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Chapter 72 - To The Arena!

Daily Meme

Nick_Silva_3518 this one is for you.

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"Every villain I fight is legally obligated to cry before the end."

Kirishima grinned. "Okay, then let's hear it. What would you say before you knock someone out?"

I thought for a second, then shrugged. "Something simple. Maybe 'Lights out.' Right before I throw a punch."

Sero whistled. "Alright, not bad."

Jiro nodded. "Yeah, that works. Short and to the point."

"Unlike some people," I said, glancing at Kirishima.

He groaned. "Okay, okay, I'll shorten mine."

Iida straightened. "I see the merit in this exercise, but we must also ensure that our one-liners do not come at the expense of strategy."

"Yes, Iida, we know not to stop in the middle of a fight just to say something cool," I said. "This is about setting the tone, not standing around monologuing like a Bond villain."

Four days later, Gym Gamma looked like a war zone.

Chunks of the floor were missing, walls had scorch marks, and the air smelled like sweat, burnt ozone, and whatever hell Bakugo had been cooking up. Ultimate moves were tested, trashed, refined, and then tested again. More than one of us nearly got sent to the nurse's office.

In the middle of it all, one-liners had been cooked too. Some better than others.

Yuga Aoyama: "Shine with elegance!" (Flashy. Unnecessarily French. 8/10.)

Mina Ashido: "Let's dance, loser!" (Sassy, aggressive, and fun. 9/10.)

Tsuyu Asui: "You're about to croak." (Unhinged. Terrifying. Possibly a war crime. 11/10.)

Tenya Iida: "Engaging top gear!" (Sounds like a Transformer. 7/10.)

Ochaco Uraraka: "Gravity's got you now!" (Punny but effective. 8/10.)

Mashirao Ojiro: "Tail end of your luck." (Eh. A little forced. 6/10.)

Denki Kaminari: "Shock and awe!" (Generic, but at least not cringe. 7.5/10.)

Eijiro Kirishima: "Try breaking this!" (Simple, manly, solid. 8.5/10. Note: Don't point at your crotch while saying this.)

Rikido Sato: "Heavy hitter coming through!" (Still sounds like a protein bar ad. 6.5/10.)

Mezo Shoji: "No escape." (Would definitely be spoken right before a villain disappears forever. 9/10.)

Kyoka Jiro: "This'll be music to your ears." (A banger. 9.5/10.)

Hanta Sero: "Time to wrap this up." (Dad joke vibes, but clean execution. 8/10.)

Fumikage Tokoyami: "Darkness consumes." (Maximum edge. Sounds like it belongs on a Hot Topic hoodie. 7.5/10.)

Shoto Todoroki: "Frozen in place." (Basic, but slightly better than 'things are heating up.' 6/10.)

Toru Hagakure: "You won't see it coming!" (Low effort but fitting. 7/10.)

Katsuki Bakugo: "Blast off." (Surprisingly decent. No threats of homicide. 8/10.)

Izuku Midoriya: "Smash through!" (Classic Deku. Good homage to All Might. 8.5/10. Would've been 9/10 if he yelled it like a lunatic.)

Minoru Mineta: "Stuck on me?" (NO. VETOED. EXPELLED FROM HISTORY. -100/10.)

Momo Yaoyorozu: "You were outmatched from the start." (Sounds sophisticated. Cold but classy. 8/10.)

Vlad King barely finished stepping into Gym Gamma before Monoma opened his mouth. Monoma barely made it three words in before I stopped listening.

The guy stepped up, arms wide like he was unveiling the second coming of Jesus. "We created amazing ultimates! 1-A stands no chance!"

Behind me, my class didn't even react like he was a real threat. Mina just grinned. "Yeah, we have something better."

Manga's head puffed up. "YEAH? WHAT DID RYUU COOK THIS TIME?"

I waved my hand like I was sending them to war, and they went in one by one.

