17 CHAPTER 17

DING DING DING~

The moment the bell rang, Gohru immediately activated his Eye of the Mind skill, watching as the world slows down in gray. He was about to assess the situation when suddenly Omori appears before him and went for a punch.

Even in slowed down time, his reactions were slow too since only his mind was the one who was sped up and not his body, so he could only watch as the punch connects to his cheek.

POW!

"First blood goes to participant Omori!"

Ignoring the pain, Gohru tries to retaliate back with a right hook but Omori just dodges with ease as if I was the one who's in slow-mo.

SWISH PAK!

He ducked to the left into his weak side before spinning and slamming his right elbow into his face. A spinning elbow strike. Immediately, he turns to face Gohru again.

Since the hook did not land, he decided to go for a faster attack with a quick left jab.

WHOOSH PAH!

But Omori dodges again by stepping back away from the jab before rushing in and slamming his left palm into Gohru's stomach.

"Guh!" He grunts before trying to grab the Wing Chun user's head who was deep in his range, but with another side step, he spins before throwing a side kick into his chest.

BAH!

That made Gohru take a few steps back stunned as Omori took advantage by running at him. Desperately raising his guard, Gohru successfully block a few punches before suddenly getting hit in the chin.

Looking down in pain, he sees the man's knee to which he lost control of his body, falling to the ground.

THUD

"And participant Jin Gohru is down!"

Since he had a lot of spars with Kenichi whose attack points were mostly nerves, he had gained a slight resistance with his Quirk to nerve attacks, so he stood up with no difficulty before raising his guard again.

thump thump

Omori frowned when he heard that.

'What was that?'

He could hear soft but fast thumps, but he had no idea where it was from since it was too soft, so he shrugged it off before rushing once more.

Due to Gohru being now used to his speed slightly, he was able to block most of the jabs and punches that were sent his way and get a few punches in, but got stopped when he tried to counter one of the final punches with a low kick.

PAK!

Omori who was much faster blocked the kick with his shin before grabbing his shirt and slamming his knee into Gohru's guts, causing him to lose his breath since it was akin to a steel bar piercing his stomach.

Omori lets go of his shirt before turning his back to Gohru and spinning, using his momentum to slam a roundhouse to his head.

CRASH!

The kick was so powerful that Omori sent Gohru spinning in the air before following it up with an elbow, slamming it at the head to launch Gohru back up from the mat.

WHAM!

His body bounced back up from the mat as Omori did a combination of a jab and an elbow to the head, straight to the chest, and a high kick to his chin before ending the combo with a twin palm strike to the chest.

BOOOM!

Gohru's body skidded a few centimeters upon dropping to the floor like a ragdoll. The crowd started to get bored from the one-sided match as they were now starting to boo Gohru for the boring display.

"Who in the world even let a kid join them? It's completely one-sided!"

"Yeah! Aren't you some kind of genius? What a fake!"

"BOO! Get down from the stage and make him the champion already!"

"Stop wasting our time!"

Omori just sighed in annoyance at the crowd. This was why he preferred to fight with no crowds to distract —

Thump Thump Thump Thump

His thought process was halted when he hears the strange thumping sound again, this time louder than before. Not only that, it was twice as fast. What in the world — ?

"Sorry for the wait."

His eyes moved in that direction and widened when he sees the child — No, the fighter in front of him steaming, his skin now pinkish as if something had splashed him with hot water.

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

"This technique takes a while to start, so sorry for not responding to your attacks."

He said with a soft grin as he chuckles once he realized that the stadium was so quiet at his new appearance.

"Is that your Quirk?"

"Oh, this? No, my Quirk is Adaptation. Makes the body adapt faster the normal rate. No, this is a technique I created. You see, blood is important to the cells of the body, right? They carry oxygen for cells to generate energy. So what if I increase the flow rate of the blood twofold than regularly?"

Omori's jaw dropped and his eyes widened upon understanding what was happening.

"Natural doping!"

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

"Ding ding ding! Though I think I saw God a few times while making this technique" Gohru quipped honestly before panting.

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He had almost died when trying this technique. You see, there was a problem with Eye of the Mind. It increases your heartbeat the more you are in it since it needs to provide your brain which was overclocking with more nutrients.

So, remembering the iconic power-up that Luffy did to increase his odds of winning against Blueno and Lucci, he tried it and fainted immediately after 10 seconds of Eye of the Mind being active.

