Chapter 148:

Ace got to the hotel for lunchtime, and put all his gear in his room before going down to the cantine, where Igor was already waiting for him, looking at something on his phone.

He was facing the approaching Ace, and once he noticed him, he put his phone down quickly and looked up, smiling at him.

"So, how was the arcade, was the stream too tiring?", Igor said with a grin, and Ace cringed, then sighed, "Well, I guess you would know about it."

Igor laughed, "I guess I would."

"Anyways, and you, how was your rest?", Ace asked, and immediately, Igor had a look of contentment on his face. "Oh man, it was great, my ribs are fully healed, I don't even feel sore, and my muscles feel the best they have ever felt. I will probably nap for the rest of the day to be frank, but I should be all good for tomorrow.", he had a huge smile as he talked about his plan, probably happy that he would be able to sleep for so long, without anyone disturbing him.

They had a nice lunch, Ace finishing a gigantic platter of sushi and nigiri all on his own. After eating and talking for a short while, Igor was looking as if he might start to snore at any moment, they disbanded, and they each went to their own rooms, Igor to sleep, and Ace to watch a movie.

***

Ace popped a can of Coke, and laid comfortably on the sofa, the movie starting, 'Ah, I could seriously get used to this.'

***

They were each in their own rooms until the rest of the team came in, they were all clearly tired, but serious, which was interesting, since from the messages on the groupchat Ace knew that they had won.

They all sat down together in the lounge, and Igor, observant of the ambience, asked, "What's up? Did you not win?"

"Yeah.", Zach said, "But I think we might have an issue."

Ace quirked an eyebrow at this, and motioned for Zach to explain, "Today, while observing matches, I spotted some people we might actually have trouble facing. They are all from one group, and come from one of the family-owned dojos from around the country. They are presumably the best of the best from each dojo.", he took a small pause, letting the information sink in, "Of course, most of them are very good, but nowhere near to our actual levels. The problems come from two people in particular.", he said, as he tapped the screen of his tablet, and the screen on the room unveiled, a series of information displayed on it.

"Ok, here they are, Subject 1, and Subject 2. Do not worry, I checked their families, they are just normal people, but seem to have some pretty good talent. They seem to have been drafted by the family in charge of the dojo. Probably as part of their private military.", he said, and both Ace and Igor nodded, demonstrating their understanding.

"Now, they have both been pretty low key, but I am pretty sure about this, they are extremely skilled. Now, one of them will be participating in the junior bracket with Nai, the other will be with me.", he let that set in, "The thing is, we have no idea when we will fight, so we need an analysis as soon as possible, I can send it to my people, but they might take longer than…", Zach was about to continue, but Ace stopped him, "Leave it to me.", then, getting up from his seat, and as he walked away, he said, "Send me all you have, you'll have it done by tomorrow morning.

***

'Hmm, this is pretty interesting, they seem to also have training in different styles. I cannot say which with total accuracy, but an 80% probability should be as good as they can get. Regardless, this is not complete, I'll tag along today - which I planned on doing anyway. If they do not fight them today, I will have more time to complete this. Nai has her semifinals today, and Zach still has to go through a few more rounds before finals. If luck is in our favour, I can get them a full analysis.'

He took a quick shower, and changed, then made his way downstairs, two physical files in hand, and his tablet on his backpack.

"Here you go,", he said to Nai and Zach once he got there. They leafed through the contents for about a minute, before they looked back up at him in awe.

"You did this…", Nai started, before trailing off, "In one day?", Zach finished.

"It's ok, I slept a lot yesterday, and I don't really have anything on today, so I will just take a nap before the party.", two lies, he did not sleep yesterday, and would not take a nap, but it was fine for them to think he would.

"We owe you, big time.", Nai said, and Zach agreed.

"Don't say anything yet, if luck is on your side, I can improve this, I'm coming with you."

***

And indeed, luck was truly with them, neither of them were fighting the two guys, so Ace went to their stands, and sat down, taking out his tablet, and getting ready to work some more on Subject 1, after watching his fight. The family they had both been hired by had done a very good job of erasing anything. They only left the barest details, so that if anyone checked, all it would seem was that he did not have much of an online trail.

As the battle progressed, it was clear that Subject 1 was getting annoyed, his opponent was skilled - very much so, in fact, and he was being forced to showcase a lot more than he would normally be comfortable with.

All of this played to Ace's favour, he engaged his superhuman brain, and memorised every action of his, analysing it a thousand times over every second in his brain. This was the reason he was able to analyse things, he could memorise images or videos, and imagine them in his head, able to analyse them at will.

He only wrote a small number of notes on the tablet. He memorised all of what he wanted to write, but did not want to appear suspicious, writing things down furiously, he would write after the match had ended.

***

Once it did, he had a window of time to clearly write everything in his pristine handwriting, it was so neat and legible that it almost looked like he had used a keyboard, and not the stylus.

He finished writing everything, and sent Nai the updated version. She had finished her fight already - winning it comfortably, so when she felt the notification from her phone, she took it out, and looked at it, reading for a few minutes, before she beamed a smile at Ace, and mouthed, "Thank you".

***

It was the same process with Suspect 2's fight. He absorbed everything, and then wrote down the clear notes and analysis, including drawings of his postures, and any minimal mistakes he had made.

Of course, it would be impossible to give things with 100% accuracy, but he felt confident to have gotten to at least 90%, which meant that parts of it would for sure be of help, and the rest would still be able to give them an idea on what could happen.

***

"Ace, this is insane.", Zach said, as he looked at him dead-on, "If for whatever reason, you need anything, tell me, I will do what I can. You just made us owe you big time, I will let the school know." and after a short pause, "Also, if you ever want to do this for a living, I am sure my family will be more than happy to compensate you for your services.", he said, and grinned sheepishly, he knew that it would never happen, but one could always hope.