Kai exited the changing room, donning his hero costume. It was a tactical, primarily black bodysuit with hints of gold accent. The base outfit fit snug on his body without inhibiting his ability to move, flexible and breathable as well as designed to handle movement while flying. Covering his vital areas was reinforced medium-heavy paddings, around his shoulders, back, chest, forearms, and ribcage. His gloves had ultra-thin layers on his palm and fingers to allow him to use his quirk while the back on his hand was reinforced with some padding to protect his fist.
As for accessories, he had a utility belt with basic gear, med-kits, wires, emergency granola bars. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to fit a cup of ramen inside, despite his hardest efforts. Even a grand genius such as himself had his limits.
However, the most important part of his costume was above his shoulders. He had a helmet with a deep-tinted amber visors. The worst part about his quirk was that is it relied on his mental capacity to do work. It demanded constant mental effort, more drain on his mind than body. The more he used his quirk, the harder it would be to think, making it even harder to do anything. Last time he got a hit to the head, it felt like someone hit him with a brick. And he would know! Bricks hit pretty hard.
Needless to say, he wasn't too keen on getting hit in the head again, making sure his hero costume had a well-fortified helmet. And the visor? A nice bonus. The financial aid he got from UA was quite hefty, meaning he didn't need to pay anything. Whether it was because he was also a recommendation student, Kai didn't know, but he could care less when it came to free stuff. If the government wanted to fund his gear, he sure as hell wouldn't complain.
The visor was neat protection for his eyes, not just for cool points. When he used Vector, he saw the lines of whatever he wanted to control. Usually, it wasn't too bad for a few objects, but a few months ago, he was able to increase his control and starting to manipulate six objects at a time, and the visual noise was starting to cause him some headaches, thus the glasses, which tuned it down.
Overall, Kai thought most about practicality. He still had a habit of hiding his identity whenever he and Knuckleduster went out to fight as vigilantes, so the helmet was more comfortable for him. And despite getting much stronger than he was years ago, he knew that extra armor could decide who would win a fight.
...It didn't seem like his classmates who think the same though.
Kai looked over to Kirishima, who looked like a male stripper with his costume. Kai couldn't remember what the guy's quirk was, but going completely topless seemed like a bad idea to him.
Then there was Ashido right next to him, who was wearing pajamas and a jacket? It certainly seemed to fit her personality, but still, there was a lot lacking.
His eyes moved to a guy with a tail, Ojiro if he remembered correctly. And... he had a martial arts gi. How... plain?
Kai didn't know what to expect, but the more he looked, the worse things got. Just as he was deciding to give either Mineta or Bakugo the walking 24/7 public scandal award, he blinked. Hard. His eyes stood on the figure of Yaoyorozu.
...What the hell was he looking at?
From what he saw yesterday, her quirk created things coming out from her body, but there was it so necessary to show that much skin? If it was, couldn't she instead just use a costume made out of her hair? It's not like she has any other armor or gear protecting her that she couldn't use her hair for?
Kai took a breath. He thought maybe he was overexaggerating, until he looked around and saw most of the boys, and some girls, intentionally averting their eyes away from the black haired girl. Well, most. Mineta looked at her like some secret treasure trove and couldn't avert his eyes away.
'Okiiii, I'm going to ignore all of this...'
As he was left alone with his thoughts, secretly looking over the rest of his classmates, he felt a presence behind him. He turned around, finding Tsutsumi in her costume.
She wore a sleeveless, dark high-collared jumpsuit with rumpled leggings and navy blue highlights. Two deep green plates cup the underside of her breasts, paired with matching knee guards, as well as a huge greenish-grey utility belt encircled at her hips. She also wore a blue scouter over her right eye.
Overall, she seemed to share the same mindset as Kai, functionality over aesthetics, and seemed as confused as him when she looked at the rest of their classmates. Well, she hid it pretty well, but Kai guessed she was thinking the same as him. However, she also glanced at Kai for a bit, staring at him with a strange look that he couldn't recognize.
"How did you... never mind. Is everyone here yet?" Tsutsumi asked.
"Nah, I think a few more few boys are in the locker room. French boy and Broccoli boy." Kai responds, wondering about her earlier remark.
She raises an eyebrow, "French and Broccoli? You mean Aoyama and Midoriya?"
Kai put the side of his fist on top of his palm before smiling, "Oh yeah! That's their names. Kinda forgot."
"Hmm." Tsutsumi didn't say much else, instead looking over to the award winner with the gigantic boob window before narrowing her eyes and turning back to Kai.
"You have a decent costume," she started, clearly thinking he would've have something similar to their classmates, "looks heavy however. I'm assuming you use your quirk to offload some weight?"
Kai grinned, "Yeah, I'm surprised you can tell. The armor reinforcement is heavy for extra protection but light enough so I can go without using my quirk. But when I fly, this amount of weight is no big deal."
"I see..."
Kai opened his mouth to ask about her costume, when Aoyama came out of the locker room. Both Kai and Tsutsumi locked eyes on him, in his dazzling gleam. To say it wasn't a bit cool to look at would be a lie. At first glance, it looked very heavy, but it was actually heavy armor in key areas, and loose enough for him to move gracefully. At least it made sense why he took so long.
