Jun bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, rolling his shoulders before giving his arms one last stretch.
He picked up both escrima sticks and tossed them into the air.
Three clones appeared around him. Two reached up, catching the sticks as they fell.
"All right." Jun settled into a ready stance. "Bring it on."
The unarmed clone moved first, rushing forward and snapping a kick toward Jun's upper body.
Jun leaned back, letting the foot pass inches in front of him, only for one of the armed clones to close in from his side.
Jun caught the clone's wrist before he could bring the escrima stick around. He turned with the arm, twisting the wrist upward as he tried to lock it in place.
The clone immediately turned with him, already working his way out of the hold.
Jun tightened his grip, but the third clone drove into his side before he could secure it. Jun stumbled a step, his grip loosening just enough for the other clone to twist free.
Jun brushed a hand across his side as all three spread around him again.
He raised his hands. "It's been a while since I've had a three on one."
The two escrima sticks came in almost together.
Jun shifted away from the first and dipped beneath the second, barely getting clear before the unarmed clone moved in to take advantage of the opening.
Jun drove a palm toward the clone's chest.
The clone slipped aside.
Jun let the missed strike carry him through, rotating with it and snapping an elbow into the chest of the other clone coming in from behind him.
The hit sent the clone sliding back.
The unarmed clone was already back on him.
Jun caught one hand, the clone caught his, and for a moment they traded control back and forth, each knocking the other's hands aside before either could secure a grip.
Jun brought his knee up between them.
The clone raised his own and checked it.
An escrima stick came in from the side.
Jun slipped aside as the stick swung through where his shoulder had been. His palm struck the clone's upper arm, knocking the swing off course and sending the stick toward an oncoming clone.
The second clone twisted aside to avoid it, forced to abandon his own attack.
Jun heard movement behind him and turned, catching sight of another clone coming in with a flying knee. He pivoted out of the knee's path as it passed, catching the back of the clone's waistband with one hand and his shirt with the other. Using the clone's momentum and his own rotation, Jun threw him into the clone who had just dodged the escrima stick.
The second clone caught him and stumbled back before all three readied themselves again.
Yep. Same as #2 and #3. The Quirk didn't change.
Jun held up a hand. "Okay, testing's done. Got a little bit of training in too."
The two armed clones tossed their escrima sticks into the air before all three closed in and remerged with him.
Jun caught both sticks as they fell.
"All right. Yeah, five is too much. #2 and #3 are already back home practicing Bio-Sculpting. There's a lot of us now. I'll keep the brainstorming sessions to three. Not like the others are gonna miss anything once we remerge anyway."
Jun thought about how to divide everything up.
Probably let #4 and #5 take over more of the training requirements. Boxing, freerunning, stuff like that. #2 and #3 can focus more on the Jasper personality.
Quirk training took priority.
Jun walked over to put his escrima sticks away when his phone lit up with an alarm.
He picked it up. "Ah, okay. Time to go to the gym with the gang."
Mina and Himiko were over by the weights, working through sets with dumbbells, while Kirishima stepped away from the barbell he had been using.
"Dude, you're late."
Jun set his stuff down with the others. "Late?"
He pulled out his phone and checked the time.
"Come on. It's only been five minutes."
"You're never late, man."
Jun lowered his phone and caught Mina and Himiko looking over at him for a second before returning to their sets.
Five minutes late and it's already noticeable. Guess I really am that consistent.
He put his phone back with his things and started through his usual warm-up stretches.
"Yeah, I just got caught up training my Quirk."
Kirishima looked over at him. "You never train your Quirk in front of me. What kind of training do you do?"
Jun paused in the middle of stretching. I can't exactly tell him I was fighting three clones at once.
"Mostly the working-with-myself part. Just because I can make a duplicate of myself doesn't mean I automatically know how to fight alongside another me. Throwing him around, using him to move myself, remerging, creating him again. Stuff like that."
Kirishima nodded. "Yeah, I just train and hit things."
"Yep. Simple but strong."
Kirishima grinned. "Different kind of manliness, dude. You've got all the technique stuff. I keep it simple."
Jun rolled his eyes. "Different methods, same goal."
He finished the last of his warm-up before heading over to the pull-up bar. Jun reached up, grabbed it, and pulled himself into the first rep of his set.
[Sunday Evening...]
After returning from the gym, Jun headed upstairs to his room for the night.
Jun opened his bedroom door to find a rather large man standing inside.
"Can I help you?"
The man turned around, and Jun immediately felt a sense of déjà vu.
Wait. That's my face, but not my face.
#3 poked his head around the man's side. "Oh, you're back."
#3 stepped out from behind him. "How does he look?"
"That's me, but not me."
"Well, of course. This is #2."
"Hey," #2 said in a considerably deeper voice.
Jun shook his head slightly at the contrast. "What?"
"Well, this is pushing Bio-Sculpting to the limit based on what I know so far," #2 said. "Decided to go a little extreme."
"Yeah. I noticed."
#3 pointed up toward #2's considerably taller frame, then toward his face. "So, we used our previous-life appearance because this face doesn't belong to anybody in this world."
Jun looked over the rest of him. "What about the rest of him?"
#3 turned toward him. "That's part of his plan."
Jun looked back up at #2. "It was your plan to become, what, six-five? No, you're bigger than that. How tall did you make yourself?"
"I think I'm around six-nine."
