After a dozen robots had been killed in various ways, Ryota began to get a little bored.
He also suspected that Bakugo, motivated to the max, was racking up points somewhat faster.
He spent just as much time on actually destroying the tin cans, but significantly less time moving between targets.
Kicking on the afterburners wasn’t something Ryota particularly wanted to do.
It wasn’t cool and didn’t fit his image.
And it definitely wasn’t laziness.
Absolutely definitely.
“So…” Ryota whispered to himself, formulating a plan in his head.
A second later, a robot that happened to be within reach froze, then began to deform.
It twisted, flattened, and stretched until all that was left of it was a metallic-colored ball from which steam poured.
Too many deformations per second and too much compression had heated the compressed metal.
Another second, and Ryota, along with the resulting creation, flew into the air.
“And now… I dub thee Boomerang! Fly!” He whispered, barely moving his lips, in a solemn tone.
The metal ball shot from his palm at a crazy speed.
Down below, a great many robots began to slowly… shrink.
The ball flew down, smashed the enemy into pieces, then returned back.
Honestly, it looked more like a yo-yo than a boomerang.
But the principle of the vector “program” classified the resulting craft as a “boomerang.” The ball’s trajectory was a classic parabola, except the rays didn’t go off to infinity, and the step along the X-axis was very short.
Not even five minutes had passed when all the robots in the “unpopular area” were destroyed.
Ryota was already eyeing the possibility of depriving some characters who looked completely second-rate of their points when Present Mic’s voice rang out.
“O-O-Oh, yeah! TIME’S UP! I’M JUST BURNING UP! THREAT OF UNIVERSAL DOOM!”
Because he was above the test site, Ryota was the first to see the new threat.
This time, definitely a threat, without any quotation marks.
One of the model skyscrapers simply crumbled when the massive machine moved and climbed out.
This particular example of robotics was clearly sturdier than the little tin cans.
Not surprising.
Even if you made such a thing out of aluminum, it would be damn heavy.
Any old alloy wouldn’t withstand such weight, and the robot would fall apart on its own.
“Evangelion reference?” Ryota muttered to himself, raising an eyebrow slightly as he slowly descended.
And Evangelion existed in this world.
He had checked.
There were quite a few anime in common with his own world, but mostly old titles.
Sailor Moon, various Gundams, that same Evangelion, and a whole bunch of other mecha anime that Samuel hadn’t watched back then.
And he hadn’t checked this out of idle curiosity, but out of fear that the To Aru universe had been written in this world and that fans of old anime could draw parallels between his powers and Accelerator’s.
Luckily, his fears were unfounded.
The number of such small discrepancies compared to his previous world was considerable.
In the world of MHA, the anime niche was entirely given over to giant humanoid combat robots.
Exceptions were very rare and not very popular (except for Sailor Moon. Schoolgirls in sailor suits are the ultimate combination!).
And anime itself, as a result, hadn’t spread as much around the world.
This discovery had even come as a bit of a shock to Ryota.
Meanwhile, the huge robot was moving quite quickly toward the cluster of students.
They noticed it too.
After a brief moment of shock, everyone, predictably, ran away.
Except for a couple of people.
Ryota saw a small girl whose leg had been pinned by debris from one of the buildings.
And he saw the local protagonist’s reaction to this.
This was the climax of the whole scene with the test.
A boy trembling with fear, who hadn’t scored a single point until then, saw a “princess in distress.” There was no “moment of realization” or hesitation.
One second, he was trembling, trying to crawl away from the giant robot.
The next, he was flying like a mad projectile straight toward its head.
It was beautiful.
A powerful, regal punch simply crumpled the robot’s rectangular head as if it were made of Play-Doh.
The robot began to fall backward.
Its internal systems couldn’t handle it, and smoke poured from all visible joints.
There were even a couple of explosions.
And Midoriya Izuku, meanwhile, was falling down.
The girl he had saved was too far away to stop his fall with her anti-gravity Quirk.
‘What the…?’ Ryota frowned, watching the guy fall to the ground like a broken doll.
‘That’s not how it happened in the canon.’
He had enough time for a second of analysis.
The girl couldn’t help him.
Too far.
Moreover, she was still staring in fascination at the falling mech, completely unaware that her savior was screaming as he fell toward the not-at-all-soft asphalt.
The world froze and lost its colors.
It took Ryota only a couple of moments to pull out the now-familiar equation for high-speed flight.
It was quite different from the one he had used the very first time he flew.
Very inconvenient.
Slow acceleration, fantastic sensations, hard to control.
For fast travel, Ryota had come up with a different method the same day.
By setting the trajectory in advance and including the maximum number of variables, he could essentially program his own vector.
At the same time, a special configuration of the vector shield protected him from external factors and normalized the area around the user’s body so that he wasn’t affected by G-forces.
There was no clap of air this time.
The suppression of this phenomenon was built into the vector flight program.
The previous time, it had just been more dramatic.
A couple of seconds later, Ryota was standing exactly where, according to his calculations, Izuku should land.
He lazily pondered which of the couple dozen ways he should use to stop the suicidal guy from falling.
His appearance didn’t go unnoticed.
