In the stands, Ms. Joke was still staring at the arena as if the very concept of an exam had just slapped her across the face.
Down below, the dust was already beginning to settle over the central area, revealing more and more bodies scattered across the ground and a completely unharmed Ryo leaving the area as if he had not just eliminated three hundred and seventy-two people in less than an instant.
Aizawa wiped the small smile off his face with a quiet cough, as though it had never been there, and crossed his arms before turning his attention back to the field.
"About that whole 'U.A. crushing' thing..."
Ms. Joke slowly turned toward him, still stunned.
"...it's not like I didn't tell them about it or anything."
She blinked.
"Huh?"
"The point is, it wouldn't change what they have to do here."
His gaze fell on Ryo's figure calmly walking away from the central area, while the examiners were still trying to process the fact that more than three hundred candidates had been removed from the exam in a single instant.
"They would still have to overcome obstacles the way they always have."
Aizawa closed his eyes for a second before continuing:
"Because that's a hero's job, after all... To turn the tables when everything else seems to be against you."
Joke slightly raised an eyebrow.
"No offense to the rest of the candidates, but my students are on another lev—"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!"
Aizawa turned toward Joke, surprised by the sudden tone.
She had completely dropped her usual playful persona.
"Cut that talk for a second!"
She pointed down toward the field.
"What was that?!"
Ms. Joke leaned toward Aizawa.
"What the hell kind of student is that kid?!"
Her voice dropped slightly, but all of the disbelief was still there.
"And why is he so absurdly strong?"
Aizawa still seemed to be considering how much he should answer.
But before he could say anything, the arena speakers crackled again.
Mera's voice echoed once more.
"ANOTHER CANDIDATE HAS JUST PASSED!"
Many faces automatically turned, both in the arena and in the stands.
"DASH PARR HAS JUST PASSED THE FIRST PHASE!"
Ms. Joke slowly opened her mouth.
Then she turned toward Aizawa.
Her expression now made it perfectly clear that this conversation was definitely not over.
Aizawa simply looked back toward the arena.
Down below, far from the center, in one of the arena's artificial industrial zones, a small group of candidates remained scattered among shipping containers, metal structures, and elevated walkways.
But the one detail that looked out of place in that scene was that three of them had all three targets glowing red.
A boy from a school in the countryside blinked several times.
"What do you mean...?"
A girl beside him was still panting.
"When did...?"
Farther back, calmly walking through the landscape of metal and concrete, Dash spun one of the balls on his fingers before tossing it into the air and catching it again without even looking.
"I was slower than Takeda..."
His voice came out somewhere between a sentence and a yawn.
He was now wearing a new version of his costume, more refined and far more personal than the family's standard hero uniform. The bodysuit was bright red, skintight, and designed to reduce friction and maximize mobility, with yellow lines cutting across the torso, arms, and legs in patterns resembling electrical discharges or stylized lightning bolts. The main symbol was centered on his chest, clean and striking, while the boots and gloves followed the same vibrant color scheme. On his head, he wore a streamlined red mask covering the upper part of his face and the sides of his head, allowing his blond hair to spill out over the top and back in a messy, lively shape. Over his eyes, smooth, angular white protectors shielded his vision like solid visors, giving the entire outfit a faster, more aggressive appearance and making it feel far less like a "happy family costume."
The three targets attached to his costume glowed green.
Dash caught the ball in the air again.
"I wanted to make things a little harder to see if I'd improved."
He glanced sideways at the defeated students, who were still trying to understand what had happened.
"Or at least see if my sense of direction had gotten any less terrible."
He stopped for a moment and looked around at the surrounding structures.
"But it turns out this zone isn't even close to Field Gamma."
He snorted.
"That place is still an absolute hell for me..."
One of the eliminated examinees looked at him with a furrowed brow.
"...You were testing your own sense of direction in the middle of the exam?"
Dash thought about it for a moment.
"Yes."
"Using us?!"
Another student clenched his fists indignantly.
"Are you messing with us?!"