Not just shouting, either. It wasn't some lame, rehearsed callout. Everyone threw their line out in the middle of movement, like they were already fighting. Jiro dropped hers like she was punctuating a beat. Shoji let his hit like a warning. Kaminari, dumbass that he was, put in way too much dramatic flare and still fumbled it, but he stuck the landing enough to make it count.

Sero and Tokoyami threw theirs back-to-back, one smooth and confident, the other full edge. Uraraka tossed hers like it was a joke, but it still landed. Yaoyorozu's sounded almost too proper, like she was handing out a business verdict, but that was the point. Bakugo, obviously, growled his out like he was going to detonate the whole battlefield, which was probably accurate.

Izuku hesitated for a half-second, like he was worried he'd mess it up. He didn't.

One by one, 1-B's faces shifted.

Their smugness evaporated. First confusion. Then dread. Then something closer to realization. Then absolute horror as they understood just how hard they had fumbled.

Somewhere in the back, a weak voice muttered, "We want that."

Then the rest of them joined in. "WE WANT THAT!"

Tetsutetsu looked personally offended. "Why the hell didn't we think of that?! That was sick!"

Kuroiro, who usually tried to act like he didn't care about anything, actually looked pissed. "They had a plan. They had a whole plan for this."

Monoma shook, fumbling, "You've met your match—uh… darkness awaits—no, wait—"

An actual bong landed on Monoma's head, Manga's work. "Stop embarrassing us!"

Kendo just sighed. "Monoma, shut up."

Monoma, mouth still open mid-brag, closed it immediately.

Vlad King looked like he was regretting his life choices. Aizawa, on the other hand, barely reacted beyond the slight twitch of his eye that told me he was debating whether or not he should give me detention on principle.

Mina, ever the instigator, leaned forward. "So, 1-B… what did you cook?"

Silence.

Manga twitched.

1-B was staring at each other, waiting for someone to speak up. Nobody did.

Tetsutetsu coughed. "Uh, well…"

Yanagi looked around like she was hoping someone else had an answer.

Pony just pointed at Monoma. "He was supposed to handle the strategy."

Monoma, now cornered, scrambled for something, anything. "W-We focused on our techniques, not—"

"Not sounding like The BOSS?" Jiro cut in.

Mina put a hand on her hip. "Come on, guys. You didn't even try?"

Vlad King finally stepped in. "Enough. This isn't a competition for catchphrases—"

"Then why does it feel like we already won?" I said.

Monoma made a choked noise.

1-B scrambled to salvage their pride. "We still have better ultimate moves!" Shiozaki tried.

Kirishima cracked his knuckles. "Wanna prove that?"

Tetsutetsu grinned. "Hell yeah, let's go—"

Vlad King clapped his hands together, cutting that off real fast. "This isn't a fight."

Behind him, Aizawa looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

Monoma tried one last time, still desperate to take back some ground. "Ultimate moves matter more than words!"

It doesn't.

Mina nudged Kaminari. "Wanna bet they try and steal our thing?"

Kaminari scoffed. "Oh, 100 percent. They're already plotting."

Yaoyorozu sighed. "This was unnecessary."

Jiro grinned. "But worth it."

The bus hissed to a stop, the brakes whining like they, too, were exhausted from this trip. I could see it now—the massive Takoba National Stadium, standing like some kind of modern gladiator arena where we'd be thrown into the pit.

"Get off the bus. We're here," Aizawa droned, as lifeless as ever.

I stepped off, stretching my arms. The sun beat down, and the stadium's sleek, curved exterior glared back at us like it knew half of us wouldn't make it out with our pride intact.

This is it. The Provisional Hero License Exam. Pass, and we're one step closer to being real heroes. Fail? Well… let's not think about that.

"Whoa, this place is huge!" Kaminari whistled.

"Of course, it's huge!" Iida declared, chopping at the air like he was trying to karate-slice reality. "Hundreds of students from hero courses all over the country will be taking this exam! This is a battlefield of the elite!"

