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22 - Our 16 competitors

Chiasa and Keiji, the presenters of the Arenas are speaking to each other at their desk. “Do you remember that blonde bombshell who always use to wear tight black leather, what was her name?”. “You mean Mistress black?”. “Oh my god yeahhh, she was so hot”. “Right and didn’t she have a sister as well?”. “Oh damn it what was her name? Hmmmm justice something, justice… got it, Justice Whip”. “Ohhhhh yeah, and if you had to choose?”. “Easy, definitely… wait what, we’re live, well why the hell didn’t you tell us that before?”. They turn to address the viewers “welcome back to the Academic Arenas, we are just about to kick off into the 3rd round of our first year competition. Some incredibly exciting stuff so far, question is, will this excitement continue?”. “To be honest Chiasa in my opinion, I can’t see how it won’t be just as exciting but I also can’t see how it can be any more exciting than it already has been, so far the first day has been an absolute spectacle of a show”. “I couldn’t agree more, I think everyone is on the edge of their seats for the last round, let’s remind ourself a little and have a look at the 16 competitors who made it through to the final round. Now we are at this stage of the competition I think it’s time to tell you a little more not just about who made it through but also a little more about their powers”.

“First up we have Shigeo Ikehera from Oni academy who switched things up in the 2nd round stealing first place with his ability ‘switch’ this ability means he can cause 2 objects to instantly switch places within a 5km range, as long as he has had contact with them within a certain time before hand, it’s also worth noting he can hold up to 20 objects to be switched at one time. His partner in crime if you will is Maduka Ozawa of Akiko academy, his power is called “detach”, this gives him the ability to detach and control his limbs at will, we’re not quite sure how he will fare in the tournament round but this year anything could happen”. “Next up racing past the line our surprise contestant Takuyaki Kikuchi from Nozomi academy, with his ability ‘surge’ this gives him the power to control surges of lightning meaning he can travel at lightning fast speeds, strangely he was accepted into all of the top academies however turned them down to study at Nozomi academy, whilst there he is currently being trained by the number 2 hero in Japan, Lucifer, and in my opinion I think he could possibly be the next big hero, definitely one to keep an eye out for. Now Takuyaki literally dragged his partner across the finish line, a Tatsuo Ryüjin of Titan academy, his ability is currently unknown”. “Wait hold on did you say his ability is unknown?”. “That’s right this student got accepted into Titan academy with absolutely no power, his seed activated but by a strange phenomenon doctors everywhere we’re baffled when he couldn’t actually use his power, it’s a rare case that I don’t think anyone else has seen before”. “Wow that must have been tough”. “Correct, but back to the competition, I’m not a betting man but if I was I wouldn’t place the bet on this horse”. Tatsuo is watching the tv from the Titan academy area and slaps his face.

“Next up we have Raiko Soda, of Yokata academy for girls, with her ability ‘mimic’. This is a unique ability which allows her to mimic up to 4 powers at once, however only at a quarter of their current power, to qualify and pass the line in 3rd place she used her power to mimic Takuyaki’s ‘surge’ and storm past the competition, securing a place in the 3rd round for herself and her partner, the top student of Kyo academy, Amata Yoshino with a quirky ability, pixie dust, she’s able to create a ‘pixie powder’ that makes others who inhale it feel very sleepy, if enough is inhaled the victim could fall instantly to sleep. This power could definitely come in useful during these 1 on 1’s, remember, if round 3 is the same as it has been in the past then you can also win by making your opponent immobile or unable to continue to fight, this ‘pixie powder’ might be the perfect stuff for it”. “You might be right there, guess we’ll have to wait to see. Moving on our 4th place team, the first of which goes to Mizo Kudo from Titan academy with her ability ‘rage’, when in an angered state her body transforms into an incredibly muscular version of herself giving her vastly enhanced strength and speed, which was seen when she dragged Oni academie’s first year golden boy Takao Arata across the line, he has a unique ability for the hero academy, an ability called fear. He is able to manipulate your mental state and force you into seeing that which you fear most, many have said he could use this power for evil intent but he made the fantastic decision to stay on the right path and decided to join the hero course”.

“Next up in our 5th place team, we have Sadow Masato from Chiyokin academy, his ability is called ‘Shadow Summon’, he can create and summon up to 5 shadow beasts at one time which usually mimic real life animals, this helped him secure a position in the 3rd round using 2 shadow wolves to race across the line along with his partner Kenikai Randy of Titan academy who’s ability is called Random Power Generator”. “That one’s a bit of a mouthful”. “Maybe he’ll have to turn that into an acronym or something”. In the Titan academy area Kenikai jumps up. “I can’t, Shuichi’s already got his power called RPG”. Yuka pulls him down. “Alright enough don’t make a scene”. Back on the screen the presenter continues. “Kenikai’s power allows him to activate it every hour, in doing so he is given a randomised power, it’s also good to know the number of abilities he is given is also random, in the report it says sometimes it can range from 0 to 3 different powers, but whatever power he gets he will be stuck with them for an hour, so let’s hope for his sake he gets some good luck during the final round fights”.

