Hiro didn't return to where the rest of 1A were. His fight was just after the next, and he didn't want to waste his time going back and forth.
Instead, he found a nearby empty classroom. And then, while waiting for the third round to begin, he focused inwards to feel the difference in progress after his Quirk Awakened.
Until now, he still couldn't believe it.
He had all but given up on his Quirk breaking through in this world, even accepting that he might need the assistance of a power system from other worlds to progress further. For it to suddenly evolve- it was a very unexpected welcome.
His perception regarding his own body had reached a deeper level. From only being able to control tissues, he was now able to command up to the cell level, and slightly influence the genes.
So now, he needed to once again familiarize himself with operating his body at a much deeper level. The leap from controlling his tissues and then the cells was very substantial.
To make an analogy, if his body was a building, then the organs in his body are the rooms. He was able to increase the size, shape, and improve the efficiency of what each room can do after intensive training with his Quirk.
Then, his Quirk awakened for the first time, and he was now able to control tissues- the walls, floor, windows, and electrical wirings of each room. He could adjust each aspect to make the room more durable, conserve more electricity, and transmit information between every room much faster.
And after this second awakening, he gained the ability to control each brick of the building. And these bricks can self-replicate and are responsible for converting energy to provide the whole building.
If before, Hiro can only manipulate pre-existing parts of the building; now, he can expand and create new rooms himself.
One aspect that makes use of this was a quicker regeneration. As long as he has enough energy, he could now instantly regenerate even from having his head blown off. And with his current physique, energy was something he had in spades.
Another aspect was biological immortality. That's right. With his current ability, death from old age was no longer something he had to worry about. He could even de-age himself if he wanted to.
Those are just two of the most basic benefits cellular manipulation provided him. Hiro still had many ideas in his head that he wanted to try.
Then there was also his ability to now manipulate the genes.
Each room inside a building is impossible to be composed solely of bricks. There are glass windows, wooden floors, copper wirings, chairs, tables, etc. each arranged in a specific manner.
The same principle applies with organs. Different organs are composed of different types of cells. However, all of them originate from a single cell- the stem cell.
By activating different types of gene inside it, the stem cell can transform into a blood cell, skin cell, muscle cell, brain cell, or any type of cell it needs to.
However, each person has subtle differences into which genes are activated in their body, along with the types of genes they possess. This results in the deviation between the physical quality of each person, even among siblings.
By being able to manipulate his genes, Hiro finally gained the ability to increase his current physical limits to what is genetically possible. He could even incorporate the genes of other people and try to replicate their structure to enhance his own.
However, as he said, he had to familiarize himself with the potency of his newly awakened Quirk first before he could try that.
After all, there are more than 30 trillion cells in the human body. And within each cell, there are approximately 20,000 to 25,000 genes.
To find the most optimal gene activation combination between his heart cell, blood cell, brain cell, and all other types of cell is impossible without lots of time.
Now, there lay two paths ahead of him. First, he can prioritize studying how to increase his physical genetic limits. To progress quickly in this path, he had to get genetic samples from Bang and other physical powerhouses from One Punch Man to study which part of their genes he should replicate.
The other path was to focus on his Quirk Factor. He already realized that Shinso's Quirk was only part of the reason why he detected them. Instead, it was his Quirk awakening that allowed him to find them.
If he focused on this path, not only would he master his Quirk faster, in addition, he could finally start studying the Quirk Factors of other people to begin his attempt of replicating Quirks.
Hiro only thought for a moment before deciding to focus on the second path. His current physical prowess, along with the Water Flowing Rock Smashing Fist, was already enough to face any physical powerhouse in this world. What he needed more was an indirect power that would help him in the multiverse.
Besides, he would have a much easier time studying the genes of other people in the future if he already gained mastery of his Quirk.
Unfortunately, unlike All For One who only needed his palm to absorb the Quirk of others, or Monoma who needed just a brief physical contact to copy other's Quirk, he needed to thoroughly study the whole body so he could try to replicate their Quirk Factor inside his own.
Maybe he could do the same in the future when his mastery over his Quirk increased. But right now, when he could barely perceive his own Quirk Factor, that was impossible.