Dash looked up at him with an expression so genuinely tired that it almost canceled out any arrogance in the sentence that followed.
"To be fair, I was trying to have fun."
The student had no response.
Dash spun the ball between his fingers.
"Whatever."
He looked toward the distant center of the arena.
"Better go find Takeda."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"And ask why, instead of eliminating only three people like he was instructed to..."
He let the sentence trail off before raising an eyebrow.
"...he decided to declare war on the exam's entire ecosystem."
Behind him, the other examinees remained silent, now more offended than confused.
Dash bent his legs slightly.
The structure around him groaned before he even moved.
In the next instant, Dash vanished like a red-and-yellow tear ripping through the scenery.
A wave of wind exploded through the area, kicking up dust, making metal sheets vibrate, and nearly tearing the cap off one of the eliminated candidates. The group had to shield themselves with their arms as the brutal displacement swept through the industrial zone.
When the dust settled, he was already gone.
All that remained was the echo of the gust.
And, on the concrete farther ahead, an almost invisible sequence of marks left behind by successive bursts of acceleration.
In the stands, a display updated the exam numbers once again.
Two names from U.A. had already passed.
And there were still 98 spots left to be filled.
----------------------------------------
"DODGE!"
Midoriya jumped backward the instant a rain of balls tore through the space where he had been seconds earlier. Some struck the concrete, others ricocheted off the nearby walls, while two were intercepted by a long strip of tape fired by Sero.
Uraraka ran past the two of them, ducking her head to avoid another projectile.
"They just keep coming!"
"Yeah!" Sero replied as he fired another strip of tape toward a higher structure. "It feels like half the arena decided to come after us!"
It was not exactly half, but the number of examinees pursuing them certainly made it feel that way.
Ever since the first phase had begun, Class 1-A had become a priority target for students from several different schools. U.A.'s reputation, built over decades and reinforced by the nationally broadcast Sports Festival, meant that practically everyone there knew their Quirks and fighting styles.
Midoriya had expected something like that.
What he had not expected was for so many examinees to decide to attack them at the same time.
"This way!"
He activated Full Cowling at 10% and accelerated, reaching a side wall before propelling himself upward. Sero followed the movement using his tape, while Uraraka touched a large slab of concrete lying in their path and nullified its gravity.
With a shove, she sent the structure directly into the passage behind them.
"Sorry!"
The slab fell between the pursuers and the group, temporarily blocking the corridor.
The three of them kept running, crossing through an area of artificial buildings until they finally managed to lose the examinees.
A few minutes later, they found shelter between two concrete structures.
Sero rested his hands on his knees.
"Damn..."
Uraraka let out a sigh.
"That was close."
Midoriya remained near the entrance, carefully watching their surroundings.
"We need to change our strategy."
Sero raised his head.
"Agreed. Running around like this isn't going to get us anywhere."
Midoriya nodded.
"If we stay together, maybe we can use the terrain to separate them into smaller groups. Uraraka's Quirk can control obstacles, while your tape can restrict their movement."
Midoriya looked down at his own targets.
"But we need to be careful. We don't know anything about their Quirks while they know about ours."
"A good observation."
An unfamiliar voice came from behind them.
The three immediately turned around.
Four students stood near the passage.
The boy in front had brown hair, a friendly expression, and a surprisingly calm smile for someone taking part in that exam.
"You're from U.A., right?"
Midoriya subtly shifted into a defensive stance.
"What do you want with us...?"
The boy smiled.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Yo Shindo, from Ketsubutsu Academy."
He gestured toward his companions.
"These are my teammates."
A blonde girl with a cheerful appearance raised her hand.
"Hi! Wow! It really is them!"
The other two greeted the group more discreetly.
Uraraka politely returned the greeting, although she still kept her guard up.
"Nice to meet you too, I guess..."
Sero waved.
"Yo."
Midoriya, however, did not relax for a single moment.
Shindo's smile seemed sincere.
But they were in the middle of a competitive exam, and those four had appeared right after they had managed to escape a pursuit.