It... sure was something?
Shortly after Kai was done evaluating Aoyama, Midoriya finally escaped the locker room, and Kai needed to try his hardest not to laugh. After Aoyama's extravagant showing, he expected a very goofy but also well-designed costume, and Kai was glad to say, it was definitely was one of the two. Midoriya's costume made him look like a green rabbit with anxiety. The fact that he was the last to come out and the rest of the class was waiting on him dawned on the boy very quickly, making him blush fiercely red from the attention before All Might (who, when Kai saw from the corner of his eye, tried not to laugh as well) called for the class's attention.
"Sensei!" Iida's hand shot up, "Will we be doing something similar to the Entrance Exam?"
"Nope! Today we'll be doing indoor training! Right now, you will split into two teams! Heroes and Villains and face off in two on two indoor battles!!"
After All Might's voice came a yell from various students.
"Wait, we don't get any basic training!?"
"Yeah! How are we just going to battle without training!"
"I can blow up anyone I want?"
"I already know I'm going to lose!"
"Don't we need some practice first?"
"What are the win and loss conditions?"
"Can I go home now?"
"Woah woah woah," All Might started in English, frantically waving his hands around, "settle down! Yes, this will take place before basic training! After all, experience is the best teacher! Now follow me young students!"
...Despite how much of an amazing hero the man was, it appeared his skills in combat didn't translate into the classroom. Well, Kai could agree that practical learning was usually good, but he guessed most of the students never even threw a punch before. Unless they were all combat geniuses, Kai highly doubted they would all learn much from this training.
When they entered the CCTV room, All Might brought over a cart, each with a box. He explained the activity, the villains protecting the bomb and the heroes trying to capture them.
"Now then young students! Each of you will draw lots to determine your partner! So get in line now!"
'Ahh, I should've expected that. Most heroes won't have a choice to pick their own partners in the field so this makes sense.'
As Kai thought that, on the other side of the room, Iida made a fuss, which Kai ignored as he drew his lot: Team C.
He looked around, waving his lot with the letter C on it until he saw his partner. His eyes met Tsutsumi, who showed her paper with the letter D, which Kai frowned to.
Kai walked around to the other people who already drew their lots, until he walked towards Jirou and Ashido, who seemed to comparing before Ashido let out a big sigh, as Kai looked over their shoulders, seeing the letter A and then C.
"Well, aren't you lucky, you get to be with me" Kai said, looking at the paper in the girl's hand.
The two looked at him before Ashido smiled, "Oh cool! You got A too?"
"Wuh? Nah, I got C" he said, waving his paper before looking at Jirou's matching C.
"Hmm, I guess I can work with that," Jirou started, before grinning at the pinky, "good luck Ashido."
Ashido simply let out a frown before walking to find her partner.
"Well, I have no doubt our team will win," Kai said without a hint of arrogance in his voice, "but we should probably talk some strategy. Do you have any combat or extensive quirk training that can give us the upper hand?"
Jirou twirled her earphone string around her finger, "Not really. I can use them to hear from far away and I can hook my earphones into these speakers for a long range sound attack and use them for medium range like whips. But I suck at close range."
"Ok ok," Kai put his fingers through his imaginary beard, "I can work with that. It just so happens that I specialize in close-range, so I'll be countin' on you to watch out for enemies."
Before they could continue talking, All Might's voice boomed out.
"Allll right! It looks like everyone has found their partners! Now, I'll call the first two groups!"
All Might reached into two boxes, one labeled heroes, and the other villains. Kai hoped he was a villain. Ohhh, the fun he would have...
"Now! The heroes team is Group H! And the villains team is Group..." either the man loved the theatrics, or it was genuinely taking him an embarrassing amount of time to pick up a ball, "Group C!"
Kai's face instantly lit up, as wicked grin found its way onto his face, looking around "So... who's our victims?"
The victims in question gulped in nervous, raising their hands. One of them looked completely nervous while the other was smiling brightly as always.
"Ahem!" All Might coughed, wanting to get the group's attention, "So! It shall be young Midoriya and young Aoyama vs young Yukimura and young Jirou! Good luck to both of you teams! No matter who wins or loses, all of you will gain something from this experience!"
The Broccoli boy almost looked calm after hearing his words before he looked at Kai again, who just smiled and waved at them, becoming even more nervous than before. His partner seemingly unaware of the danger they were in.
'Oh, I'm sooooo gonna have fun with this.'
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A/N:
I didn't plan this matchup one bit. I used a randomizer and I rolled three times with my eyes closed. A very welcome surprise though. It also gave me a new idea for this story weirdly enough. I'll try my best to drop subtle hints throughout but idk if it'll be good. We'll see.
Btw, when it comes to the Sports Festival, I won't be using a randomizer, I want things to go a very specific way, and already have it planned out.
Also I don't remember if I used a bit of ai for this one or not. From the next chapter on, it's 100% ai free. Also didn't reread through ts so tell me if there are dumb parts and I'll see bout it.