are the standard units used around the world for science. I'll let you in on a little secret: I can't put these units in perspective for myself. I say metric system units because it's the standard, not because I understand it better.
So, 2,700 kilograms…that's…3 tons for simplicity. "Okay, I need to see something first." I reached into my coat and pulled out a pencil. "Make this float."
I handed it to her, and she made it float. And it stayed floating calmly in mid-air. It didn't drift or anything; it stayed in the same position. Oh, great, I really don't have time for this.
"I'm going to keep this brief, Ochaco. Your quirk isn't making things weightless just because you touch them, or 'zero-gravity.' Your quirk is making localized mass-coupled force-field generation via exotic quantum field interaction. Or making a mass-coupled counterforce field."
"What does any of that mean?"
"And it works with your fingertips because fingers have the highest nerve density out of any part of the body, including the…nevermind. Anyway, the anatomy of your fingers are very different. But to summarize, your fingertips have exotic bio-crystalline quantum resonators, massive vascular energy delivery, neural vector-calculation centers, heat dissipation network, pressure-activated emission gating, and a destructive interference shutdown mechanism. This would help explain why you feel nauseous when you lift things above your weight limit as well as a bunch of other things there is too little time to go into detail for."
"I'm very confused."
"So, basically, your power should let you do a lot more than just make things float. You can crush someone in a gruesome scene of gore by increasing apparent weight, you can apply sideways force, you can cushion impacts, you can create weight gradients, you can launch yourself, and more."
"Huh?"
"But that's just a theory. If you want me to go into more detail, which I don't know why you would, find me after the sports festival." I'm really hungry now, so I just said goodbye to her and left to go get food.
/\\//\\//\
Ouch, Ochaco got Bakugo even after some stuff changed. She lost that one. Oh, Toru also lost, no surprises there. Some stuff stayed the same despite some different match-ups, but it's all good. My next match should be soon. I wonder who it is?
"For the first fight of the quarterfinals, we have Eleanor and Midoriya! Come on up!" I heard Midnight's voice say.
This is…not bad actually. By fighting him, he won't get through to Shoto and make him stronger than I want him to be. And he doesn't know how to use One for All yet, so he's scared to unleash the power for fear of hurting himself and the other person too much. But I need a way to handle all the air he unleashes. Oh, I know, just distract him from me and give him way too many targets.
Same plan as usual.
I made my way down to the arena. Midoriya was looking a little bit…I wouldn't say sacred, but more anxious. If I were going against myself, I would also be a bit anxious; I'm at least in the top three in this class.
"Don't be shy, Midoriya. Just do your best." I gave him some encouragement. I had to be a little nice.
"It's hard not to."
"Begin!" Midnight's voice said.
I immediately made my move. I summoned countless drones as they flew towards Midoriya. He had a panicked look on his face as he tried to come up with a way to get rid of them. Good. Now that he was distracted, I slipped away.
As I did, I heard an intense whoosh noise as my hair fluttered slightly. That's one. For a second, I saw a massive hole in the swarm of drones as some of the sky was visible, but it was quickly filled up again.
"There are way too many, and it's so loud!" I heard Midoriya shout before another burst of air pressure destroyed more of the drones. But the space filled up again. If only he knew that these drones were almost useless. The only thing they could do was fly and make noise; that's it. Well, most of them, there had to be a few in there that did something, so he wouldn't suspect a thing.
"Ahh!" Like that. He let out a shout as one of my drones shot a…"non-lethal less-lethal" bean bag round at him. Yeah, I'm going that route with him. Just bean bag rounds, nothing more, unless I really need this to end, then I'd use rubber bullets.
I ran around the arena, using the combination of noise from the drones and the sheer numbers of them to hide my movements and get behind him.
Whoosh! As soon as I heard him release another blast of air, I ran up behind him quickly and put him in a waist-lock from behind.
"Huh!?" His surprise came too late before I lifted him up in the air and released him, throwing him out of the arena. Yeah, he could use his quirk to get back in, but he'd have to aim at the air, which would throw him back harder on the ground, or at the audience, which would kill a lot of people. And if he finds a good angle to launch, then Midnight would probably disqualify him for being too high in the air. I don't know the cutoff for the airspace of the arena, but it can't be too high, at least not as high as Midoriya would go.
Whoosh!
"Huh?" I looked back and saw Midoriya in the air.
"Midnight, does that count as being out?! He's pretty high up!" I asked Midnight, screaming to get through the noise.
"He's only out if he touches the ground outside the battle arena." Midnight responded to me. There goes the height plan.
Alright, we'll play a bit hard. Since he's in the air, he's an easy target.
I controlled the drones to go to him, and some of them started to pelt him with bean bag rounds. There were also some that released some smoke grenades. It was a large column of smoke, with Midoriya in it.
Whoosh!
I felt a massive gust of air pressure hitting me. The smoke at the bottom of the column blew out in all directions. I braced myself, planting my feet on the concrete as the air pushed me slightly. It's a good thing he aimed downward to cushion his fall instead of at me.
I have to take advantage now.
As soon as I regained my balance, I ran to where he should be landing. I ran through the smoke, but weirdly, he wasn't anywhere. I looked up and there he was, still falling, but not as fast as he should.
Hmm…a new plan starts now.
I held my arms out and caught him in my arms. Here we go.
I flicked my hair back and looked him in the eyes. "Hey, Midoriya."
He turned as red as a tomato after I said this to him in my best voice possible. I started walking, making sure he was distracted.
"Huh? Wha—E…Eleanor what's happening?"
Good, good, stay distracted.
"It's alright, I'll take very good care of you. All that smoke obscured the vision of the audience, and we both ended up outside the arena, so it was a tie. You probably didn't hear it because of how much noise the drones are making. So, I'm carrying you back to the arena, so we can resume the fight. I don't want you to get hurt now. It's my duty as president to make sure my classmates are in good shape and get a fair shot at winning."
"I can walk on my own; you don't need to carry me."
"No, I insist."
"Uh…alright."
I kept walking and set him down.
"Okay, get ready, Midoriya." As soon as I said this, the smoke quickly started to clear out. "Alright, I'll head to the other side." I ran away quickly to really sell it. And it was just in time.
"Midoriya is out! Eleanor advances to the next round!" Midnight said.
"What?"
Poor Midoriya. It was almost funny.
"Sorry about that, Midoriya, but you gotta do what you gotta do."
"You lied to me?"
"Of course, I did."
"That's such a dirty trick!"
"According to Midnight, it's all fair, and I didn't break any rules. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Better luck next time, Midoriya."
I left the arena. Not the way I thought I would win, but a win is a win.
As I looked up, I saw Ochaco staring weirdly at me. She needs to calm down; it's not like I'm taking Midoriya away from her. Thought, isn't it a bit too early for that stuff to be happening? Or maybe she's also getting a weird feeling? Something she can't explain yet? Eh, not my problem.
On to the next one!