Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 64 PLAYING WITH MATCHES

We got a nice long break after Capture the Flag. A whole hour to grab lunch and do other things. The school was nice enough to supply us with some rice and meat. I suspected they would be making a hefty profit with how expensive cotton candy and water was for the viewers. But I went to school for mostly free. The only money I was out was my room in the school, which was a steal compared to living in the city. 

Since it was down to the final fights we were allowed to put our hero costumes on, but not leave the arena grounds. I hung out with the girls as we tried to relax. We had decided to wait to put our costumes on until after we ate. 

“I can’t believe you threw me,” Toru whined again. 

“It worked, didn’t it?” 

“You didn’t have to say, Gengar attack,” she pouted. I had thrown her at one of the people to knock them down to get their headband. 

“Ghost Pokemon are OP, they sure looked scared,” I laughed. Her clothed arms crossed. “Come here. I’ll make it up to you.” Grabbing her arm I pulled her over. Finagling her to sit on the floor in front of me I began massaging her shoulders. “You’re so tense. Scared for the next fight?” 

“Maybe,” she whispered. Then groaned as I hit one of the knots. 

“Who are you fighting again?” I asked. 

“That Yuga guy,” she mumbled as her head relaxed. “The lazer belt guy from class.” 

“Ohhh frenchie,” I said. “Well, it’s a laser, right? So just bend the light.” 

“What?” She asked, her head shooting up. 

“You bend light. He has a laser. Just bend the light away from you,” I offered. 

“Think that would work?” She asked. 

“No idea, just do what you do. You’ll get to fight Momo after,” I reminded.

“Confident I’ll beat Mina?” Momo asked with a smile. 

I slapped Yuko’s shoulder. “You’re relaxed now,” I said. She grumbled but stood up. I waved Momo over. She smiled big while sitting in front of me. “Jeez, you’re more stressed than Yuko. And I didn’t even throw you.” She blushed but hung her head as I massaged her. “I think you’ll do fine against that Mina girl,” I said. “What does she do? Shoot acid?” 

Momo nodded. “I have a plan for her, so don’t offer anything.” 

“Fine fine,” I said. We were quiet until I felt she was good. “Tsuyu’s turn.” Tsuyu hopped over happily and sat in front of me. “My god, you’re all skin and bones.” She nodded. “What about you, Tsuyu? You fight Harvey Birdman, right?”

“Tokoyami, you mean?” She asked. 

“Yeah, that’s what I said. The guy with the bird face and the shadow.” 

“Yeah, I don’t know. I guess I’ll just attack,” Tsuyu said.

“Smart play. That’s my plan,” I admitted. 

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“Fighting Shoto without a plan?” Momo asked. 

“Oh I have a plan,” I admitted. “But there is a lot of punching involved. I worry his quirk might be stronger than mine. We will have to see.” We finished up our food, but in all honesty we were all too nervous to eat. Heading to our separate locker rooms I decided to put on my costume. 

The System provided costume was comfortable. Black poly exterior hoodie, with a fur lined interior. Black canvas pants. Thick steel toe combat boots. Utility belt with some knives and other tools I found useful in the MHA Shop. My signature turned pink heart was printed on the left pant leg and left corner of my hoodie. Again resembling sakura blossoms blowing in the wind. 

I put my hood up and walked out. Finding a viewing area that the participants could watch the fights from I was surprised to run into Endeavor, the second highest ranked hero. He was a huge man, taller than me, almost as tall as All Might. Flames around his head I tensed up ready for a fight. 

“Just who I wanted to see,” he said with a big smile. “You’ve impressed me. You and that Midoriya kid.” 

“Uh thanks?” I said. “Thinking about making me an intern?” 

“I am,” he admitted. “If you’re interested.” 

“No idea who I will pick, but you’re up there,” I said truthfully. I wasn’t too sure who I wanted though. I was really hoping Midnight, but since she worked at the school I wasn’t going to hold my breath. 

“Well let me know what you decide,” Endeavor said. “I am curious though, what is your plan against my son?” 

“To beat him up,” I said. 

Endeavor boomed a laugh. “Good, that would do him so good. Make him use everything he has. I’m excited to see who ends up on top.” 

“I’ll give him an extra punch, and let him know you said it was okay,” I said. He boomed another laugh as he walked away. “Nice guy,” I noted. “Terrible father, but nice dude.” 