Shindo watched the three of them for a few seconds.
"You really are impressive."
Midoriya blinked.
"Thanks?"
"No, seriously. U.A. has been producing some incredible students lately."
He crossed his arms.
"The Sports Festival was especially interesting. Particularly your fights. It was quite the show!"
Then his smile changed slightly.
"But you know..."
Midoriya noticed the shift almost immediately.
"...U.A. isn't the only school with powerful students."
The ground trembled.
Midoriya's eyes widened.
"Urara—!"
Shindo lunged forward, and his fist struck the concrete.
BROOM!
A vibration traveled across the surface, creating cracks that rapidly spread toward the three of them.
Midoriya jumped backward and grabbed Uraraka by the arms before the ground gave way beneath her feet.
Sero fired a strip of tape toward a pillar.
"I KNEW IT!"
Shindo grinned.
"Sorry about the surprise!"
One of the other students immediately rushed forward, while the girl partially pulled back to avoid a strip of tape launched by Sero.
Midoriya landed on a structure that was still intact.
"An earthquake Quirk? No... vibration."
His eyes tracked Shindo.
The boy kept one hand pressed against the ground.
"It looks like he sends vibrations through solid surfaces."
Midoriya narrowed his eyes.
"Then we can't stay in one place."
"Uraraka! Sero!"
"Got it!"
Sero fired several strips of tape at once, attaching them to opposite pillars and creating an improvised web that restricted the opponents' advance.
Uraraka ran along one side and touched a block of concrete before hurling it toward them with all her strength.
"Release!"
The block shot through the air.
Shindo tried to dodge, but Midoriya was already moving.
Full Cowling, 10%.
A series of green electrical discharges raced across his body.
He crossed the distance between them in an instant, intercepting Shindo's attempt to counterattack before the boy could touch the ground again.
Shindo's eyes widened.
"He's really fast!"
Midoriya twisted his body and delivered a controlled kick to his arm.
The impact sent him stumbling several meters backward.
"Urgh!"
Shindo slid across the concrete, looking at Midoriya with a much less relaxed expression.
"Did he get stronger after the Sports Festival?!"
Midoriya rushed forward again.
Another student attempted to intercept him, but Midoriya easily avoided him. For an instant, he concentrated a higher percentage of One For All into one of his legs, accelerating enough to slip past his defense before returning to the 10% flow.
A precise strike knocked him down.
Sero bound another opponent's arms with tape, while Uraraka nullified the gravity of part of the surrounding terrain, forcing the Ketsubutsu team to retreat.
Shindo observed the situation.
"They're going to overwhelm us like this..."
His smile disappeared.
"Especially that guy..."
Midoriya landed a few meters in front of him.
"Do you still want to keep going?"
Shindo looked around.
His teammates were losing ground.
Their formation had been completely dismantled.
He took a deep breath.
"...Of course."
He lowered his center of gravity.
"But I think we need to change the conditions a little!"
Midoriya's eyes widened.
"EVERYONE—!"
Too late.
Shindo pressed both hands against the concrete.
VIBRATE!
KRRRRRRRROOOOOOM!
The entire terrain exploded into motion.
A colossal seismic wave tore through the area, destroying streets, shattering foundations, and lifting enormous blocks of concrete. Walls collapsed, platforms tilted, and the ground began splitting into different levels, turning the area into a chaotic landscape of fissures, rubble, and elevations.
"AAAAH!"
Uraraka lost her balance.
Sero tried to reach a structure with his tape.
Midoriya immediately jumped, propelling himself with One For All to escape a fissure opening beneath his feet.
"URARAKA!"
"DEKU!"
A wall collapsed between them, and dust swallowed the area.
Midoriya raised his arms to shield his face as an enormous block of concrete passed dangerously close to him.
By the time he finally managed to land somewhere safe, the terrain was already unrecognizable.
He crouched on top of a pile of rubble, coughing.
"...Damn it."
