Momo peeked out from the broken window of an apartment, located on the 30th floor of a skyscraper.
It had been only 20 minutes since the Battle Royale started.
But the huge, holographic screen in the sky, showing the current live students within the laser boundaries, flickered once again.
The number dropped by 1, the screen now displaying 82 in bold letters.
18 students seemed to have either been disqualified or defeated in the last twenty minutes.
The number felt small, but it became huge when the scale of the battlefield was taken into account.
A five-minute head start had not nearly been enough for the students to find a suitable place to hide. It had been an even lesser amount of time to reach deeper into the Battle Center X, occupy the middle territory, and… protect one's place for the rest of the event.
Momo doubted that there might be more than a handful of students who could do so.
The likes of Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugo, Tokoyami, perhaps? A few of the Support Course students could do the same, too, she guessed. But if they had brains, they would be far better off not chasing the central area for quite some time.
Luke could do that, too, Momo thought, letting her gaze return from the screen.
However, she had been having a bad feeling about him.
Momo remembered seeing Luke standing still at the Entry Gate on the holographic screen until the last second of the initial five minutes.
What had really been going on in his mind was not something even All Might could tell, she believed.
There was one thing that she was sure of, though.
Others might not be able to tell by looking at his face, hearing his words, or seeing his actions.
But she… she knew Luke had no intention of winning the Battle Royale. Not at all. The guy was not even interested in winning anything!
Momo had no clue why she knew these things about Luke.
But, recently, she had stopped doubting her instincts.
Anyway, it didn't matter what Luke intended to do during the Sports Festival this year.
She had every intention of winning the Battle Royale. She had every intention of proving to herself that she did have the ability to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugo, and… yeah, Luke.
The holographic screen in the sky wouldn't share any live footage from the Battle Center X so as not to compromise a student's location or actions.
But it wasn't like she needed the screen to find out the targets, anyway.
Momo took a deep breath, standing in the middle of the empty apartment.
Then, she took off her shirt and began creating parts; hundreds of tiny parts… as per the plan.
…
Mashirao Ojiro, who had the Quirk Tail, rushed out of the forest.
His entire body was covered in sweaty and bloody scratches, his martial arts costume torn here and there.
The moment he saw the city's outline in front of him, Ojiro's eyes widened, a smile surfacing on his lips. As he ran, he looked over his shoulder and saw nothing but darkness. But he knew that guy was still there, coming right for him.
Sure enough, dozens of different birds, including kites, owls, and parrots, came flying from the forest, all chirping loudly as if they had gone mad. Along with them, over two dozen wild animals also came charging out of the forest, led by a panther.
The moment these two groups came out, a giant silhouette of an elephant also became visible, outlining itself at the boundary of the forest.
And riding that elephant was a boy in a yellow and red suit, with a mouth symbol on his torso showing teeth. On his face, he also wore a mask that strongly resembled a duck's bill. Even from afar, one could easily tell that the boy himself was huge, perhaps as tall as Luke, if not taller.
Ojiro had no idea that the forest would have so many animals.
But given that UA wanted to give them a hint of real-life experience once again, it made sense.
What Ojiro couldn't have imagined was that there might be another purpose for these animals' presence in the forest.
"A Quirk to control animals?!" Ojiro hissed through his clenched teeth, panting. "And this guy is in General Education?!!"
Yes.
The boy in the yellow-red suit was none other than Koji Koda, a proper Hero Course student in Luke's previous life, but admitted to General Education this time around.
Surprisingly, not being surrounded by monsters of Class 1-A seemed to have changed Koda's personality a touch, erasing a great part of his insecure and cowardly personality.
Even Luke, who had passively learned about Koda's newfound confidence, had expressed shock, thinking how spending a year towering above others could change someone so much, because…
Koji Koda was unanimously considered a Hero among General Class students at UA.
And today, he was bent on living up to that title which his weaker friends had labeled him with.
"ATTACK!" Koda roared.
The elephant trumpeted his command.
The panther, much faster and stronger than others, growled even more madly.
In one great lunge, it covered half the distance between it and Ojiro, and then lunged again, going for the boy's neck.
Ojiro, who had been waiting for it to happen, spun like a cyclone, using his Ultimate Move — Tornado Tail Dance!
Teeth came flying out of the panther's mouth as it was sent flying, skidding across the ground.
Riding the elephant and watching his panther get defeated, Koda's eyes narrowed. "I WILL…"
Suddenly, before he could finish the command, Koda's entire body… lifted off the elephant and was thrown backward with a jerk as if something invisible, but incredibly heavy, had hit him across the chest.
"…"
Ojiro, who was panting hard after using his Ultimate Move and could barely hear anything under the cries and roars of animals, looked as Koda disappeared into the clouds of dust.
Booooooooooooooooooom!
The sound made Ojiro look back at the city.
It felt like the roar of a jet's engines after it had already flown away in the sky—stretched and smothered.
Before Ojiro could put two and two together, though, his body jerked, too.
Like a doll, he was thrown a few meters back, all the animals and birds rushing past him as his eyes rolled back into his head.
Far away, in the apartment of the skyscraper, Momo pulled her face away from the massively long sniper…
…the lens of the drone capturing her face reflecting nothing but raw determination!
********************
Note: Up to 60 more chapters are available in advance across three Tiers. [Use the link in my webnovel profile to access all options]
You can even subscribe Trial Tier for just 1.99 dollar to have an experience of exclusive chapters for an entire month, along with all the Exclusive Images. I hope a few of you will consider supporting the work.
100 Power Stones/day: +1 Bonus Chapter next day