I shook my head, a little annoyed by the interruption. I found more of the students hanging out. Some stretching, others shadowboxing. Off in their own little worlds we waited. I was getting excited by all the tension. A pit in my stomach. I wanted to push myself to the limit. See where things went. I might not come out on top, but I didn’t have a quest. There was no reason to show off more than I had already. 

Relaxing in one of the chairs that faced the arena I kicked my feet up and before I knew it I was asleep. It wasn’t until Toru was shaking me awake that I realized I’d overslept. 

“Weston, get the hell out there. They’re gonna say you gave up if you don’t get to the area in 60 seconds,” she said frantically. 

“What? Where is everyone?” I grumbled standing up. 

“They left to the pre-fight waiting area. Midoriya told me where he saw you last,” she said. 

“Fucking hell, I was out,” I said, shaking my head. I looked up to see the open window that looked down at the arena. I walked to it. Shaking my head I let out a big yawn as I stepped out and dropped the 15 feet to the grass covered arena interior. Shaking my head I yawned again as I walked toward the fighting area. 

“And here he is,” Present Mic yelled over his speakers. “Looks like he just woke up from a nap. That takes balls of steel to sleep in a moment like this.” 

I slapped myself a few more times. Putting my hood up I walked to the large concrete raised arena. Todoroki stood on the opposite side. Wearing his blue hero costume he crossed his arms, staring at me angrily. 

Midnight stood at the edge of the arena as Present Mic announced information about us. The crowd cheered and all I wanted was an energy drink. I was still half asleep as I stood apart from Todoroki. 

“Do you know the rules, Weston?” Midnight asked from a microphone. 

“Uhh no, I was sleeping,” I said. She smiled at me. 

“You step out of the ring, you lose. You get knocked out, you lose. You give up, you lose,” she said. “Simple enough?” 

“What about nut shots?” I asked. 

“What?” 

“Hitting in the nuts, is that allowed?”

“I mean…yeah,” she said. 

“What about eye poking and hair pulling?” 

“Everything is on the table,” she spat.

“Jeez, I just want to know my options. These rules are pretty hardcore,” I noted. I looked around. The fighting arena was bigger than I remembered when we were there earlier. Someone must have remodeled. It was about 200 feet by 200 feet. Way bigger than I felt comfortable with. I yawned while walking to the edge of the fighting area. Pulling up my sleeves and pant legs I decided to forego the weights. 

Taking them off I tossed them off the edge. They made a loud thunk sound as they fell. When I put my sleeves back and walked over, Todoroki yelled, “Thought you could beat me with your weights?” I nodded. “What made you change your mind?”

“I’m tired, dude,” I admitted. “Let’s get this over with. Nice and quick, alright?” Todoroki smiled.

“Fighters, are you ready?” Midnight asked. We both looked to her and nodded. “Fight!” 

Shoto immediately shot a huge wave of ice at me. I pulled in energy from my back as I expelled it out my front. His ice melted almost instantaneously. I whistled, surprised it had worked so well. 

“Cool,” I said with a smile as I walked over to him. He continued to shoot ice and I continued to push heat into it. No hands moving I was confident enough to let my body take care of it. An immense cool breeze was expelled out my back as I acted like a medium, shifting the energies around. 

“Gonna try fire, yet?” I asked. 

“Never,” he said. “You have no idea what you’re asking of me!” He spat. Running to the side as he shot more ice. 

“Alright, that’s fine. I just wanted to try to cool it down,” I admitted. “I don’t want another Neji giving me his life’s story.” I rolled my shoulders as he appeared to charge up his ice. “Don’t regret it later.” 

I took in a deep breath and used my full speed. He shot ice at me like Mr. Freeze, just barely missing me. Closing the distance he created a wall of ice as I instantly pushed heat into it. Cracking it I pushed through. The thick ice shattering I roared as I exited like the Kool-Aid man. Jumping at him I threw a haymaker that he dodged. He pushed more ice up but I was slowly waking up. Becoming faster as my body remembered I didn’t have weights on. 

Jumping to the back of him I used my footwork to close the distance. He turned wildly, spraying me with ice shards that I just powered through. Trying to pull more and more energy from my back I had to focus it to my hands as I made him sweat. 

He tried to charge up another hit but I kicked him in the abs, knocking him through the wall of ice he had made. Todoroki spit up his lunch, and I barely dodged the vomit attack. 