He slowly raised his head to look for his classmates, but he could not see Sero or Uraraka anywhere.
Only a vast expanse of destroyed structures.
Midoriya checked his own targets, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw that all of them were still intact.
"Okay... I need to find the others."
He climbed onto a nearby elevation and tried to scan the surroundings until he heard a familiar voice behind him.
"DEKU!"
Midoriya immediately turned around and saw Uraraka running toward him through the rubble.
Her face looked worried.
"Uraraka!"
He jumped down from the elevation and ran toward her.
"Are you okay?!"
"I am!"
Uraraka kept approaching.
"But I couldn't find Sero!"
"Don't worry, we'll look for him togeth—"
A hand emerged through her abdomen, making Midoriya freeze at the sight.
"...Huh?"
There was no blood.
No wound.
The hand passed through Uraraka's image as if she were made of smoke while holding a small ball.
BEEP!
Midoriya felt an impact against one of the targets on his body.
His eyes widened when he saw the disc turn red.
"...What?!"
Uraraka's image began to disappear.
Her face lost its details, and her body dissolved into a thin mist.
And in the place where she had been stood a girl wearing a dark, tight bodysuit along with Shiketsu's characteristic hat.
The girl gave him a teasing smile.
"Hello~"
Midoriya recognized her immediately.
The girl from before!
Midoriya reacted, his arm shooting forward to intercept her.
But Camie made an agile leap backward, slipping out of reach before he could touch her.
"Hey, easy!"
She laughed.
"No need to be so aggressive with a girl~"
Midoriya assumed a fighting stance.
"A transformation Quirk?!"
Camie tilted her head.
"Is it?"
Then she disappeared like mist in front of Midoriya, and the scenery around him began changing as well.
The ruins vanished, the sky disappeared, and the ground lost all definition.
In less than a second, he was surrounded by absolute darkness.
"...What?"
Midoriya spun around.
"Where am I?!"
He tried looking down at his own feet.
He could still see them, along with the rest of his body, which remained visible.
But the rest of the world seemed to have been erased.
"Could this be... an illusion?"
A hand suddenly appeared to his left, holding a ball aimed toward one of the targets on his torso.
Midoriya reacted and quickly grabbed the wrist.
Or tried to.
His fingers passed through the hand as though it did not exist.
The image dissolved.
"...!"
BEEP!
A real hand had just struck another one of Midoriya's targets.
"Here I am~"
Midoriya turned and tried to grab her, but she disappeared again.
"Reacting like that won't help!"
Her voice echoed through the darkness.
"You'll never catch me like this!"
Midoriya quickly looked at his own targets.
"Damn it, only one left..."
His heart sped up.
"If she hits me one more time, I'm eliminated!"
A hand appeared behind him, forcing Midoriya to dodge before another emerged to his right, which he avoided by ducking just in time.
A small giggle echoed around him.
"You're pretty fast, huh?"
Midoriya clenched his teeth as another hand appeared.
He tried to intercept it, but it vanished on contact.
Another appeared above him, but it was fake too.
Another.
Fake as well.
"Which one is real?!"
The images were incredibly realistic.
Even the sound seemed to follow the apparitions, which was unsettling.
Footsteps came from places where no one stood.
Camie's breathing seemed to come from different directions.
Midoriya dodged another attack that was probably another illusion.
"How am I supposed to know which one is real?!"
He kept dodging every attack, whether it was real or not.
The hands kept appearing endlessly, each one holding a ball seemingly capable of ending his last chance of continuing the exam.
"It doesn't matter. I can't let any of them hit me!"
But that created another problem, and Midoriya realized it after nearly a minute.
"Wait."
He had been moving continuously, wasting energy and keeping Full Cowling active.
Reacting to stimuli that might not even exist.
"What if she's trying to tire me out?"
Another hand came from below.
Midoriya jumped.
"If I keep this up, all she has to do is wait."
He landed and took a deep breath.
"My eyes and ears are deceiving me."
Camie's laughter echoed once again.
"Are you going to keep running?"