The “princess in distress” stared in surprise at Ryota, who had “appeared out of nowhere.” A second later, either because she heard the falling guy’s scream or because she was interested in what Ryota was looking at with his head tilted back, she also noticed that her savior had clearly not taken any “superhero landing” courses.
Not that it was possible with broken legs and only one intact arm.
Why broken legs?
Well, he used his Quirk to jump.
On both legs.
For those not in the know, that’s like stopping a flying baseball with a glass bat.
The ball will stop, but the bat will be screwed.
So Midoriya’s legs were screwed too.
Speaking of Midoriya, he was clearly on the final approach.
Ryota had to decide on a method right now.
Running through all the options he could think of, he chose the most dramatic one and raised his hand, palm up.
The world froze and lost its colors.
‘Set vector.
Object of influence: gravity.
Area of influence: parallelepiped, thirty-two cubic meters, with a base of six point four meters.
Resource shortage.
Reconfigure AIM field.
Check.
Acceptable.
Give the space a layered structure.
Number of layers: fifty-one.
Type of influence: reduce gravity by two and a half percent compared to the layer above.
Proceed with execution.’
Another moment, and time and color returned to the world.
But nothing else seemed to have changed.
The gravitational distortion created by Ryota didn’t manifest itself in any visible way.
So the girl, not understanding his manipulations, looked at her falling “savior” in horror.
But then the sufferer reached the boundaries of the distortion zone, and his falling speed began to drop, sorry for the tautology.
The area of distorted gravity was a little over five meters high.
With the set number of layers, gravity’s effect on the guy would decrease every ten centimeters of his fall.
However, there was still the problem of accumulated momentum and energy.
But that should be compensated by the fact that by the fortieth layer, an object entering the zone of influence would begin to be pulled back in the opposite direction.
If the calculations were correct, the current effect should be enough to completely and relatively smoothly stop Midoriya Izuku.
And even if it wasn’t, Ryota was still standing below to catch him if necessary.
The backup wasn’t needed.
***
“So… what do you say?”
In a dimly lit room filled with monitors of various sizes, three people sat in two chairs.
One of them was dressed as if he had escaped from an old spy and detective movie.
A long, slightly worn beige trench coat and a matching stylish fedora.
“I already knew he was damn strong. But that was unexpected,” the man answered.
He was tall.
But his whole appearance gave the impression that you were talking to a dead man.
Sharp features, slumped, once-broad shoulders, and thin, dry skin that stretched over his skeleton as if there weren’t any muscles at all.
This Mr. Zombie was dressed in a strict black suit.
“Oh-ho-ho-ho~ The current younger generation is just something else!” exclaimed the last and strangest… person?
No, rather a raccoon… or a badger…?
A dwarf bear?
The strange creature calmly sat on the armrest of the chair the thin man was sitting in and was dressed in a business suit tailored to his size.
“Did you see that punch? What form! What expression and willpower!” The little animal with intelligence surpassing a human’s gestured actively.
“Midoriya Izuku’s performance was without a doubt beyond all praise,” the man in the hat answered calmly.
“…However, what interests me much more right now, Nedzu-san, is your opinion about THIS examinee.” Following the press of a button on the remote control the man was holding in his hand, the image on the largest monitor rewound to the very beginning of the exam.
The frame showed a tall, ash-haired boy lazily examining the metal pancake the robot at his feet had become.
Academy leaned back, paying no attention to the monitor at all.
“I’ve had the chance to read his personal file. I can say little about him, Naomasa-dono. I have practically nothing to teach him.”
“…Really?” The detective frowned slightly.
“A formed worldview, self-control, discipline. This guy is already fully formed. The clay has hardened and evolved into stone. And as I suspect, it was already impossible to change him back on the day you pulled him out of the dungeon in Kanto.”
“Can you at least say something about his powers? Our analysts have been racking their brains for years now and still haven’t been able to give any coherent verdict.”
“Oh, yes indeed… I’ve read those interviews…” The little animal smiled viciously.
“Nedzu-dono…”
“Oh, forgive me.” The director of U.A. apologized very falsely, covering his mouth with a paw in feigned embarrassment.
“I really don’t like people in white coats.” Something very dark flickered in the depths of Nedzu’s eyes, but was instantly suppressed.
“And what do you say, Toshinori-kun? You could say you’ve seen the kid in action. Any thoughts?” The little animal hurried to divert attention from what had just happened.
“…At first, I thought it was some kind of shield. That was supported by Leo’s testimony from that case. But soon after, that theory of mine got a pretty strong shake-up.”
“Flight and other ‘little things,’ right?”
“…Chameleon.” One word, but so much meaning.
The faces of all the other intelligent people in the room instantly became harder.
“He regained consciousness only after a year and a half, and…” All Might didn’t finish saying what his interlocutors already knew.
“…and he’d be better off still in a coma.” The director of U.A. finished the number one hero’s sentence without a shred of piety or embarrassment.
“Completely destroyed neural connections. Absolute loss of cognitive functions. It took him six months to learn to breathe again and another six to eat without assistance. Six years have passed, and he still wets himself and is incapable of almost anything. Such an effect clearly goes beyond just ‘some kind of shield.'”