“Moving on to 6th place, along for the ride was Hajime Tajime from Kaoru academy who has the power to manipulate light, once again his power is as simple as it sounds, however there could be more to his power than we think. Hajime managed to cross the line thanks to his partner Suzu Inaba from Oni academy with her power ‘Earth Manipulation’, like said in the name her power allows her to control and manipulate the earth below our feet, this ability gave her and her partner an easy ride on a wave of Earth all the way to the finish line, she was also the first student to create an obstacle for the other students with no benefit to herself, I feel like she could be a little trouble, however this could add some extra excitement to this years competition.” “Maybe, you could be right but that’s very interesting as we also have another Elemental manipulator an Etsuko Yamagata also from Titan academy, who has the ability ‘4th element’, however rather than just the one, she can manipulate all 4 elements, water, fire, earth and air, it sounds promising but from the looks of it in the first round she doesn’t seem to have complete control over her power just yet. However she did a great job breaking down Suzu’s wall and getting her and her partner through into 7th place. Talking of her partner, he’s an unusual student under the name of Hideki Shimizu from Oni academy with an unusual ability to match an ability called, Mime. When his seed activated he lost the ability to speak however in return gained the power to create anything he can imagine, the only downside to this power is that his creations are only visible to himself, also his power has a limited range of 5 meters from his body. However he used this power wonderfully during the last 2 events and I look forward to seeing how he does in the next stage”.

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“And our last and final team making their way past many competitors in a last second dash into 8th place is our Titan academy duo”. “Wow I know you were worried for the students maybe not making it into the final round but they’ve managed to absolutely smash their way in, over half of the students from Titan academy are in these top 16”. “That’s correct, another of which is Yuka Yoshida, his ability is called “‘double-tap’, which allows him to create pockets of energy, and as each minute passes from its time of creation, the force of the energy doubles. This power has saved him last minute in both round 1 and 2 and was the wonderful attack that caused Titan to be nearly knocked off his feet. Using this power he managed to shoot himself and his partner towards the finish line however it was thanks to the fantastic sword skills of Shuichi Ogaru, also of Titan academy, that they got past Suzu’s earth wall. His ability is called RPG, much like the mechanics of a role playing game he can acquire skills and level up his base stats in order to become stronger, faster, more agile, more skilled and so on, his surprising sword slash cut down the wall and made the hole that they managed to fly through”.

“So those are our 16 students who made it into the 3rd round, well now we know who they are let’s move back into the arenas main hall where our wonderful host Masumi is about to announce which students will be facing each other”. The host steps up to the front platform and the remaining students are all in the hall together, they are all in their own academy areas. They all step out and stand in a line facing the host. “As you can see above me we have a 16 person tournament table, you will now be once again randomly selected into the bottom 16 positions and this will determine who you will be fighting, all fights will be one on one combat where the winner must knock their opponent out of the arena or render the opponent unconscious or unable to continue to fight, they may also win if the opponent forfeits the match. As these are simulated matches of course no harm will come to the students and the pain setting is turned to 0% therefore there are no rules other than just stated. Please look to the board as we are about to announce who you will be facing”. The students look up and the pictures of their faces appear in the 16 boxes.

Match 1 Ikehera Shigeo vs Yoshida Yuka

Match 2 Shimezu Hideki vs Randy Kenikai

Match 3 Inaba Suzu vs Yamagata Etsuko.

Match 4 Kudo Mizo vs Ryüjin Tatsuo.

Match 5 Yoshino Amata vs Kikuchi Takuyaki

Match 6 Soda Raiko vs Ozawa maduka

Match 7 Araya Takao vs Tajime Hajime

Match 8 Ogaru Shuichi vs Masato sadow

As they see who they will be facing they all turn and look at their opponents. Tatsuo turns to Mizo “oh crap”. Yuka laughs “good luck Tatsuo”. Tatsuo scoffs. “You be careful as well, the guy you are going up against isn’t as nice as he seems”. Tatsuo turns and looks at Shigeo with a deadly look. The host continues “good luck to all our students, may the best hero win”. Everyone starts to leave and Yuka accidentally bumps into Shigeo as they leave, in return Shigeo shouts at him “Hey watch it you idiot”. Yuka sighs and walks off. Takao joins in “Hey idiot, my friend was talking to you, apologise now”. Yuka goes to turn around but Shuichi holds him by the shoulder “lets go”. Shigeo continues “yeah you better walk away” you hear them laughing to themselves as everyone returns to their academy areas.

The presenters are heard on the tv. “So there we have it, our first 8 matches lined up and they will begin in around 10 minutes giving the students time to look at who they are facing and who they could be facing later on should they progress further. I really do think this is going to be a great tournament, who are you placing your bets on to take first place this year?”. “oh that’s a difficult question but I think Takuyaki Kikuchi of Nozomi academy has stormed through the first 2 stages and will continue to do so in this round. What about you”. “Well I definitely agree it’s a hard one but we’ve got some great students from Oni and Titan academy, I definitely think Yuka Yoshida is one to watch out for. Anyway, whilst we’re waiting for the next round to start I think it’s a great time to talk about hero con. As you know every 4 years we have an event called hero con, a place where many heroes gather together and a great chance for you to meet all your favourites, also the current top 10 heroes at that time will be brought onto stage and will also give you a fantastic opportunity to listen in as they answer all their fans questions on the top 10 panel. Don’t miss your chance and book the ticket soon”.

The Titan academy students are all together in their area, Hotaka stands up and addresses the class. “Well done guys, you have all done so great so far in this competition. An extra special congratulations to those of you who made it into round 3 just remember we’ll all be watching and supporting you”. Everyone turns to Yuka. He looks around “why’s everyone looking at me?” Mizo whispers to him “you’re first up”. Yuka looks at the board. “Oh right, yeah that makes sense”. Tatsuo walks over to him “just be careful of that Shigeo guy, like I said he plays dirty”. Yuka smiles “it’s ok, I have a plan”.