Midoriya clenched his fists.
"Then what do I do?"
It was at that moment that a memory surfaced.
The summer training camp.
One of the training sessions led by Tony.
Midoriya remembered perfectly how he and Kirishima had been standing in front of him in a small training area while the boy explained something Midoriya had not paid much attention to at the time.
"You rely too much on your own eyes."
Tony slowly walked around the two of them.
"You see a punch and try to dodge it. You hear someone approaching and react. But what happens when you can't see or hear your opponent?"
Kirishima scratched his head, looking a little confused.
"We become... blind and deaf?"
Tony pointed at him.
"Exactly."
He raised one finger.
"That's why you need to learn how to sense your opponents' presence."
Tony explained that people already possessed an instinctive awareness of the space close to their own bodies. Sometimes they could notice someone approaching from behind before seeing or hearing them, not because of some supernatural ability, but because of the combination of tiny stimuli the brain processed unconsciously.
Air movement.
Pressure.
Vibration.
Distance.
The sensation of something entering their personal space.
"Now imagine increasing that awareness," Tony had said.
He spread his arms.
"Instead of noticing something only when it's practically touching you, learn to recognize the space around you as an extension of your own body."
Midoriya remembered finding that incredibly difficult in practice.
Tony had smiled.
"Your eyes show you where someone appears to be."
Then he lightly tapped Midoriya's shoulder.
"But you need to learn how to perceive where they really are."
The memory faded.
Midoriya was back in the darkness with a dozen hands appearing around him.
"So that's it..."
He closed his eyes and stopped running.
His feet touched the ground, and his breathing slowed as he focused.
On the weight of his own body.
On the surface beneath his feet.
On the resistance of the air.
On the sensation of the space around him.
The hands began appearing again.
One passed through his shoulder, another through his arm, and a third struck his chest.
But all of them disappeared on contact.
From deep within the darkness, Camie let out a small laugh.
"Oh?"
More images appeared.
"Tired already?"
Midoriya did not answer.
Camie tilted her head.
"Or did you give up?"
Midoriya remained completely still with his eyes closed as another hand passed through his face.
Another appeared near his neck.
But both were fake, until...
"There."
A hand shot toward his final target.
And Midoriya's fingers closed around a wrist.
Camie's eyes widened.
"...Huh?!"
Midoriya opened his eyes.
"Found you!"
His free arm shot forward.
A small ball struck one of Camie's targets.
BEEP!
The disc turned red.
Her eyes widened.
"How?!"
Camie reacted quickly.
She twisted her hips and launched a kick toward Midoriya's face.
He released her wrist and stepped back, narrowly avoiding the strike.
Camie used the opportunity to disappear into the darkness again.
But now her expression was no longer quite so carefree.
"He found me?"
She looked at her own red target.
"No way..."
She looked at Midoriya standing still in the center, frowning as she stared at him.
"It was luck."
She took a few more steps backward.
"It had to be luck."
But that was when Midoriya slowly turned his head in her direction.
Camie froze.
"...Huh?"
He was looking exactly at where she was standing.
Even though she was hidden by the illusion.
"He can see me?!"
A ball left Midoriya's hand.
WHOOSH!
Camie tried to dodge, but it was already too late.
BEEP!
Another target turned red.
"...!"
She jumped backward, her eyes widening even further.
"Again?!"
Midoriya slowly lowered his arm.
His gaze tracked her position with unsettling precision.
Camie stared at him for a few seconds.
"What kind of monster is this guy...?!"
She immediately thought of the other U.A. student she had seen earlier, the same one who had eliminated more than 300 people not long ago.
"What the hell are they raising at that school?!"
She looked at the two red targets on her own suit and decided that continuing was not a good idea.
"...Okay."
Camie's smile returned, although this time it looked a little forced.
"You're way more complicated than you look."
Midoriya remained alert.
Camie stepped back.
"I'll leave you alone for now."
With that, she disappeared along with the darkness, which began to lose its consistency.