"The wait is over! The third round is about to begin!"
Hiro perked up. At last, it finally started. At this moment, all he wanted was for this tournament to end so he can dive deeper into the possibilities of his newly awakened Quirk.
He left the classroom and headed for the preparation area. From the speakers, Midoriya and Todoroki had apparently entered the arena already.
"Mina? What are you doing here? You're supposed to enter from the opposite side."
When he turned the corner, he found his pink-skinned classmate and would-be opponent leaning against the wall, her arms folded in front of her chest.
"I was waiting for you. Jeez. I wanted to talk with you before our match, but you didn't show up."
Mina said with an accusatory look, her lips pouting.
"Haha, sorry about that. I figured returning was a waste of time. So what do you wanna talk about?"
Mina didn't immediately reply. She skipped in front of him, her hands behind her back and a mischievous grin on her face.
"Well…I plan to give up on our fight?"
"Huh? Why?"
"I know I'm no match for you. Instead of going up there and then just getting carried down in humiliation, it's better to save both our energy for the next match."
Mina said, a faux helpless expression on her face.
Hiro raised an eyebrow. That was definitely not the whole reason. Still, he respects her decision… and ending the tournament faster would also be in his interest.
"If that's what you decided then-"
"But then I realized!"
Mina cut him off, her gaze colliding with his as she continued.
"Wouldn't that mean I would miss the opportunity to get princess carried? You know, when I saw what you did to that vine-haired girl, I got curious what that felt like. So…"
Mina stepped forward, her hands resting on both sides of Hiro's shoulder as she whispered in a joking tone.
"If Hiro-kun carried me like that right now, then there would be no more problems. What do you think?"
Mina's breath hit his cheek. She maintained an outwardly curious and inquiring smile, but it couldn't fool him.
Although she was doing her best to hide it, the slight tremors from her body and her ripe red cheeks let him know just how embarrassed she really was right now.
He didn't know what prompted her to do this, nor where did she even get the idea from. However, he wasn't one to keep a lady waiting.
"If that's what you want."
He said and stepped forward. His right hand rested on her smooth back, while his left slid behind her knees. With minimal effort, he pushed and held her in a princess carry.
Through his right palm, he could feel just how fast Mina's heart was beating. It was even faster than Momo's when he carried her back then.
"S-so this is how it feels. I-it's more comfortable than I expected!"
Mina stuttered, her face as red as an apple. She continued to ramble on to hide her embarrassment, and Hiro was content to let her do so. He just steadily held her in his arms, chuckling a bit while listening.
The match between Todoroki and Midoriya had already begun, but neither of them seemed very interested in the outcome of the battle between the two boys.
At one point, Mina suddenly fell silent. She took a deep breath, and then softly asked.
"Hiro?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you…do you like Yaomomo? As in, like like kind of like?"
Hiro looked down with a raised eyebrow, and found Mina hiding her face in his chest, as if not daring to face what she might hear next.
"What brought this on?"
"…"
"Hmm, well, if I had to say, then I definitely "like like" her."
"Oh. Oh! I-I see. Then-"
"And I feel the same towards you."
Hiro felt the body in his arms stiffen. Mina mechanically looked up, and met his amused gaze.
"I like like you too, Mina."
"D-Dummy! You can't like like more than one person at the same time!"
"Well, I can. And I did."
"You! Me! I!"
Mina said, unable to form a coherent sentence. When she came here, she only wanted to have some 'moments' with Hiro due to something she heard from a conversation with Yaomomo.
She just asked that question out of a moment of impulse, and had already regretted it the moment it left her mouth. However, the answer she received far surpassed her expectations.
"BOOM!"
Fortunately, a massive explosion reeled her back from her chaotic thoughts.
"What's that!?"
"It should be a collision between Todoroki and Midoriya Quirks. They're really not holding anything back."
"Ah! That's right, the fight!"
She hurriedly jumped down from Hiro's arms, and took several steps back.
"I- I still need to inform Midnight-sensei about my surrender. We'll talk about all this later!"
Mina shouted, her face bright red, though whether from anger or embarrassment was unknown. After saying that, she ran away in the direction of her preparation hall.