62 Chapter 61:

(Sakuya POV)

I don't think I have ever been more upset in my life…

My clone stole my Thanos-ing virginity right from me, this was a devastating blow to me. Ever since I had found out I could erase things, I had dreamed of finally being able to do a Thanos snap.

Alas, my dreams have, rather ironically, turned to dust…

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to wallow in my depressive episode for much longer as a portal opened above my lap and dropped a hefty stack of documents onto my lap. Before my momentary confusion could really set in, I gained some new memories from a clone's dispersion.

After a quick use of thought acceleration to shorten the time needed to sift through the memories, I understood the situation at hand.

Sadly, I wasn't able to have them accept the Sibyl System AI. They deemed it 'too dangerous', which I couldn't fault. It would have been much harder to implement, due to the government concluding it as an invasion of people's privacy.

They did, however, agree to a more dumbed-down AI system. It would report crimes in progress, and any information about the perpetrator, to nearby officers. It wasn't much, but it would help them with response times, and hopefully reduce field casualties.

All the other technology was happily accepted by most, apart from one member. So, I only needed to send some clones to a remote warehouse and leave them to focus on setting up assembly lines.

I gave the papers a quick glance, to make sure they were all indeed signed, before putting them into my safe. This was the start of the technological revolution, and I personally couldn't wait.

Momo, sadly, had to leave for her match, so my lap was unoccupied briefly. Toga decided to take the seat, as a reward for 'being such a good patient'. I had no idea what happened in the infirmary, but judging by Melissa's reluctance to look at me I could only assume that my clone was a tad harsher than needed.

"Ne~! Ne~! Saku-tan~! Who do you think is going to win, and why?"

Looking down at the splayed-out blonde in my lap, I could only deadpan at her. The answer was obvious, well, to me at least. Toga also knows the answer, I'm confident she does anyway, she just wanted to make some conversation with the person whose lap she's stretched out across.

"Well~, as a good wife, like myself, I have to root for Momo to win."

"Boo~! Stop flaunting your wonderful relationship to my single self, and give me a proper answer."

"Hm? What happened to that boy from general studies that confessed to you?"

"I rejected him, duh~! And, to think you were meant to be the smart friend."

"Oh~? What was wrong with him?"

"His gen- Hey, don't change the subject!"

I pretended not to hear her admission of liking girls, and answered her original question once more,

"It all depends on whether or not Reiko has fine enough control of her quirk to affect Momo's nanobots.

If she does? She just needs to get into range and throw Momo out of bounds before Momo can start doing damage.

If she doesn't? Momo will take the match easily."

"Eh~?! Such a boring answer! I wanted something more like Reiko will go BAM! Then, Whoosh! And, Momo will go POW! The end."

"I sometimes forget that you're a high school student, you know?"

"Oh, yeah?! Well... I sometimes forget you used to be single, how about that?"

"You mean like everybody else before entering a relationship? How scandalous~ of me, I was single before entering a relationship! What would the tabloids think of that news?"

Oh, and now she's pouting with an embarrassed flush of pink on her cheeks. She really is like a child at times, no wonder Kan still wants to spoil her rotten even nowadays.

"Aww~! Look at you, all embarrassed~!"

"S-Shut up!"

I quickly threw up a silencing dome around the two of us, and asked another question,

"So… Is there anyone that has caught your eye?"

"And, who would possibly do that? All the boys aren't up to my standards."

"Who said anything about boys? You admitted that you like girls earli-"

She threw a packet of tissues at my face to silence me,

"I-I don't know what you're talking about! It must be your old age acting up, Saku-tan."

"Toga, sweetie, why are you embarrassed? You're talking to the biggest lesbian on planet Earth right now, I won't judge you.

But, if you don't want to talk about it right now, you can just talk about how Alluka has been doing."

"Well, she has been eating less lately. We don't know if it's a medical issue, or just her not liking the change in diet, but we're planning to go to the hospital after the festival to find out for sure."

"That's for the best, anything else going on with her?"

"Hm? I don't know… She's got better pronunciation now?"

"Not much going on in general then?"

"Yeah, maybe there are more things, but I don't see her as much as I used to because of the dorms, so I wouldn't know."

I canceled the silencing dome and managed to catch the start of Momo's match. The match started with Mic's usual introductions that nobody ever really cared about, and I watched as Momo ended the fight almost as quickly as it started.

From what I could tell from my point of view, she used the Nightbringer ring to shroud Reiko in darkness, thus depriving her of her sight. Before sprouting tentacles of darkness from the ground, and throwing her outside of the ring.

It wasn't the most exciting victory to watch, but I don't think Momo cared in the slightest. She was far too busy glaring daggers at me, or rather, Toga who was on my lap. I guess she wanted to finish quickly so she could reclaim her territory.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The semi-finals and the matchups were announced, and the crowd noticed something very quickly. The finalists consisted solely of Team Momo members from the Tower of Babel event.

[Melissa vs Shoto]

[Momo vs Inasa]

They were the fan favorites to win the entire thing, and were the most exciting to watch in the eyes of the audience, so they were eagerly looking forward to upcoming matches.

Inasa's and Momo's match was the most anticipated, as people assumed that it would have been the final match of the tournament, but it seems as if the initial randomizer had other ideas.

People also wanted to see Inasa again after his extended break from the last round. He was the image of the most standard 'hero', his passion and flashy moves helped his popularity amongst viewers too, so they wanted to see him in action some more.

Melissa and Shoto's match was something that was also a spectacle people were looking forward to, just not as much as the fight that comes after it. Melissa's last punch had the crowd wary of the blonde teen's power, and slightly worried for her opponent.

[[Can competitors, Melissa Shield and Shoto Todoroki, make their way to the assigned waiting rooms. A staff member will come by a minute before the match to inform you when the match will be starting, and guide you to the correct tunnel.]]

The crowd was expecting another ad-break, like after all other matchup announcements. Luckily for them, it never came. It was only a few minutes before the fight would start, and they couldn't wait.