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no1-horror-hero · 3 years

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Is everyone ready for the match between Evan and Kiyoko? I sure as hell am not!

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Kiyoko wasn’t sure if it was her blood or the crowd roaring in her ears as she raised a hand to shield her eyes and took a minute to adjust to all of the lights shining down on the stage from above. She could have sworn, as she flexed slick palms and climbed the stairs leading up to her destination, - that her heart was beating in time with each footstep, almost like some sort of ominous omen…

Or maybe she was just being dramatic because she was super nervous and not looking forward to the remarks that could follow either combatant away from this broadcasted match. Monster. Beast. Demon. Monstrosity.

It was one thing to spar in class, after all…She thought, putting her hand to her brow as she scanned the crowd, pivoting in a half-circle...and another thing entirely to perform for a crowd, when asked. She let her arm fall back to her side, before pulling it over her front with her other to perform a last-minute stretch, trying to soothe her nerves.

She didn’t want those kind of things to follow either of them, anymore.

She was able to dispel the feeling in her gut that didn’t agree with the sentiment of the whole spectacle, on some level, of watching children beat the crap out of each other, when she remembered why it was the way it was; why this was necessary.

Funding for the school. A show of strength. A show to inspire people. A peek at future generations of hope for Japan.

Yes, Kiyoko thought, pulling her gaze away from the surrounding crowd as another head of hair appeared over the edge of the stage as her friend arrived. I can do that.

“Oi, Evan!” She called to him, unable to fight off the grin on her face for even a second once she saw him, despite all the cameras that were undoubtedly on the two of them - (she’d have plenty of time to be self-conscious later, in the privacy of her own room.)

“Crazy turnout huh?”

Evan only smiles and laughs loudly, not trusting his words to carry the weight he wants them to carry.

He's excited, not just for the match, but for Kiyoko. She was one of his best friends! Win or lose, he'd cheer for her regardless.

Kiyoko cupped her hands around her mouth so that he could hear her over the crowd. “Let’s make it a good match, and then we can have cake in the dorms after! I was baking last night!”

"If only I get the biggest slice!" Evan answered, smile even wider than before.

Cementoss raised an arm, the universal signal they were waiting for. The world around the two combatants seemed to fall away as the crowd held their breath. Cementoss’ arm fell. “Begin!”

Metal snapped into place, becoming her limbs at Cementoss’ call to action mid-stride as she pushed off the ground to charge Evan.

Evan could only laugh as his bones snapped out of place and his muscles started expanding and breaking out of his skin. As soon as his limbs were ready, he launched a barrage of attacks ー muscles with dull bone to serve as blunt strikes, whipping around and eager for a target… He grew more eyes and mouths as an accident. That was going to bite him in the ass and give him a headache later, but oh well.

Kiyoko kept her hands loose, and close enough to her face where she could confidently guard her head and lower body as she fell back into the rhythm of old training. She was diligent to never catch any of Evan’s blows head-on, using the steel of her arms to deflect them to either side, quickly batting away blows when she saw the opportunity, shutting them down before they had the chance to reach her and take more effort to deflect.

Kiyoko never took her eyes off of Evan, aiming for the joints he made and the bases of the appendages as she could reach them, doing what she could to push her offensive while maintaining her defense, trying to get to the center of the appendages - Evan himself, even as he seemed to sense the change of pace.

Kiyoko was dodging on the balls of her feet, twisting out of the way of attacks with a balanced stance that enabled her quick response in kind, throwing out steel punches and hearing the crunch of bone whenever an attack would sneak through Evan’s assault by hammering back at the appendages that were trying to hit her as she dodged and they went by.

Evan hardly winced. At this point, he couldn't differentiate the pain caused by Kiyoko, and the pain caused by his Quirk. He used it to his advantage, continuing his barrage, the only lull being when Kiyoko threw him off-balance.

Still, a battle of attrition wasn’t what either of them wanted.

Both fighters reached the same conclusion in that moment ー they weren’t making any headway. They were both familiar with each other’s Quirks, the same sort of moves they’d fall back on in practice wouldn’t aid them in this fight. They’d have to be creative, and go beyond, to win.

Think, Kiyoko. The criteria for a win - the boundary lines, she thought, her gaze briefly noticing the line a distance beyond Evan, and a plan quickly formed in her head as she stepped to initiate it, faking a mistake and switching to the backfoot. A retreat. And then, she hoped, a bait-and switch. An uppercut to the jaw, her quirk pushing at the top of his mass, anything to topple him over that line after getting him to extend himself to follow after her.

It almost worked, too.

Almost.

Kiyoko made it look as if one of the blows she’d deflected off of one of her arms had hit her harder than anticipated, her arm curling in protectively toward her torso as she started to back-pedal, and then turn to run fully as she saw Evan begin to give chase with two snaking tendrils of flesh and bone weaving in pursuit after her heels.