My shoulders still stiff from the sleep and ice attacks I began rotating them, trying to work out the kinks. I let out another yawn as I looked to Todoroki. “You know, I was questioning whose quirk was stronger.” 

“You are fire and ice,” I told him as I walked around his ice wall. “So technically your ice power is actually cold and water. Mine is just cold and heat. But fighting you now, I feel like I have the better quirk.” I touched the ice shards. “It looks like you’re stuck with fire and ice at the same temperature. What is this? 0 degrees? I can go much lower than that now.” 

I pulled energy out of the air in front of me. Expelling it as heat I dropped the area in front of me down to -50 degrees almost instantly. Todoroki began to shiver as I walked up to him. The air only getting colder as I drew closer. “What are you going to do, Shoto? Continue with that stupid promise?”

Shoto had a shocked look on his face, but he didn’t back down. “Yeah, I know you don’t want to use the fire. But I want you to. I want to see it. I want to take you down at your best.” Shoto had to work through his demons some other time. But I could help him along. “Now do it or lose.” I ran at him and as the air between us got colder his left side became aflame. I flashed him a smile as I pulled more energy to my body between us. 

He began channeling a massive fireball, but I wasn’t interested. I sped up. As he pushed the fire at me I dodged to the side. Coming at him from his left I kicked him as hard as I could in the ribs. He began flying. His fire going wild as he soared through the air and hit just on the edge, outside the arena floor. 

Breathing in and out heavily it was a good fight. I may have not been able to win with my weights on. Midnight called it as I walked to Todoroki. He was laying prone on the ground, arms and legs out as he stared up at the sky. 

“Next time, make it so I need to go all out,” I said with a smile as I looked down at him. 

He frowned but nodded. I stepped down, helping him up. “Not sure what your drama is,” I said. “But you would have fucked me up more if you had been switching the fire and ice up. You can switch between the 2 a lot more quickly than me.” 

“Yeah?” He asked. I nodded. Walking over I grabbed my weights and threw them over my shoulder as we headed to where everyone else sat.    

“That was great,” Midoriya said as we walked in. 

“It was. Just a bad matchup for you Shoto. Since the hot and cold doesn’t matter to me too much it was easier on me,” I admitted. 

“Yeah well maybe I wasn’t going my all,” Shoto said. 

“You weren’t. How about you meet me for a fun spar after school. 4th floor training room,” I said. 

Midoriya caught Shoto’s eye and shook his head. “What?” I asked, pretending to not know what he was getting at. 

“Your style of sparring is too intense,” Midoriya said. “It’s scary.” 

“Yeah whatever,” I grumbled pretending to be sad. I honestly just didn’t want them there. I liked giving them ideas but I couldn’t practice all my skills with them looking over my shoulder. “Who's fighting next?”

“Tokoyami and Tsuyu.” Midoriya pointed at the stage where the 2 were facing off. 

“Tsuyu said you 2 have been sparring?”

“Yeah. It’s been great. She’s gotten really fast,” he said. We walked over to watch from a small window. The match started without much issue. 

Tokoyami was a tall man with the head of a crow. Wearing dark clothes and a cape he reminded me of Darkwing Duck. His quirk was a strong shadow version of himself that hung at his back. 

I watched as the shadow rose up high. A birds head with 2 shadow arms reached out for Tsuyu. She dropped to all 4s and pounced on it. Kicking hard it was thrown back as she began hopping quickly around him. 

“Man if it was enclosed she would have a much easier time,” I noted. Her jumps were getting better. But wide out in the open she couldn’t use her full skills. She stuck her long tongue out grabbing onto Tokoyami. 

Pulling him to her his shadow grabbed onto the ground. Holding him in place they tugged over his main body until Tsuyu let go and was pulled to them. Kicking Tokoyami in the stomach he was thrown back but stopped before the edge. 

“Dang,” I whispered. “It’s over.”

“Yeah,” Todoroki said. 

“What is it?” Midoriya asked, looking between us and the fight. 

“She didn’t follow through. If she had kept pushing him to the edge there she may have won. But Tokoyami is stronger physically,” I said. It was interesting after being in so many fights that I could tell something like that. 

“See,” I said. The shadow began pushing her back. Growing bigger and stronger.  She latched onto it but the shadow threw her out of the ring.