The rubble returned and the sky reappeared, along with the wind passing through the destroyed structures.
Midoriya was once again standing on the terrain reshaped by Shindo.
He remained still for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh.
"...That was close."
He looked down at his own targets, swallowing dryly.
Mentally thanking Tony for training him in something that had actually worked.
He would still need a lot of practice before he could use that perception naturally in a real battle the way Tony could.
But now he knew that one day he would manage it.
Midoriya looked down at his own hand, a small smile appearing on his face.
"Thanks, Tony."
Then he slapped both palms against his cheeks.
SLAP!
He straightened his posture.
"Okay! Time to get back to work!"
He looked around.
"I need to find Uraraka and Sero!"
Full Cowling began flowing through his body again in small green discharges as he flexed his legs before jumping—
His body rapidly crossed the distance between two enormous blocks of concrete before landing on an elevated surface, launching himself again toward the area where he had last seen his friends.
Meanwhile, in another part of the arena, Seiji was being held by the collar of his uniform with a single hand.
Or rather, by what remained of his uniform.
The Shiketsu student hung awkwardly in the air, completely unconscious, with several parts of his clothing scorched and thin smoke still rising from parts of the fabric. The smell of burning spread through the area, and even the ground around them was marked by recent explosions, with small craters scattered everywhere as proof that the fight had not lasted very long.
Bakugo held him as though he were lifting a bag of trash.
The blond boy wore a crooked, aggressive grin as he looked at Seiji's unconscious face.
"You were way too arrogant for such a weak little bug..."
He simply opened his hand, letting Seiji fall to the ground with a dull thud, rolling slightly through the rubble before finally lying still.
Kirishima, who had been approaching from just behind him, stopped beside Bakugo and looked down at the Shiketsu boy lying on the ground, making a small grimace when he saw the condition he was in.
"Dude..." he began, scratching his cheek. "Don't you think you overdid it a little?"
"Overdid my ass. That psycho was the one who jumped me out of nowhere."
Kirishima looked at Seiji again, noticing the burned sections of his uniform and his disheveled hair after the brutal sequence of explosions.
"Yeah, but still..."
It was at that moment that a hurried voice echoed from behind them.
"Kirishima! Bakugo!"
Both of them turned at the same time and saw Kaminari running toward them, half-tripping over his own feet, his face sweaty and his expression already signaling trouble before he even opened his mouth. And sure enough, all he had to do was point over his shoulder to explain everything.
Several examinees were appearing behind him.
Some leaped over destroyed structures, others ran across the uneven terrain, all of them carrying balls in their hands and keeping their eyes fixed on the U.A. trio. The sound of the earlier explosions had clearly served as a beacon.
Kirishima immediately adjusted his stance, his body tensing as he assumed a combat position.
"Do you think the noise attracted them?"
"Most definitely!"
Kaminari replied, almost shouting as he finally reached the two of them and shamelessly hid himself between Kirishima and Bakugo as though they were a human wall.
"Actually, I'm 99% sure it did!"
Bakugo, on the other hand, did not seem even slightly bothered.
In fact, his smile only grew wider.
His pupils narrowed with that familiar expression of delighted insanity, and tiny explosions began popping around his arms and shoulders. The accumulated sweat detonated in successive microexplosions, sparking across his skin and producing small orange flashes that spread in sequence across his body like a swarm of violent crackles.
"And who cares?"
He took a step forward, the palm of his hand beginning to glow more intensely.
"It's just more trash to throw out!"
One of the nearest examinees frowned when he heard that, clearly offended.
"What did you just sa—!"
He never got to finish the sentence before Bakugo vanished from the spot in a short flash.
The Cluster microexplosions propelled him forward so quickly that his movement looked more like an aggressive blur of light. In the next instant, his palm was already pressed against the examinee's face.
The light from the explosion illuminated everything.
BOOM!
The boy was launched backward through a cloud of smoke, spinning through the air before disappearing from sight among the rubble. The shockwave made the other examinees freeze for a second, stunned by the absurd speed at which it had happened.
