Two presenters are sitting at a table “Hello and welcome to the Academic Arenas formerly known just as ‘the arenas’, we will be your 2 presenters for the entirety of the competition, my name is Keiji Yamasaki, but most of you will know me from my hero days as ZipZap” the other presenter carries on “and my name is Chiasa Tao, also known in my hero days as the cluster. Before we get started I think it might be best to discuss a little history for some of our first-time viewers. Now the arenas have been happening for hundreds of years, the original aim was to discover which hero was the strongest. However as you may know 20 years ago our first 4 hero academies were founded and the arenas were come to be known as the Academic Arenas, specifically for students studying at the academies rather than for already qualified heroes, this meant the heroes could focus on their duties while the public remained entertained. This was a big change at the time and since they’ve continued to see a lot of changes in those years. we now have 20 different schools participating in the tournaments making that a total of 200 students, this is also including our newest members, Titan academy, and Keiji, what do you think will happen when Titan’s new academy debuts today?”.

He replies “Well Chiasa, from what I’ve heard a couple of their students made a bit of a mess of the evaluation halls, which goes to show they don’t have great control over their powers but let’s remember, in the past 3 months they have been training with some big names, the number 1 hero Titan, the number 4 hero Bullet, the number 5 WildFire, maybe these past 3 months have been a big learning curve for these youngsters, either way, to be chosen by the top hero means there has got to be something special about them, we’ll just have to see if they can show that special talent today”. Chiasa nods his head, “agreed, also in other news, this year the number 2 hero Lucifer has been training a student that will be getting involved in this tournament, a student named Takuyaki Kikuchi, however plot twist, this student is studying at Nozomi academy, which is known as the least successful of the hero schools and typically doesn’t do too well in these tournaments.”

“Not to mention the top 1 rated hero school in all of Japan, ONI academy, will be front runners backed and trained by our number 3 hero Gold Dust. What an exciting year it’s going to be, definitely one for the history books”. “Now the details of the first round have just been explained to the students, the students will be in their school groups of 10 fighting 2 randomly selected heroes that have agreed to sign up and attend the competition earlier this year. They will then have a 10 vs 2 battle that lasts up to 15 minutes, if either the heroes or the students haven’t been eliminated or are unable to continue to fight, the match will end at the 15 minute mark. Once all fights have been completed the 10 qualifying schools will be chosen by a jury of 4 impartial judges who will determine which schools performed the best, therefore even if you lose against the heroes it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be eliminated from the tournament”. “Exactly, and vice versa just because you win doesn’t mean you’re automatically through to the next round, it will be an interesting round to watch and will be fun to see which schools get matched up against which heroes. Again, welcome to all our viewers from home we hope you enjoy the tournaments this year, let’s join the students in the waiting hall as they are in their assigned academy area discussing their plans. From here in the studio section of the arena we wish them all luck”.

Back in the large hall, all the groups of students are in their academy areas discussing tactics. Shuichi looks over again at the mysterious student from earlier, he is shocked to see their team isn’t discussing tactics at all, instead, they are sitting around chatting. Shuichi gathers the students. “Ok everyone listen up. I suggest rather than a 10v2 scenario we separate them and force them into a 5v1, this way they cant support each other and we can outnumber and overpower them”. Tatsuo jumps in “I hate to keep bringing this up but have we forgotten I don’t have any powers, I don’t see how I can be of any use here”. Ryota jumps in also, “Yeah me neither, unless the aim of winning is making a dove appear I’m not sure what I’m going to be able to do in this round”. Etsuko jumps in “and my powers aren’t exactly under control” Mizo and Daisuke nod their head. Shuichi continues “look let’s not focus on the negatives and the reasons why we might not win, let’s try to focus on the things that can help, and remember you’ve all been having at least basic combat training for the past few months, use what you’ve learned where you can. Also remember, the heroes we will be fighting won’t know that some of us don’t have powers or don’t have our powers under control, we can use that to our advantage. The instruction manual says that no profiles or prior information is given about students participating in the events, so they won’t know anything about our powers unless we use them at some point during the fight”. Tatsuo punches Shuichi in the arm “You’re a genius, class captain for the win, that’s my best friend Shuichi”. Shuichi rubs his arm and continues “plus you have other skills that may come in handy. Let’s see who we are going to be up against from there we can decide what groups we will be in” they all look at each other and nod.

The presenters continue. “And it looks like they are about to announce which 2 heroes each school will be facing”. Masumi, the host, steps up to the mic. “Now you’ve had some time to discuss tactics with your team, it's time to announce which heroes you’ll be facing”. The host goes on to announce all the other academies and which heroes they’ll be facing, during which he announces Nozomi Academy will be fighting 2 heroes called Jawbreaker and Crypto. Shuichi looks over again to the mysterious student, who after the announcement, gets up and walks out, the rest of the students follow him. Another group of academies and heroes are shown including Yokata academy for girls and Oni Academy. “And finally our last and newest school, Titan academy, your first hero will be… white wolf”. The students look at each other and begin nodding, Shuichi smiles “that’s not a bad draw, it won’t be easy but there’s a small chance, maybe we have got this in the bag”. The host continues “and the second hero… oh my wow, by a pure stoke of coincidence, I can't believe this, I have got to remind the audience at home the selection is completely random and they are chosen from over 250 heroes that agreed to participate, the second hero is…” all the students' mouths drop, all the other academies look at them in shock and disbelief. Shuichi stands up and looks at the host, then looks at Hotaka. “It can’t be”. The host continues “it’s the founder of the academy himself, your second hero is, Titan” all the other students start talking and the Titan academy students turn to face Hotaka who is smiling awkwardly.