He did this a few more times for his Quirk to adapt his body to the increased heartbeat, which took a few years (2 to be exact, from 6 years old to 8), but boy was it worth it.

The problem was that the more cells his body had, the more heartbeats were required and the fact that he still had more growing to do would make this be thrown back into the drawing board.

But right now? He could use it.

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"Takes a lot of oxygen, so sorry if I interrupt your focus for breathing too much. Anyways, I'm glad that I met you."

"What?" Omori asked confused as to why him meeting Gohru was good.

"Because of you, I now know that I have hit my current limit since it's taking my all to beat you. I have to get stronger..."

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

His heartbeat starts ramping up as it gets louder to the point that now the silent stadium was filled with thumps of his heartbeat.

"... To beat anyone in my way..."

He said as he got into a pose by crouching and placing his left hand on his thigh while his right was on the ground in a fist into the iconic pose that inspired him to make the technique.

Looking down at the ground, he hid his grin and excitement as he says the technique's name while the steam generated from his body expanded everywhere around him.

"Gia... Sekando. (Gear... Second)"

"Be prepared, Omori."

Raising his left hand and flexing it upwards into a palm aiming at Omori, he puts his right hand into a fist parallel to his left hand as his legs got into an open stance.

"My techniques and martial arts have now evolved a stage higher!"

ZOOM!

And he disappears.

"Nani?!"

BANG!

Something struck his face as he was launched a few centimeters to the left. After getting on his feet, he looked around to see nothing when suddenly —

ZOOM!

POW!

"K-Kuh!" He gasps in pain as he sees a Gohru in front of him in a side kick stance with his right leg imbued into his stomach before disappearing again.

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM!

POW! SMASH! BANG! PAK! CRASH! BOOM!

Even with Tetsuka active, his attacks hurt! It's as if now his puny paper attacks were switched with a steel bat on the same metal durability level as his!

Immediately raising his Tetsuka's durability, the attacks were now not as painful, but they still hurt. Using Tetsuka reduces his stamina a lot, that's why he has increased his usage of Tetsuka to the point that he could instantly activate it if in danger or during an attack.

But now with him using it so often, his stamina was getting drained fast! He has to do something!

With a roar, he spun with his full might with his arms wide open in a full circle as he successfully fended off Gohru's attack, making him appear a few meters in front of him.

"... I can see that you're getting tired. Honestly, I am too. This takes too much for me to maintain." Gohru provided as Omori could see him panting in sheer exhaustion with the steam and pinkish glow of his body now slightly dimmed.

"Yes, I doubt that I can out-sustain you currently at this pace. Very well." He says as he got into a neutral stance with him standing slightly crouched with his arms at the front of his waist.

The beat of Gohru's heartbeat increased further as he "teleported" to Omori, just a meter from each other. With both hands, he raised them to Omori's chest, just a centimeter between his chest and his hands, and closed them into a fist, both vertically parallel to each other 10 centimeters apart.

He took a deep breath before focusing with his entire being. The world fades away as they were the only two humans in the world left.

This technique was something that he thought up in theory ever since mastering the method of activating Gear Second, so this was the first time he was going to do it.

"JET MODE: — "

Flexing with a roar, Omori activated his Quirk to the limits, increasing his muscle durability to diamond-level endurance.

Gohru's arm muscles tensed to their utmost limit as he yells the technique's name out along with Omori.

"TETSUKA! MAX!"

"— ROKUOGAN!"

And he slams into Omori's chest with all his might.

BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

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Dust and smoke erupted from the ring as the two fighters were covered from the audience's eyes. Once the smoke faded away, they were shocked out of their minds.

The two fighters were just standing still, with Omori skidding a few centimeters back from the skid marks on the mat while Gohru's arms were black and blue, laying limply on his sides.

After what seemed to be an eternity, Omori leans back before falling to the ground.

THUD

...

WOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!

The stadium exploded as Gohru panted, groaning in pain at his now useless limping arms.

'I guess at my current strength I can't launch both Gear Second and Rokuogan. Welp, at least my Quirk will activate at its max since it's technically a "near death situation" so I won't break all my bones and muscles the next time — '

Maybe it was from the shock of the pain, or that my time in Gear Second was over, but he fell unconscious after that, but not before thinking involuntarily.

'That was so fucking awesome though!'

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A/N:

2K words! I hope this was enough for the last chapter. Anyways my thumbs hurt from typing for 3 hours straight, so I'm keeping this short. Peace!

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