Bakugo emerged from the smoke a moment later, sweeping it aside with one arm while small explosions continued popping along his arms, back, and legs.
The other examinees hesitated to approach for a moment.
Kaminari's eyes widened behind him.
Kirishima let out a heavy sigh, already hardening parts of his body for the inevitable battle.
And Bakugo, with an almost deranged gleam in his eyes, bared his teeth in a savage grin before roaring at the entire group:
"COME AT ME, YOU PIECES OF SHIT! I'LL CRUSH EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"
----------------------------------------
In the waiting room reserved for the candidates who had already passed the first phase, enormous monitors displayed live footage from different areas of the Takoba National Arena.
Explosions lit up the screens, structures collapsed, and students from various schools desperately fought one another as they tried to secure one of the remaining spots. Every few minutes, new names appeared on the panels, accompanied by updated numbers of eliminated participants.
At one of the tables in the room, Ryo and Dash sat analyzing everything.
Both remained completely focused.
Dash had his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes narrowed, wearing the expression of someone about to make a decision capable of changing the course of his own life.
Ryo did not look much different.
The silence between them was absolute.
In the background, a particularly violent explosion appeared on one of the monitors.
But neither of them reacted.
Dash carefully watched his friend for a few seconds before finally breaking into a grin.
"Heh."
Ryo raised his eyes.
"...?"
Dash straightened his posture.
"Sorry, Takeda."
He brought one hand forward.
"But I think it's over for you."
And placed five cards on the table.
Full House.
Dash's grin immediately widened.
"I WIN!"
Ryo looked at the cards, then at Dash.
"...How?"
Dash crossed his arms, satisfied.
"What? Lost for words?"
"Where did you even get that?"
"Natural talent, my dear friend."
Ryo continued staring at the table.
Dash started laughing.
"Come on, you can admit it. You lost."
Ryo remained silent for a few more seconds before sighing.
"...I see."
His expression became serious.
"If that's how it is..."
Dash blinked.
Ryo slowly placed his own five cards on the table, one beside the other.
Ten.
Jack.
Queen.
King.
Ace.
All spades.
Royal Flush.
Dash's smile vanished.
Ryo calmly leaned back in his chair.
"Actually..."
He pointed at the cards.
"...I think I'm the one who won."
Dash froze.
His eyes ran over the cards once.
"..."
Then widened.
"NO WAY!"
Ryo smiled.
Dash half-rose from his chair.
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! YOU CHEATED!"
Ryo placed a hand over his chest, pretending to be offended.
"Me?"
"YES, YOU!"
"So now you're accusing me of cheating?"
Ryo tilted his head, smiling provocatively.
"Sore loser~"
Dash sat back down with his arms crossed and his cheeks slightly puffed out.
"...Another game."
Ryo began gathering the cards.
"Sure."
Dash narrowed his eyes.
"This time, I'm shuffling."
"Whatever you want."
"And no using your Quirk!"
"I wasn't even using it, unlike a certain someone."
"Urgh..."
Ryo let out a laugh as he handed the deck to his friend.
Behind them, the monitors continued broadcasting violent battles from all across the arena.
But neither of them was paying the slightest bit of attention.
After all, they both fully trusted that their classmates would make it through.
And at that moment, Dash had a mission far more important than keeping up with the rest of the first phase.
Beat Ryo in a game of cards.
----------------------------------------
A/N: Hey everyone, long time no see. It's been a while since I last left an author's note. I'm only leaving this one to explain that my previous disappearance was due to the huge workload I had over the past two weeks. But everything is fine now, and I can finally have a few hours to write in peace without having to worry about anything for the time being.
I'd also like to ask you guys to join my Discord server. I'm more active there, and I can answer any questions or concerns you might have or even became beta testers for early chapter drafts. The link is on my profile, and I'll keep updating it every week so it doesn't expire.
That's all for now. I'm in good health and I'm not pushing myself too hard, just like you guys keep telling me not to.
Torn, finish the chapter.