Chapter 49: Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 48
The recreational events had been more fun than I expected. I, at Ruby's insistence, had participated in most of them, they were light competitions, nothing out of this world, nothing that couldn't be found in other normal schools at a normal sports festival, but that made it fun.
I liked wrestling, obviously, but spending time like that together with one of my girls, it was fun, Ruby was happy during all the competitions, so it was good.
"HEY GUYS ARE YOU READY!??!" Present Mic's shout rang out across the arena. I had been one of the few qualifiers who had participated in the recreational events, most of them having decided to split up and rest on their own terms.
"AFTER SO MANY EVENTS... IN THE END IT'S THE ONE-ON-ONE BATTLES THAT WE REALLY WANT TO SEE!!!!"
"THE ONLY PERSON YOU CAN COUNT ON IS YOURSELF! WILL, SKILL, ENDURANCE AND JUDGMENT... THIS IS THE TIME TO PUT ALL OF THAT INTO PLAY AND ACHIEVE A GLORIOUS VICTORY!!! "
"FIRST FIGHT!!!!!!"
"THE UNDISPUTED WINNER SO FAR!!! HE WON THE OBSTACLE RACE! I WON THE FIGHT ON HORSES!! WILL HE ALSO WIN THE TOURNAMENT?! THE PRINCE OF THE SWORD!! "IZUMIIII MIYAMURAAAA!!!!" I tripped over the air when I heard Present Mic introduce me, what the hell is that title?! Oh hell no! I could already see the entire internet calling me that stupid nickname. Grumbling, I continued walking towards the newly made arena while ignoring the roar of the crowd, I was going to kill Present Mic somehow.
"AGAINST…"
" EVEN THOUGH HE DIDN'T STAND OUT IN PREVIOUS EVENTS, HIS FAMILY IS FAMOUS!! THEY HAVE ABSOLUTE MASTERY OF FIRE!! THEY ARE IMMORTAL!! THEY ARE THE PHOENIXES!!! RAVEL PHENEEEX!!!!
I saw Ravel walk out from the other side of the stadium, arrogantly heading towards the arena. We both stopped several meters away, me with Yubashiri on my hip while Ravel simply stood with her chin held high.
"THE RULES ARE SIMPLE!! IF YOUR OPPONENT'S AURA GOES BELOW 10%, IF YOUR OPPONENT LEAVES THE RING, CANNOT MOVE ANYMORE OR SAYS 'I GIVE UP', THEN VICTORY IS YOURS!!
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT GETTING HURT!! OF COURSE, PURPOSELY PUTTING YOUR OPPONENT'S LIFE AT RISK IS NOT ALLOWED, IF YOU DO THAT, YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DISQUALIFIED, BUT OTHERWISE, A RECOVERY GIRL IS READY AND WAITING NEXT TO THE STADIUM!!! AND IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!!! WE ALSO HAVE THE BEST HEALER IN JAPAN WITH US FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!!! AKARI SHIMIZU!!!!"
The crowd roared loudly at the name of Japan's S-Rank healer, now that was interesting, my eyes curiously looked around without being able to find the Draw Sword Guild's healer, a pity.
" WITHOUT FURTHER PROLONGATION, LET'S START THE BATTLE!!! "
" READYY... START!!!!!!" Ravel snorted, brushed her hair back with one hand, and looked at me boredly.
"You better give up, there's nothing you can do to-" Ravel was cut in half. Or rather, I cut Ravel in half, fast enough that no one saw the cut, Yubashiri was sheathed once again. Ravel didn't seem to understand what had happened, her two halves seemed to remain suspended before the fire surged and joined together once more "y-you savage, how dare you-" I cut her again.
"Eh… this is fun." I shrugged as I watched Ravel regenerate again. I hummed lightly as I considered what it was really a hassle to face a person with regenerative immortality.
"It's useless! Stop trying to cut-" I cut her off again, she regenerated faster this time. "Don't interrupt me! What the-" She was cut off again.
Heh, it was fun.
Apparently not so much for Ravel if the furious expression on her face was any indication, she practically exploded into fire and lunged at me. I took a step forward covering the entire distance away from Ravel and ended up behind her. Ravel was cut into a dozen pieces, I looked over my shoulder and saw Ravel reforming once more, the incredulous and fearful look she was giving me made me smile widely.
She once again was unable to react when I cut her in half again.
I sighed internally, this fight… was boring. Ravel posed no threat to me, her fire, while hot, couldn't really hurt me, my sword drove away all the flames that came my way.
The only thing worth mentioning about Ravel was her immortality, I had already cut her at least hundreds of times in a short period of time, and she kept reforming. I really had to end this. Ravel certainly won't, her expression growing more fearful with each exchange we threw at her.
I infused my sword with Haki and superficially cut Ravel's left arm.
"garh!" Ravel finally let out a scream of pain, I looked curiously at the wound I had just made, it took longer, but it finally healed completely. I sighed, Haki wouldn't finish the job either, at least not without leaving her completely traumatized or dead, if a wound on her arm made her scream, I didn't want to know what would happen to her if I cut off her head.
"W-what did you just do?" Ravel muttered in terror, tilting her head slightly.
"Haki… seeing as it's the only thing that seemed to hurt you, didn't they warn you about that?" I asked simply, Ravel froze in place and looked at me in horror, apparently she does know about Haki, and her expression had just told me everything I needed, Haki was dangerous for her, for the Phenex in general. Perfect.