“…Yes,” All Might said abruptly.
“And yet,” Naomasa said, not letting silence fall, “do you have any thoughts, Nedzu-san?”
“Thoughts? Oh, I have many! Which ones do you want?”
“About Ryota Arai’s abilities,” the detective answered just as calmly.
“Hmm… Before this test with the robots, I was torn between several options. Gravity manipulation, distortion of phenomena, influence on processes, limited telekinesis. But now… after everything I’ve seen…” With every new word, Nedzu lengthened the dramatic pause more and more.
But he didn’t get any reaction.
His interlocutors were well acquainted with his character and knew better than anyone not to feed the “troll.” “Vector control!” The eccentric furball answered, not at all embarrassed by the lack of reaction.
“Vector control…?” Naomasa frowned thoughtfully.
“Or otherwise, ‘direction management’! Everything I’ve seen so far fits perfectly within the framework of such an ability. Even Chameleon’s case can be explained!”
“I can understand the ‘seen’ part… but how can Chameleon’s case be explained by such an ability?” The detective turned to the little animal with easily readable interest in his eyes.
“Nerve impulses! Bioelectricity! They always move toward the brain and transmit information. If the kid’s ability is fine enough, by influencing their directions and amplifying them, he could easily cause irreparable damage to the brain without causing fatal physical injuries!”
“I see… Correct me if I’m wrong, Nedzu-san, but he could turn any person into a vegetable with just a touch, couldn’t he?”
“Exactly!” The little animal jumped on the armrest.
His eyes burned with considerable enthusiasm.
“He CAN, but besides Chameleon’s case, he NEVER HAS!”
“…I don’t see where you’re going with this.”
“He possesses incredible power!” Nedzu spread his paws wide, as if trying to show the full extent of the abilities of the person in question.
Not that the reach of his tiny paws could even begin to convey the admiration he put into his words.
“But he has never used it for evil! Willpower that not everyone can boast of, especially at his age! From what I’ve seen…” The little animal suddenly became serious.
“…he could tie Toshinori in his strongest form into knots without any problems.”
“…Aren’t you exaggerating a bit?” Naomasa was so surprised that he even switched to “you.”
“Not at all,” Nedzu shook his head.
“Look here.” The remote was brazenly snatched from the detective’s hands, and the image began to fast-forward.
“Right here.” The monitor showed the moment when he was dealing with one of the robots at the very beginning.
One touch, and the tin can flew apart into many fragments.
“Do you see that?” Nedzu paused the video and pointed a finger at a seemingly random point about ten centimeters from Ryota’s body.
“The shield. The same one that Toshinori once noticed and that the villain Leo spoke about. If I’m right, and I almost always am, then his defense is, in a way, conceptual. That is, it doesn’t matter how strong the attack directed at him is. He simply turns it back around. And apparently, it happens automatically. Look.” A few more seconds of rewinding.
“Here, if you look closely,” he paused the video again, “do you see that fragment? It was flying at the guy from a blind spot. He DIDN’T see it.” The pause was released.
“But he deflected it! And didn’t even pay any attention! Round-the-clock, 360-degree protection capable of withstanding anything!”
Silence fell.
It seemed that All Might and Naomasa had even stopped breathing from the revelation.
Only Director Nedzu seemed somehow unnaturally happy about what he had just told his colleagues.
“…the ability to destroy an opponent with one touch, absolute defense, flight, super speed… he’s just a monster.”
“Wait a second,” Toshinori said grimly, and steam poured from his figure.
Another second, and the thin, mummy-like man was gone.
In the chair sat a huge, muscular superhero whose suit seemed like it could rip apart from the tension at any moment.
“From what I understood from what Nedzu-dono said… Young Arai, having such overwhelming power and being fully aware of it… has remained almost completely without external control to this day and has never done anything that could be considered villainous?”
“Flying to other countries on weekends doesn’t count!” The immensely pleased furball waved his paw in front of his nose.
“If he hadn’t used such enormous powers at all, I’d be really scared,” he explained at his interlocutors’ uncomprehending glances.
“But as it is… you’re absolutely right!” He energetically slapped Nezu’s paw on the muscle-bound shoulder of the man sitting next to him, then hissed in pain and rubbed his bruised paw.
“Tsk, aye-yah-yah… He didn’t even think about causing trouble with all his power! Or he did think about it but turned out to be strong enough internally to restrain himself, which is even cooler! And now he’s right here!” The director of U.A. spread his paws again.
It seemed this was his favorite gesture.
“At U.A. Academy! The Academy of HEROES! MY ACADEMY!” With each phrase, the manic gleam in the eyes of the genius little animal grew stronger.
“Nedzu-dono…”
“…Forgive me.” This time, some embarrassment could actually be heard.
“I got a little carried away with enthusiasm.” Nedzu turned his little muzzle to the detective.
“The main thing here, Naomasa-kun, is that he wants to be a hero. And he will become one,” the director finished calmly and sat back down on the armrest, watching the looped replay of Ryota using his abilities to catch the falling Izuku Midoriya on the monitor.
“The best of them, to be honest.”