Good! Now! She pivoted on a dime and planted her feet as her hands shifted and grew into two large, flat shields to catch the oncoming assault, and hit it back! The bottoms of her feet grew steel spikes that dug into the concrete like cleats as she punched back with both shields at the bases of the tendrils that had been pursuing her - starting a punishing assault meant to topple Evan backwards with the force of the shields slamming the tendrils out of the way, and then shifting the shields into two large fists and slamming them into his torso with dual uppercuts to uproot him from the arena floor.

But his reflexes were proving too quick once again - and her hits were proving ineffective at doing more than batting his defenses out of the way temporarily, without stunning them. With the very same appendages she’d tricked him into elongating, he moved them with the momentum he was being carried through the air with, whipping them up and around to dig in the ground just inside the boundary line and catch him like a baseball in a mitt. She could almost hear the imaginary umpire saying Safe!

It seems he didn’t like how close he’d gotten to losing, because Evan wasted no time in twisting several tendrils underneath him, and using them to push off the ground and jump - seemingly, - at Kiyoko, sailing toward the center of the arena proper. His tendrils were already moving in several ways at once like parts of a team - catching him as he landed, two pairs twisting together into two meaty trunks that ended in white, sharp bone shard constructs, slamming them into the concrete beneath him to break it up, unraveling the sides of his legs to sink deep into the earth he’d uncovered.

No-! Don't let him-!

Her eyes widened as she followed what he was up to, her feet already clanking against the concrete beneath her as she sprinted at him, her hands shifting to grow even larger and launch her at him.

Her shadow flitted over the concrete as wind whipped through her hair. She sailed through the air breathlessly and brought her arms back behind her head in a hammer blow that she whipped forward down onto Evan with a WHAPH!

That didn’t sound right. It didn’t feel right either, there was no give under her hands - she shifted her hair out of her eyes as she landed and her arms shrank, once more falling into a guarded stance.

She was faced with a virtually impenetrable wall of flesh (and bone. She could see bits of white, sharp and dull, sticking out of the mass, and even a few bits of teeth.)

Shit. He’d cocooned himself a defense, and it wasn’t worth the risk or energy to try to circumvent it blindly. She needed to retreat for real this time, and try to anticipate what he’d try next. She needed to come up with a better plan, that would waste less of her energy. The bursts of combat so far hadn’t led to much good for either side.

Kiyoko back-pedaled swiftly to a safe distance, and forced the muscles in her arms and legs to relax a little as she entered a recognizable Tai-Chi form once more, settling in the pose called Dao Juan Hong, with her left arm and a relaxed palm facing out to the front, parallel to her left leg, and her right arm pulled back to her side with the palm relaxed and facing the sky. Her right leg was bent slightly, her foot keeping her balanced but ready to move.

She couldn’t help flinching as the crowd around them roared suddenly, apparently seizing the brief lull in the fight as an opportunity to make their opinions known. She’d totally forgotten they were even there - and it should stay that way, she shook her head, refocusing on her opponent even as the Pro Hero Midnight’s, - the commentator for the match, - voice rang out throughout the stadium.

“What an explosive start to the match folks! Truly incredible demonstrations of power from both sides - and they’re so evenly matched too!” Midnight paused to let the crowd cheer in response, building the excitement even higher in the stadium, not letting this lull affect it. “Eeeeee!~” Midnight’s excited squeal interrupted her train of thought. “The flaming fires of youth are burning in this stadium tonight, there’s no doubt! But some of you might be wondering, with the shapeshifting capabilities of our two diligent students, why aren’t they doing more? Why isn't the charming Satoru-kun using sharper bones? And sweet Hagane-chan not forming any blades of any kind? The answer is simple, dears! PG-14! No one wants to see that kind of thing in a friendly competition!! We do have the safety of our students to consider, after all!” Somehow, you could hear the wink in her voice.

“Ah- but I think I see Satoru-kun beginning to shift again. The excitement continues! Let’s hear it for our discerning competitors, everyone! Ganbatte you two!!” Her sentence was punctuated by echoing sentiment from the crowd as the action did, indeed, seem to be resuming.

Kiyoko was keeping a wary eye on the cocoon from a distance, and keeping an eye on the ground of the arena itself. If an attack were to come from the cocoon or from beneath the arena, she’d be able to see it coming. And if an attack were to somehow come from above, it would cast a shadow that she’d be able to catch on the ground, and move accordingly.

She needed to seize this opportunity to catch her breath, and figure out how she was going to win this fight before she spent too much energy on the first fight and either failed to win at all, or sabotaged her hypothetical future matches.

Despite everything ー the ever increasing bouts of pain, the draining of his energy ー Evan was happy. He was laughing, and laughed a bit louder knowing no one could really hear him (or call him insane, but he was fine with that too).

He was close to losing, but he didn't care (okay, maybe he kinda did). He was so happy! And Kiyoko was so awesome!!

He stifled his excited giggles and wiped the sweat off his chin, panting. For as happy as he was, winner or loser, he still wanted to do his best.