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The presenters continue speaking. “Welcome back from the advertisements if you have just joined us via tv or VRtv before the break we just found out our newest academy in the arenas will be facing the number one hero in Japan, their founder and teacher, Titan himself. Now what do you think of that Chiasa?”. He sits there with his mouth wide open and then shakes his head. “I just can’t believe it, I mean I didn’t even know he had entered into the running, and the luck or should I say bad luck for his students to be pitted against him is just unbelievable, I mean what are the odds?”. Keiji jumps in “about 1 in 250 but that’s not the point,now I know what some of you are thinking at home, why doesn’t he just go easy on them and give them an easy win, well remember all matches will be being watched and officiated by our four impartial judges if he decides to go easy on them, that will be marked against them and could cost them their chance of making it into round 2”. “that’s correct, as for their other hero WhiteWolf it will be interesting to see how they deal with him as he’s not one of the most well-known heroes however is still a formidable opponent, for now though, it’s time to get started with our first match, Shinobi academy vs Mighty Matter and the Bright Phoenix”.

Hotaka and Minita are in a hallway and Minita is backing him up against a wall. “Why didn’t you tell me you entered the hero lottery for the tournament”. “I did it last minute as a joke, I never actually thought I’d be chosen, but most of the teachers sign up for it and loads of heroes come to watch the games as well, like over 250 heroes sign up”. Minita runs her hand against her eyes and down her face. “Did you not think about maybe telling me you were going to do this so I could tell you how much of a stupid idea it was”. Minita backs away. “I mean seriously what were you thinking? You’re the number one hero in Japan going against academy kids”. Hotaka smiles awkwardly. “Alright well, I guess I didn’t think it through. But I wasn’t really expecting to be chosen let alone to face my own students, you would think they would have something in place to stop this from happening. Wait hold on maybe this is a good thing”. Minita looks at him angrily “how’s that?”.

A door is seen, outside it has ‘Academy meeting room’ written above and a red slider on the door saying ‘non-vacant’. Inside the students are all sat in silence, Daisuke goes to speak but then shuts his mouth again. Ryota mutters out loud “How the hell are we going to beat Titan”. Shuichi sits there in silence for a few seconds, he then stands up “wait… they didn’t say we need to beat him, they said they would choose the 10 schools who performed the best, surely they have to take the fact that he’s the number one hero into consideration, all we need to do is hold him off, plus we have the advantage because we’re the ones that know the most about him and how he fights as we train with him often, we’re the ones that most likely know his weaknesses, we even have 2 students that train with him nearly every other day. Yuka, Mizo you can be on the team that takes on Titan, in the meantime the other team can take down WhiteWolf.”

Yuka jumps in “Yeah that’s true, but there are so many problems here, we’ve never once beaten Hotaka Sensei, also Titan doesn’t have a weakness, whereas he knows all of ours. Lastly, even if we could hold off or even beat WhiteWolf, do you think we stand a chance against Titan”. Shuichi looks around, “you know he chose us because he believed we could one day be heroes that surpass even him, right now we’ve got a long way to go but together, we have to try our best and throw everything we have at him. Therefore I’m recommending Yuka, Mizo, Kame, Daisuke and Etsuko, you take on Hotaka Sensei, the rest of us will deal with WhiteWolf”. They all look at each other and Daisuke replies “Well we came all the way here it's worth a try”. Shuichi smiles “ok this is the plan”. The students gather around and Shuichi begins speaking to the group.

Hotaka is walking down a hallway when he passes Gold Dust, as they pass each other Haru stops and speaks to him “I can’t believe you entered this thing, was it just for fun or some publicity stunt, either way whatever the plan was, now it looks like it’s backfired because you’re going up against your own students, I guess being the best will finally bite you in the ass” Hotaka turns to Haru. “I didn’t think I would be chosen and I certainly didn’t know I was going to be up against them, but still I’m one hundred per cent sure if any academy is going to have a chance of beating me, it’s my students, either way, they’ll try their best and try to get into round 2 and maybe even further”, Hotaka turns and starts to walk away, Haru smirks “hm guess we’ll see about that, personally I think they don’t stand a chance, from the looks of it their best won’t be good enough to get them through to the second round” Hotaka continues walking and as he does he whispers under his breath and smiles “their best might surprise you Haru”.

All Titan students are walking down the hallway in their uniforms, Shuichi overhears a conversation between 2 random students, “did you see that kid from Nozomi Academy, he carried his entire team and took out the two heroes on his own, it was incredible”. They continue walking down the hall and into a simulation room, they download into a simulation which is exactly like the massive arena they are in but instead they look around and see lots of virtual simulated people. Etsuko turns to Shuichi, “who are all those simulated people in the stadium?”. He rolls his eyes “did none of you read the manual? Those are viewers, they’re using simulation helmets in the stadium to watch the game in person, those cameras over there also stream the matches to anyone watching on tv at home or VRtv so they can feel like they are watching the action live”. Kenikai mutters to himself “I always wondered how they filmed it for home viewers”. The students turn around and 2 bright lights beam down onto the field in front of them. The dust clouds settle and there you can see Titan and WhiteWolf.

The presenters' voices are heard, “and now it’s time for the long-awaited match of this first round, I can not believe how exciting this is going to be, this man right here was putting us to shame when we were in our prime 14 years ago during our times as heroes, and now he is about to make his debut appearance in the Academic Arenas and I can not wait to see this, good luck to the students because you’re going to need it”. Hotaka smiles. “Let’s see what you guys have got, don’t forget to give it your all”. The timer begins to countdown, 5,4,3,2…1 a horn is sounded and the students get into fighting stances.