"Nice," #3 said.
#2 rolled his eyes. "This is going to be my new disguise going forward as Jasper."
"We already had a disguise."
"Right," #3 said. "But we decided it would be better if the disguise looked less like anyone we know."
"Yeah, but what about the den?"
#3 shrugged. "Quirks exist. We can blame it on that."
Jun shook his head. "Well, it's not like…"
"I can say I had myself temporarily changed so I could scout out the den and potential partners," #2 said.
"Oh, yeah. You wouldn't scout anything in a body that big, would you?"
"Exactly. Maybe I paid someone with a Quirk to compress and reshape me. It's not like that kind of Quirk would be unbelievable."
"I guess we can pull it off. What about Jin?"
"Eh, Jin will probably like it," #3 said. "He already seems pretty impressed with us. As long as we frame it like we trust him enough to know the truth, I think we can keep him involved."
"Okay, so why wasn't the previous disguise working? Other than being too close to my dad's appearance and mine."
"We're thinking about expanding the operation," #2 said.
"Expanding the operation?"
#3 stepped in, gesturing between them. "Yes. We've had a few days separated from you to think about what exactly we want to do with the Jasper identity. We all know Himiko was supposed to be part of the League of Villains. Now that she's not, that leaves a spot open."
"A spot I'm going to take," #2 said.
"Wait, wait, wait. I understand using that body to be intimidating or whatever, but the actual League of Villains? We don't even know what they do in the future. From everything we know, they're murderers. Definitely criminals."
#2 and #3 looked at each other.
"We know," #3 said. "We're not saying we'll be like them. But we need eyes and ears inside the League of Villains, especially because we're already changing canon."
"We know they'll be recruiting," #2 added. "So why not take advantage of that information?"
Jun looked up at #2. "Are you gonna be okay with this?"
#2 looked down at him. "I've thought about it ever since I got assigned the Jasper identity. We're already breaking the law, Prime. We're underage, and I'm regularly gambling at an illegal den."
"Because we needed the money," Jun said. "Boxing, freerunning, all the lessons the clones keep taking aren't free."
"And now I'm making more than we actually need to keep those going," #2 said. "You still haven't told me to stop. We're still breaking the law. So why stop there? If we're going to do good, might as well go all the way. It's not like spies haven't existed before."
Jun stopped for a moment. "I... fine. Just try not to kill anyone, okay?"
"It wasn't in the cards, as you know."
Jun sat down in his chair. "Okay. Continue with your plan."
"Well, I'm thinking of adding more," #3 said.
Jun looked back up at him, already exhausted. "More? Is six-foot-nine not enough?"
#3 covered his mouth before another "nice" could slip out.
"Yes, more. I mean, look at him. He looks stylish, not villainous."
"Okay. Explain more, then."
"Well, one of the last things we were paying attention to before we got killed..." #3 drew a finger across his throat. "...was someone with four arms."
"Sukuna from JJK?"
"Exactly. I'm thinking about giving our boy here four arms. Eventually, maybe we can put together some kind of slicing or cleaving Quirk."
#3 sliced a hand through the air.
"Let #2 take on a more Sukuna-esque villain role."
"Fine. Yeah. I'll start trying to put Quirks together to make something, I guess."
Jun looked over at #3. "I thought you'd be the one more excited about playing the more theatrical role."
#3 smirked. "Well, I have my own plans."
"All right, then. Cough them up."
#3 looked back toward #2, who settled onto the bed.
"Well, if we have a villain-side spy, we're going to need a hero-side spy."
"We don't need a hero-side spy. I'm the hero side."
"Yes, but no," #3 said. "You're a student hero. You're with the main cast, which means, from what we know, you'll be part of the big events. But what about everything that doesn't happen around the students?"
#3 walked around, throwing his hands out to the sides. "Hero-side stuff. Villain investigations, professional raids, anything happening outside the students' view. You'll encounter heroes. You'll encounter incidents that are part of the main story. But as a student, you won't be there until later. Remember the raid in season three? The students weren't even supposed to be there. They weren't allowed to actually be involved."
Jun nodded. "So you're going to be on the professional hero side, working with the first responders and the front line."
#3 snapped his fingers. "Yep. Man, I knew we were smart."
"But if I'm going to be part of those raids and other important operations going forward, I'm going to need a powerful Quirk. Flashy, powerful, distinctive, and useful."
Jun rubbed his face. "Great. So I have to make two Quirks."
"Eventually, yeah." #3 pointed toward #2 sitting on the bed. "Jasper can function without a Quirk for a while. His size and the unique biology we'll be giving him will carry him long enough."
"Okay. You two remerge so I can catch anything that might not have been explained properly."
Jun held his hands out toward both of them.
#3 looked at #2. "Oh, man. I'm gonna have to redo Jasper all over again."
They reached out and touched Jun, both clones remerging with him.
Their memories returned with them, filling in the rest of the game plan.
"Okay. I see it."
Jun squeezed his hand as he looked down at it.
"That still doesn't make it okay."
Jun settled onto the bed. "Okay, let's look at the Quirks so far. Let's see if we can find something powerful and flashy."
Jun took a deep breath and delved into the Bond Space.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patreon is currently 10 chapters ahead for this story. If you want to read more or catch up to the latest chapter, check it out!
p*treon.com/Alex_DLC000
I'll be trying to upload twice a week, Most likely Mondays or Fridays!