His family was watching, he's pretty sure. He wants to do them proud.

He needs a plan.

...He decides to try and knock Kiyoko out, a well-aimed hit to the head maybe, or just throw her out of the arena. It's a fairly simple plan, but Evan was a simple guy (kind of).

At the same time, Kiyoko had reached a very similar epiphany. With her personal comfort levels and the combat’s rules itself preventing her from utilizing sharper weaponry, and with her blows proving less than ideal, she was running out of options.

The window to victory would continue to shrink the longer the battle wore on - because Kiyoko, despite all her training, cannot fight forever. She wasn’t so sure about Evan - but she wasn’t keen on finding out the hard way. She needed to think! Getting him to cross the boundary hadn’t worked, she knew trying to restrain him would use too much energy that she would need for later if she won, so that left her with…

A knockout. Of course! That was it! Kiyoko had to knock him out, it didn’t involve blades, and it was what bludgeoning weapons were practically made for! Her brief elation that she’d scored an idea faltered as soon as she turned to the next task of figuring out how the heck she was going to be able to do that.

She was searching her memories of their previous sparring in classes and during practices, trying to pick out anything about Evan and his fighting style that she could exploit to win.

His front guard is pretty excellent - as he'd already proven in this fight alone, and his sides would be easy for him to protect, it would take less than twisting his torso thanks to all of his quirk's versatility.

That left one avenue...A surprise. But where could she sneak one in? From the front would be too difficult - she has to fend him off of herself too after all, her attempt would have to work on multiple levels as offense and defense, as all the rest of their attacks had accounted for so far. No one wants to give their opponent the chance they've been looking for.

But Evan had, she realized. Remembering how she'd hooked a leg around the back of his once during a spar, in that moment instead of completing the throw at the front where he was already moving to guard, she had leaned further forward, reaching around to the back of his collar and yanking him off balance as she swept his leg out from under him, sending him to the mat.

His back. His frontal assault was strong, definitely, but he often got so lost in the logistics of protecting his front and attacking, that he forgets to think about full positioning awareness.

Kiyoko had her goal, her target, and an idea.

It was time for a gambit.

Her mind snapped back to the present as she detected movement within the walls of the cocoon itself, and she mentally braced herself.

The arena exploded into action.

The cocoon exploded, and the mass of tendrils all went forward at once. Evan flinched this time, the continuous stacking of the pain taking it's toll, but the end was close now. All that was left was for either of them to reach it.

Evan aimed to overwhelm, and overwhelm he tried to do.

Using the already formed tendrils, he tried to lash out at Kiyoko, aiming to distract her enough to fling her out of the ring, or hit her in the head and knock her out (if he did succeed at the latter, he'd apologise properly when all was said and done).

A kiai erupted from her as she thrust her arms forward in time with her legs boosting her as they turned into growing, solid steel stilts as she ran at him. Her hands finished shifting into two large curved, reflective plates of metal that she locked together in front of him, obscuring her form behind her shifted hands as she angled the sunlight directly into his vision.

Her legs never stopped growing until she kicked up off the ground not a half second after she’d locked her hands into place - she kept her hands down as she performed a standing front flip over Evan, her legs shifting, still long but shrinking,- to end in feet once more as she completed the flip and threw her heel at the back of Evan’s skull with a THWACK! She landed and spun as she shrank her hands and grew a second pair in case she needed to protect herself in the brief second it took her hands to return to a normal size, positioned to be protecting her upper torso.

But she hadn’t needed to - Cementoss was already by Evan’s side, who was stilled, standing a couple steps forward from where he’d been - until his knees buckled and he fell onto his side with a thwump, kicking up a cloud of cobble dust.

Kiyoko quickly entered the cloud but stopped as Cementoss rose from where he’d been crouching, inspecting Evan’s status. “Evan Satoru has been rendered unconscious. Kiyoko Hagane will progress to round two of the tournament!” His voice rumbled like rocks scraping against concrete as it left his throat, to the cheers of an ecstatic crowd.

She let out a sharp breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding - she’d forgotten to breathe when she saw Cementoss rise. She remembered to enter the ending form and place a fist to her vertical palm in a show of respect to Evan, adding a bow to it, before extending a regular bow to the audience on all four sides. Her dad would have wanted her to remember her manners.

Now that manners were quickly out of the way, though, she hurried over to Evan as he started moving again, offering a hand up as a sympathetic wince passed over her features. “You alright, Evan?”

"Better than ever!" Evan chirped, happily taking her hand and hauling himself up.

"Congrats!"

"..Also, you still owe me that cake"

The End of the Match!

#aaaAHHHHHHHHH #IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!#thank you cosmicgoof you were such a big help/good friend #sjaksmdnksmdls #txt.post #long post #bnha oc #bnha oc comeback #evan satoru #kiyoko hagane #event: sports festival tournament #interaction.tag

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