Chapter 59: The Hero's Engine and the Spirit of Gravity
The stadium was a cauldron of noise and anticipation, the brief intermission only serving to heighten the crowd's hunger for the next battle. The faces of the two combatants filled the giant screen: Tenya Iida, the picture of disciplined focus, and Ochako Uraraka, her expression a mask of cheerful determination. They walked onto the stage from opposite tunnels, the roar of the crowd washing over them. They were friends, classmates, but for this moment, they were rivals.
They met in the center of the ring, the air crackling with a strange mixture of competitive tension and familiar camaraderie.
"Iida-kun," Uraraka said, her voice clear and strong. "Let's promise each other something."
Iida, standing with his back ramrod straight, looked at her seriously. "What is it, Uraraka-kun?"
"No holding back because we're friends," she said, a fierce, determined glint in her warm, brown eyes. "We both have our reasons for wanting to win this. Let's give it everything we have."
Iida adjusted his glasses, a small, respectful smile touching his lips. "I would not dream of disrespecting you in such a way," he replied, his voice firm. "Let us both fight with the full intention of becoming heroes our families would be proud of."
They backed away to their starting positions. The promise had been made.
The starting bell shrieked, and Iida became a blur. He didn't just run; he erupted, his engines screaming to life. "RECIPRO BURST!"
He shot across the stage, a missile of blue and silver armor, aiming to end the match in a single, decisive blow. Uraraka, her eyes wide, did not try to meet him head-on. She leaped to the side, a feat of pure agility. Iida blew past the spot where she had been a nanosecond before, the sheer force of his speed whipping her brown hair violently across her face. As he passed, she reached out, her fingers brushing the empty air, missing his armored leg by the slimmest of margins.
He was too fast.
Iida pivoted instantly, the engines on his calves roaring as he changed direction and appeared directly behind her, in her blind spot. But Uraraka was already in motion. Anticipating his move, she spun, her arm swinging out in a wide, circular backhand, her pink-padded fingertips aiming to make contact. Iida, his own reaction speed just as incredible, leaped backwards, his boots skidding on the concrete as he gracefully evaded her desperate touch.
The crowd roared, a wave of cheers for the lightning-fast exchange.
In the stands, Midoriya watched with an analyst's intensity. She almost had him! he thought, his pen scribbling furiously in his notebook. Her reaction time is incredible. But Iida-kun's control of his acceleration and deceleration is on another level. He's not just moving fast; he's a master of his own momentum.
Uraraka knew she couldn't win a prolonged game of cat and mouse. She had to create an opening. She had to take a risk. Iida, too, was processing the near-miss, a new level of respect for her tenacity hardening his resolve. He thought of his brother, of the expectation to be not just good, but overwhelmingly, decisively excellent.
He charged again, but this time, he didn't aim for her directly. He began to run in a wide, perfect circle around her, his speed increasing with every rotation. The sound of his engines became a constant, high-pitched whine. To the spectators, it looked as though a solid, blue ring of light was forming around Uraraka, trapping her in a vortex of pure speed. He was waiting, watching, preparing to strike from a vector she could not predict.
Uraraka stood in the center of the storm, her head whipping back and forth, her eyes wide with anxiety as she tried to track the untrackable blur. Where will he come from? Left? Right? Behind me?
Like a blue meteor breaking from its orbit, Iida shot out of the circle, a straight, unstoppable line of attack. Before Uraraka could even process the angle of his approach, he was upon her. He scooped her up with an effortless strength, throwing her over his shoulder as he continued his charge towards the boundary line.
The world became a nauseating, incomprehensible blur for Uraraka. The roar of the crowd, the colors of the stands, the blue sky—it all smeared together into a single, dizzying streak. The only constant was the deafening, screaming roar of Iida's engines in her ear. He had reached the white line in less than a second.
But in that final, chaotic moment, just as he was about to cast her out of the ring, her training and her will took over. With a final, desperate act, she slapped her right hand down, her five fingers making perfect, solid contact with the metal of his shoulder pauldron.
Her Quirk activated.
The sudden sensation of absolute weightlessness was a shock to both of them. Iida, who had been compensating for her weight, was thrown completely off balance. Their combined, unstoppable forward momentum did not simply cease to exist. It carried them both, now floating and untethered from the earth, in a clumsy, tumbling arc over the boundary line and out of the ring.
They landed in a heap on the soft grass outside. A stunned silence fell over the stadium. A double elimination?
Midnight held up a hand. "Please wait! We will review the replay!"
The giant screen flickered to life, showing the last few seconds in super slow motion. The entire stadium watched as Iida, carrying Uraraka, reached the line. They saw Uraraka's hand make contact. They saw both of their bodies begin to float. They saw them tumble out of the ring. But the replay zoomed in, right on Iida's feet. At the exact, precise moment Uraraka's Quirk had activated, making them both weightless, the armored heel of Iida's right boot was still in contact with the inside edge of the white boundary line by a single, miraculous millimeter. As his body began to float, that was his last point of contact.
Midnight cracked her whip. "Though both contestants landed out of bounds, the replay confirms that at the moment of ring-out, contestant Iida's foot was still inside the arena! The winner is Tenya Iida!"
The crowd erupted in a massive cheer for the incredible display of speed and the dramatic photo-finish. They roared for the younger brother of the Turbo Hero, Ingenium, a boy who was clearly destined for greatness.
High in the stands, Sora, Lee, and Mr. Tanaka had watched the entire exchange with a silent, focused intensity.
Sora turned to Lee, her expression serious and analytical, her voice cutting through the celebratory noise. "Did you see that, Lee?" she asked, her sharp blue eyes fixed on him. "That boy's speed. His Recipro Burst. In a direct confrontation, your First and Second Gates would not be enough to overwhelm him. To guarantee a victory against that level of explosive velocity, you would need the Third Gate at minimum."
She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in.
"Recovery Girl's warning was clear. Your body can only handle the strain of the higher gates one more time today." She looked from Iida, who was now helping Uraraka to her feet, to the tournament bracket displayed on the screen, where Lee's next opponent was Iida himself.
"So," she said, her voice a low, clinical thing, "you have a decision to make, and you must make it now. You can fight your next match against him without using the Gates, relying on your base skill, and save your final burst of power for the final round. Or, you can use the Gates to ensure your victory against him, and face the final battle with nothing left in reserve." She leaned closer, her gaze unwavering. "What will you decide, Lee?"
Lee did not answer. He stared down at the arena, his eyes fixed on the figure of Tenya Iida, who was now walking off the stage, his posture straight, his expression one of grim, unyielding duty. A tense, conflicted look crossed Lee's face. The path to victory had suddenly split, and both roads were fraught with an impossible level of risk.
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