Mineta, that little grape goblin, was already sweating. "W-We really gotta go against that many people? Are they gonna be hot? I mean—scary? I mean—both?"

"Mineta, shut the fuck up."

Aizawa ignored all of us. "This is it. The real deal. You pass this, you're not just students anymore—you're semi-professionals. Do your best."

Kirishima was feeling it too.

"ALRIGHT! LET'S DO IT! WE'LL BECOME CHICKLINGS!!"

We all gathered, shoulders bumping, energy sparking like we were about to go to war.

"PLUS..."

And then—BOOM.

A voice ten times louder than mine and Bakugo's combined erupted like a damn explosion.

"ULTRAAAAAA!!!"

The ground beneath our feet shook from the sheer volume of this dude's lungs. I turned, eyes wide, and saw… a grinning lunatic in a Shiketsu uniform, veins popping, fists clenched, radiating more raw energy than Present Mic on steroids.

"HAHAHAHA!!" the dude roared, looking like he was about to combust from sheer hype. "THIS IS THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH!!"

"...What the actual fuck," I muttered.

Todoroki, in peak Todoroki fashion, just blinked at him like he was looking at an alien. "...Who?"

"Shiketsu?!" Midoriya gasped. "The top rival school to U.A.?"

Meanwhile, Bakugo was seething. I could hear his teeth grinding.

"Tch. Guy needs to shut the hell up."

And then—this human explosion of enthusiasm ran straight at us.

I barely had time to shift my stance before he was in our space, practically vibrating.

Todoroki leaned away like the boy was some kind of contagious disease. His teacher called from behind, "It's not good to randomly insert yourself into other people's huddles, Inasa."

"AHHH, DAMN IT!"

Then he did the most dramatic thing I've ever seen.

He dropped into a full bow. Forehead to pavement. Arms thrown forward like he was begging the gods for forgiveness.

"PLEASE, ACCEPT MY HUMBLEST APOLOGIEEEES!!!!"

We all just… stared.

"…What the fuck."

Kirishima leaned over, voice low. "Dude. Is he okay?"

"NO, HE ISN'T."

Shiketsu High.

The so-called "elite rival" to U.A. I had heard about them, but seeing them in person was a different story. Their uniforms were crisp, their posture straight, and their presence screamed discipline. Well, most of them.

Because then there was this guy.

The dude looked like someone had thrown Iida, Kirishima, and pure unfiltered hype into a blender and hit "max power."

"PLUS ULTRA!!" he bellowed at a volume that might've reached space. He was bleeding from the nose—due to his earlier stunt though probably from sheer force of will too.

Aizawa sighed. "Yoarashi Inasa," he muttered, sounding like he had just remembered a tax deadline.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, Inasa clenched his fists and yelled again, veins popping. "I MYSELF, I MUST'SAY THAT I LOVE U.A.!!!"

"Okay, what the actual hell?" Sero whispered to Kaminari, who was just staring, slack-jawed.

"Bro's on another frequency," he muttered back.

"Another plane of existence," Kirishima corrected.

Inasa kept going, full steam ahead, while his fellow Shiketsu students just stood there, looking like this was normal. Like they had accepted their fate.

Before anyone could get a word in, another group rolled up, and just like that, the energy in the air shifted.

"Yo, Aizawa!"

The voice cut through the stadium noise like a damn alarm. Ms. Joke, grinning like she just walked into a comedy special she was headlining. Her students were behind her, standing in neat little rows like they were posing for a brochure. Ms. Joke already locked onto Aizawa like a heat-seeking missile.

"Let's get married!"

Half the class turned at the same time.

--

Ryuu cooked.Ryuu cleaned.Ryuu flirted with Momo.He built a pool of plot.

You removed the ladder.

"Autonomy: OFF.Responsibility: OFF.VOTING: OFF."

The Grim Reaper shows up.He gives Ryuu a high five.He stares at you.

"You don't deserve to woohoo with bonus content."

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