7 CHAPTER 7

"Gohru, have you been going to a dojo lately?"

He froze up when the matron brought this up. Looking behind him, he sees a blank-faced matron along with children who were whispering around him like he was a hot topic.

'How in the name of the holy flying fish?'

He had never told anyone about his business in the dojo at all in the past month, so how in the world did she know?

'Was it the video? Impossible. No way something like that blew up so quickly.'

He denied the thought of the video being the culprit because he expected the video to blow up in a few days' time. So, he did the most logical thing that he could think of. He lied.

"No, Grandma. I haven't."

The matron looked at him for a second before pinching her temples, looking disappointed.

"Don't lie to me, Gohru. It's all over the news."

"… What?"

'NEWS?! WHAT NEWS? WHAT IN THE WORLD IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?!'

"It's all over the news, Gohru. '8-year-old child defeating a student twice his age' is the opening news report of NHK. You even have a newspaper page dedicated to you." She explains as she handed him a newspaper.

Snatching the paper from her hands, he opened the page dedicated to him.

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8-YEAR-OLD DEFEATS STUDENT TWICE HIS AGE!

Yesterday at 16.23 p,m. , a student named Jin Gohru, age 8, defeated the ace of Tokyo's Outoji Karate Gym, Hirose Kenichi, age 17, at a sparring match!

The video of him defeating the ace had gone viral in a matter of hours upon the Master of Outoji Karate posting online on their website and HeroTube, causing an uproar in the Martial Arts Community. Martial Artists in various dojos in Japan are now seeking him for his 'one-in-a-million' talent!

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"So? Anything to say, Jin Gohru?" She asked in a menacing voice, which Gohru had no other choice but, to tell the truth.

"… In my defense, I didn't expect this to blow up this much."

"And where have you been finding the funds to go to the dojo, Gohru?"

She asked suspiciously to which the boy replied.

"Actually they gave a free month's trial, so I didn't spend a dime at all. And there's a tournament coming up soon where I can win 50,000 Yen!" He explained as the matron just sighs.

"… Just be careful alright, Gohru? I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Looking at Grandma, Gohru had a fuzzy feeling in his stomach as he replied.

"I will, Grandma. I will."

That was a lie, he knew it deep down.

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"You're famous, nii-chan! Famous!" Kodao yelled at his face while walking to school.

"I guess I am." He said to himself mostly since he didn't believe that the video had blown up so quickly. He underestimated the interest of the bored public.

"Oh, and I saw on TV that there's going to be a tournament soon! So, are you joining?"

"Yeah, I plan to. I'm registering today later."

"Awesome! Can I come and watch it? The tickets are 1,000 Yen" He asked, pleading as Gohru ruffled his hair.

"I'll try and get you a ticket, no promises though."

"Yes!" He exclaims as he hugged him tightly, to which he responded with a hug himself.

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Correction. He had severely underestimated the public's interest in entertainment.

School today was horrible. Everywhere he went, people were looking at him like he was their entertainment device. Now, granted that they were just 7-9 years old, combined with the fact that Heroes and fighting were the norms for entertainment, he couldn't blame them.

'I mean, have you seen All Might fight? That dude is on another level.'

Maybe with more intensive training than what he was doing currently, he could probably catch up to his prime within 5 years, but that was unrealistic. He predicts that by the time he entered UA, he should be at the level of a Nomu, so yay. More training.

Now, if only the PE teacher would stop asking him to perform Karate in front of his class, that would be swell.

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He was getting second doubts about Money-Making Plan™️ now.

There was a huge crowd outside the dojo, 40% of the people wanting to buy tickets for the tournament while 60% of the people wanted to meet him for a match, which made him shudder since there were mostly adults at the age of 30 to 40.

'I know my limits well. With just Karate, the odds of me winning against elder and more experienced people were very low.'

So, with urgency, he pulled on his hood before rushing into the dojo's doors, weaving through the crowd until he finally was in the dojo.

Meeting the counter, he asked the instructor present to record his name on the list of participants for the tournament and to get a free seat ticket. The instructor tried to start small talk while writing all of Gohru's details down, but he just zoned him out, thinking about my nightly training.

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Once night came, after checking that the capsule was at full power, he snuck out to the Jin Cave ™️. Today was a special day since he had bought a manual of Taekwondo at a Taekwondo dojo nearby.

Sitting down on the floor, he brought out Manual 5 of Jin Taejin's Renewal Taekwondo. He was still on the 4th manual, but he wasn't going to start the 5th anyway. Opening the page, he brought out the normal Taekwondo Manual and compared the two.

After reading about the stances and the moves, he could see the similarities and differences between the two after learning Karate.

Renewal Taekwondo was the deadly version of Taekwondo. People may be thinking 'Duh, of course, it is'. No, you don't get it you pleb.

Taekwondo was meant to "protect" the user from harm. Most of Taekwondo was to just wait until the opportunity arises before launching an attack to counter. That was the fighting style of Taekwondo, mostly.

If using Taekwondo was like using a sword and shield, blocking attacks until the time to strike with the sword, Renewal Taekwondo was like using a gun. Cutthroat, it's a martial art meant for killing with the most effective attack as quickly as possible with minimum power.

"Jesus Christ… This is deadly." He muttered out loud as he continued to compare the two. Arang can shatter steel with one strike, and it was one of the weaker sides of Renewal Taekwondo since it's all about using an elbow and momentum. Imagine using leg power, which is about 3 times the strength of arm strength. Renewal was a recipe for disaster.

"No one can get this book… After I master everything, I'm burning it."

That was not a choice, it was a necessity. If All for One or any inspiring Villain got a hand on this, God bless this world.

Once he was done comparing a medieval weapon to a firearm, he got up and tossed the books away before starting his training. Thankfully his body was getting used to all 5 sets due to his Adaptation Quirk, so maybe he could get some sleep tonight and let future Gohru worry about tomorrow.

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Somewhere in an office…

"His potential in martial arts is quite impressive." A gnarly voice spoke as he looked at the papers in his hand. Putting his free hand on his black respiratory mask, he hummed as he tossed the papers back on the table.

"But I doubt he will be useful to me in the future since useful Quirk Users outshine even the best Martial Artists. Kurogiri, keep tabs on the boy and inform me when anything interesting occurs. If not, then don't bother." The man said as he stands up from his seat.

"Yes, Master. And you will…?" A voice rang behind the man's seat, appearing to be a black-misty-like man with a metal piece at the neck wearing a business suit.

"Young Shimura… No, Young Shigaraki has shown much potential to succeed me, and I will make sure that this potential of his is to bloom splendidly without any interruptions." He explained as he crushes a part of the table that he was holding during the explanation.

"He will succeed in what I've failed to do, to kill ONE FOR ALL!" With a growl, the objects in the room started to float and spin uncontrollably.

"And that All Might… Shigaraki will help me get my revenge for making me… Wear this cursed MASK!" The floated objects explode into flames as they shot out everywhere, making Kurogiri's mist expand to protect himself from the flaming objects.

"Ahem. Apologies, Kurogiri. It seems that my hatred is still at an all-time high." He coughs into his fist as he walks to the door.

"Call someone you trust to clean the room." He orders the mist as he exits the room to Shigaraki Tomura's room for his training.

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