Chapter 36 - Torneo I

...

<Japan UA Cafeteria>

"Wahhhh... I could use a nap right now" Yawned Lena as she stretched her body. She wasn't particularly tired but Lena's "Lena's 100% Infallible Grand Strategy - Trademark" worked too well.

And beyond the tiredness, the depletion of her energy and keeping her energy stable, there weren't many problems. Two of them had already been solved by Lena, but the fatigue still lingered.

"I still can't believe you were on Shoji's back for the entire second test...". Kyoka replied with disbelief in her voice, she expected anything during the cavalry test, but Lena's ridiculousness was on another level entirely.

"Is that jealousy, I hear?" Lena asked smugly as she put a hand to her ear. "Um?~"

"You wish" Kyoka replied dryly.

Kyoka and Lena were in the Festival cafeteria, filled to the brim with participants from all the years. Honestly, it was a miracle Kyoka found a table to sit at.

Toru was next to Momo in the queue to order their food, apparently they both entertained themselves talking to their teams and now they are paying the consequences.

As usual Lena ordered ridiculous amounts of food, Kyoka on the other hand thanks to her training has started on a specialized diet which forced her to eat a bit more than she was used to.

"Um, so would you like me to ride on your back for the whole event?" Lena asked with a smile on her face looking Kyoka in the eyes. "I think that would be great, although I think it would be better if I carried you, no?"

"You were the one who carried me through the whole first event" Kyoka commented with disdain but with a smile threatening to appear on her face. "That helped me a lot though."

A chuckle came out of Lena's mouth. "Anytime, sweetie."

"By the way, have you noticed that all the tests are basically, run or die?" Lena changed the subject as she placed her palm on the underside of her chin, as if deep in thought. "Suspicious, don't you think?"

"You're overreacting, Lena" Kyoka rolled her eyes. "I don't think we'll be forced to run again, I hope not... for the sake of my legs."

A smile appeared on Lena's face before she looked up at Kyoka who was finishing her meal "Hey Kyo."

Kyoka raised at the sudden nickname. "What's up?"

"When the Festival is over, do you want to go eat somewhere?" Lena asked suddenly without changing the expression on her face.

"Why such a sudden invitation?" Kyoka asked with a confused look before blinking. "I mean, I'm not saying no, but usually it's Toru who makes the plans to go out."

"I don't know I just feel like going out with you somewhere" Lena replied with an innocent shrug. "So~ what do you say?"

Kyoka narrowed her eyes before sighing. "Well, as long as I'm not busy, of course."

"Cool! So-"

Suddenly, the cafeteria's speakers came to life and PresidentMic's voice could be heard shouting, "You have five minutes before the break ends!"

"It's better if we talk about it after the Tournament is over" Kyoka spoke as she stood up from her seat, Lena nodded as she did the same "I hope it's an easy test..."

***

<5 Minutes Later...>

The crowd inside the festival stadium was excited, the freshmen showed a ferocity and tenacity worthy of Professional Heroes.

Meanwhile, said Professional Heroes were interested in several of the Class 1A students to be their practice partners. The obvious crowd favorite was the son of Hero Number 2.

But that didn't mean that the others were overshadowed by Todoroki's father's fame and influence, not at all. The real Heroes who were not easily swayed by Todoroki saw a class full of potential and raw talent.

"That boy is interesting..."

"Hhe doesn't seem to be used to..."

"She lacks experience... but he could be worth it..."

Hundreds of Heroes were taking mental notes on each student, the way they moved, their creativity, their Quirk, etc. Every detail was being analyzed by hundreds of Heroes, that's not counting the Heroes who weren't present in the Festival stadium, so there could be thousands of Heroes watching their performance!!!

"VERY WELL DEAR AUDIENCE!" Announced PresidentMic as the audience went wild. "THIS FESTIVAL IS COMING TO AN END! SO LET'S GET STARTED WITH THE MAIN EVENT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

The giant screen was coming to life again and several lines could be seen crossing until there was only one line at the end. The audience immediately realized what the final event was and went wild.

"THAT'S RIGHT MY DEAR AUDIENCE! IT'S A 1V1 BATTLE TOURNAMENT!"

"Now let's draw battles!" Midnight exclaimed as he looked at all the assembled participants. 

The screen changed to a large sphere that looked like a large bird cage with several smaller balls inside. The large sphere began to spin causing the smaller balls to collide with each other for a few seconds as a straining music played over the stadium speakers.

Suddenly, the sphere stopped and ejected two bingo balls.

Kaminari Denki. 

"For the love of-"

Oxton Lena. 

"Ara~"

The process was repeated a couple of times until the table of participants was complete.

The order of the bouts and combatants:

...

Kaminari Denki VS Oxton Lena

Yaoyorozu Momo VS Koda Koji

Jiro Kyoka VS Tokoyami Fumikage

Tenya Iida VS Hatsume Mei

Sero Hanta VS Todoroki Shoto

Hagamakure Toru VS Ochaco Uraraka

Mezo Shoji VS Midoriya Izuku

...

"ALRIGHT NOW ALL PARTICIPANTS ARE READY! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN HOLD ON TO YOUR BELTS BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO TAKE OFF!". Announced the PresidentMic with an enthusiasm that was quickly transmitted to the entire Stadium. "ON ONE SIDE WE HAVE THE MASTER OF ELECTRICITY WHO WILL MAKE THE GIRLS FALL IN LOVE WITH HIS SPARKS! KAMINARI DENKI!"

Emerging from the tunnel, a nervous looking Kaminari emerged as he looked at his surroundings which raised a few eyebrows from the Class as it was the opposite of his normally confident attitude, though they knew his nervousness was due to the thousands of eyes watching him. 

Shaking his head quickly, Kaminari put on a confident face to try and curb his nervousness as he made his way to the combat platform.

"ON THE OTHER SIDE WE HAVE THE FAST GIRL WHO WOULD MAKE A FOOL OF FLASH! DON'T BLINK OR YOU'LL MISS HER! IT'S NONE OTHER THAN... LENA OXTON!"

Out of the other tunnel came Lena with a smile plastered on her face as she tried to ignore all the annoying crowd noise.

Both students stared at each other for a while. You could almost see the sparks clashing between their gazes.

"ONE!"

"TWO!"

"THREE!"

"START!"

...

__________________________________________

If you like the story you can support me on my Patreon! You can read up to 5 chapters in advance!

https://www.patreon.com/rTem

...