I moved once more, this time, I infused my foot with Haki and gave her a front kick in the middle of her chest, right in the solar plexus, all the air was knocked out of her lungs and she was launched into the air, unfortunately wings of fire emerged from her and she stopped in mid-air. Because of course she could also fly, it would have been too good if she had just fallen to the ground. She came flying back in from outside the arena as she clutched her chest and caught her breath.
"Just give up already, your attempts are completely useless, they're just a mole-" I cut Ravel into pieces once again, this time I didn't stop, I simply kept moving from one form of Sun Breathing to another, 12 forms to form the thirteenth, I could do this for days without breaking a sweat and it was exactly what I had to do here.
I didn't use Haki, it wasn't necessary, I just cut Ravel over and over again, I didn't wait for her to regenerate, I just kept cutting and cutting her pieces without stopping. I ignored the occasional explosions of fire that came out of said parts, they were weak, I could protect myself with a simple movement of my sword to put out said flames.
I let my body just move and shut off my brain. The only thing that pulled me out of my daydream was Present Mic's scream.
" AND THE WINNER OF THE FIRST ROUND IS IZUMI MIYAMURAAAA!!! WHO CUT RAVEL INTO LITTLE PIECES, HUNDREDS, NO, THOUSANDS OF TIMES TO EXHAUSTED HIS AURA!!! A STRATEGY THAT WOULD HAVE NOT OCCURRED TO ANYONE AND THAT NO ONE COULD IMPLEMENT, THOUSANDS OF SUCCESSIVE CUTS WITHOUT GETTING TIRED FOR 15 MINUTES, INCREDIBLE!!! "
I paused momentarily and looked at the aura meter, mine was at 98%, Ravel's was down to 9%, it took longer than expected. Phenex regeneration, in canon at least, required the use of demonic power to sustain it, I bet the aura would do the same, so the plan was easy. Keep slashing at Ravel to activate her healing factor until her Aura ran out.
Ravel reformed once more and dropped to the ground, she was completely pale, sweat running down her cheeks and a terrified expression staring at me. I held out my hand to her and she flinched slightly.
"I'm sorry about that, it was the only non-lethal way to win the fight." I said honestly, the others needed to incapacitate her lethally, or nearly lethally, so they were a big no.
"t-that doesn't make it any less traumatic, I couldn't regain my form for 15 minutes." She retorted forcefully as she tried to glare at me, but still took my hand to help her up. Once she stood up, she tried to regain her elegant bearing.
"Still, you held on for a long time, good job." I smiled at Ravel, Ravel blushed slightly and looked away.
"O-of course! I'm a Phenex! We are amazing! Y-you're the weird one! An S rank no less! " she huffed loudly "and I'm still upset that you interrupted me throughout the entire fight!" she glared at me again. I chuckled "but… you didn't use haki." She said as if it was obvious, I shrugged.
"I wanted to beat you, not kill you," I said simply. She looked almost horrified, but calmed down and just snorted. We both walked down from the ring.
Once off the field, we headed towards the stands, with our respective groups, the girls were sitting slightly separated from the rest of our class, I didn't pay any attention to them and headed towards them.
"Good job Izumi" Azula congratulated me as I approached.
"You were amazing! Super graceful as you moved and slashed! It's never boring to watch you use Sun Breathing! " Ruby said happily.
"You could have given the girl a chance to show off a little," Taylor said mockingly, and that stopped me stiffly.
"…ah," I had forgotten about that. The flat look Taylor was giving me made me smile shyly.
"Never mind, let's watch the next match" I said simply as I walked over to a seat. I dropped down between Azula and Taylor, Ruby immediately clinging to my neck behind me.
Without bothering, the four of us looked at the arena, what an interesting fight, Momo Yaoyorozu, against Tanya Degurechaff.
As soon as Present Mic gave the start signal, Tanya raised the rifle she had in her hand, which was glowing slightly, I recognized it immediately, she was using her quirk, whatever it is, to enhance the shot, and fired.
The bullet hits a shield that Yaoyorozu barely managed to create with her hands, but the following explosion made her step back, Tanya did not stop, she shot once more, this time Yaoyorozu did not manage to protect herself properly and the explosion pushed her out of the arena.
…that… short fight…
really wanted to see more of Tanya's quirk, I still didn't know if it was just some enhancement for the rifle she uses, or something more, which is... disappointing. But I can't complain about her, really, finishing off Yaoyorozu quickly is the best way to deal with her before she starts creating things from her body that she can use to counter anything I throw at her.
The good news is that the next fight would be against me. My smile grew wider.
"Girls, girls, Izumi is grinning maniacally again while looking at another girl." Ruby muttered as she climbed on top of me and spoke to Azula and Taylor.
"Leave him alone, we already knew he was a pervert, we can't do anything," Azula replied, I could feel the mocking tone in her words, my eye twitched slightly.
"Shut up and look straight ahead," I said sharply.
"You don't have to be shy Izumi, we're just between us, we love you just the way you are." Taylor said with a smile and a very thick pinch of condescension, I glared at the three of them, they all laughed at me, I rolled my eyes but a smile grew on my face. The four of us looked forward when we heard Present Mic's call.
Todoroki vs Toph, now the fun began.