The Emperor's Dragon

Command and Lies

The first match of the UA Sport's Festival final event for the first years was both punishingly quick and brutally revealing. It was between General Studies Student, Hitoshi Shinso, who had placed first in the first event, the obstacle course, earning him the 10,000,000 headband for the second round. Unexpectedly he'd kept those points, sharing them with his team to be the undisputed winners of the second event, which lead him, and them to here. What was truly notable about his first two events was that he had not used his quirk.

His opponent was from the Heroics Course Class 1A, Mashirao Ojiro who had a mutant type quirk named Tail. As was the case with many mutant type quirks, it was obvious what the basic functions of his quirk was. He had a large, muscular tail and could use it to perform quite a number of feats. Those watching knew that he was somewhat proficient in martial arts and was obviously skilled due to the fact he was a member of Class 1A.

The instant Midnight said the match was on, Hitoshi smiled at his opponent. He ignored the way they tensed. That was normal for a fight when you didn't know what your opponent's quirk did. "Let's have a good match?" Hitoshi asked, nodding his head slightly.

"Yes. That would be-" Mashirao didn't finish his sentence.

Most of the crowd didn't notice. They were still cheering from the opening. That wasn't important. To the two who were watching from the competitor entry, they knew what it meant.

"Walk off the stage," Hitoshi instructed.

At that the crowd took notice. The cheering faded significantly. Sure, Hitoshi Shinso had come in first in both previous events but he wasn't so arrogant as to believe all he had to do was order his competition to leave the event, was he?

Except to the surprise of almost everyone watching, that's exactly what Mashirao did. It was only after Midnight was calling the result that he seemed to realise what had happened.

Hitoshi gave him a respectful nod and turned around, leaving the stage ready for the next match.

The crowd roared again as they realised that the match really was over and Hitoshi really had ordered his opponent to leave the stage. The beating odds were being somewhat frantically adjusted and in the stands one group of management students sighed.

"Well," Zellia said. "We are all buying Mitei lunch," she announced.

"I thought we were already," Te said confused.

Zellia sighed. "If his friend didn't make it past this round, I was going to argue that he never really got into the tournament," she said, somewhat sourly, referring to the way Mitei had practically carried his friends from General Studies and Support through the first two events.

"I really don't think he would have let that happen," Korei objected for Mitei.

Zellia gave him a look but it was one of resignation. She knew he was right.

Korei chuckled. "We have all learned an important lesson," he said piously.

"What's that?" Te asked.

"Don't gamble with Mitei," he said. "Especially if he makes the wager complicated!"

They laughed at that and settled back to watch the next rounds. After all, their wagers were still in progress.

-ted-

Izuku grinned at Hitoshi when he returned. "You did great!" He praised his friend.

"It's not this round I was worried about," Hitoshi replied, echoing his statement from before the match.

"One at a time," Izuku counselled rather than arguing.

"Yeah, one at a time," Hitoshi said, gesturing to the stage. There was a huge eruption of ice on it.