Sports Festival Prelude Part 2

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-(Musutafu: UA/Random Hallway, Afternoon)-

"Uraraka."

"Yes?"

"Why did you decide to come to UA and become a pro hero?"

"Huh?!" She yelped. "Um… because…"

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Izuku suddenly stopped in the hallway when he heard her answer; it was impossible for him to believe so easily. "For the money...?! You wanna be a hero so you can get rich?"

"Haa..." Uraraka began rubbing the back of her head, sweating profusely, and blushing slightly in embarrassment. "To boil it down simply, yes…"

"Wow…" Jotaro was also surprised at this discovery; he had expected her to be a typical high school girl. "Are you actually super greedy or something?"

"NO!!" she quickly answered, shaking her hand up and down in front of her friends. "I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm doing this for such an unwholesome reason! You guys have such admirable motivations..." Uraraka said while holding her embarrassed face. "I hope you don't think less of me now..."

"Not at all!!" Iida exclaimed, moving his arms up and down. "Your goal is to support your wellbeing, which is a perfectly admirable ambition!"

"You're gonna hit someone with those arm movements at some point, Iida..." Jotaro warned, narrowly dodging his chopping motions.

"I agree with Iida, but it's just kinda surprising, y'know...?" Izuku remarked.

"Ah... well, my family owns a construction company, but we haven't gotten any work lately, so we're flat broke," Uraraka explained, rubbing her hair constantly; it must've been really embarrassing for her. "Anyway, this isn't really something I usually tell other people, but-"

"-Hold on," Jotaro interrupted. "Not to sound rude, but in a world of heroes and villains... how does construction not have good business? I mean, villains could destroy a few buildings at any moment, and your family would have work again."

"THAT'S WHAT I SAID!!" she shouted. "IT'S FRUSTRATING HOW LOGIC DOESN'T WORK IN THIS WORLD!!"

Iida cupped a hand on his chin. "Construction, eh?"

"Oh!" Izuku may have figured out what she was working towards. "If she got licensed, I bet she could use her Quirk to bring costs down a lot!"

"They could then sell all their expensive heavy‐lifting equipment since she can make any raw material float!" Iida added.

Uraraka made a full 180-degree turn and pointed at the two. "I know, right?! I've been telling Dad that since I was a kid!"

"But...?" Jotaro asked, waiting for a follow-up response.

Uraraka sighed before giving them an explanation. "But..."

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"I'm gonna become a pro..." Uraraka declared. "I'll sign with a good agency and make plenty of money! Then I'll be able to let my parents have an easy life!"

As explained by Uraraka, she wanted to get her license to pay off all her family's debt and make them live a good life. She then stared at the three, waiting for their responses.

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"That's beautiful!" Izuku suddenly began crying. 'She's not here because of some hero fantasy - she's more grounded than any of us!'

"So noble! Bravo! Bravo!" Iida applauded, clapping his hands repeatedly and continuing to say 'bravo' at Uraraka who was glad to see her friends had understood her situation.

Jotaro was a little astonished at Uraraka's resolve; she was more of a hero than any of them right now. "That's... actually very righteous of you to-"

"-YOUNG MIDORIYA AND KUJO...!!" Emerging from behind a corner, was All Might, pointing at Izuku and Jotaro; he caused the four to jolt a little at his sudden appearance. "... ARE HERE!!"

"GOOD GOD-!!" Jotaro exclaimed, almost falling to the floor.

"Whoa, All Might! What are you doing here?!" Izuku exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"LUNCH!!" Slowly, All Might pulled out a cutely wrapped, rabbit-patterned cloth; it was covering a lunchbox. "Wanna eat together...?"

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Uraraka spits out in response to the hero's request. "PFFFFT- THAT'S ADORABLE!! IT'S LIKE A SCHOOLGIRL!!"

"Uh-" Jotaro began to slowly back away, trying to avoid whatever came next - most likely a confession. "I-"

"-Whaddaya say!" All Might asked again - almost like he was saying, 'I need your attendance for something super important!'

"Sure thing! We'd love to!" Izuku answered.

"Wait-" Izuku then grabbed Jotaro's arm and started to drag him away from Iida and Uraraka. 'What the heck is going on...'

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-(Musutafu: UA/Cafeteria)-

Uraraka and Iida were currently standing in line, waiting for their lunch. "I wonder what he wanted with Deku and JoJo..."

Iida turned to Uraraka and, as usual, made some unusual hand signs. "I heard that when All Might was attacked by villains during the USJ incident, Midoriya rushed out alone to help him, and JoJo fought two of those giant things as well," he answered. "Perhaps that's what this is about?"

Uraraka then made a fist and lightly hit her palm "Oh, yeah!"

"Also - remember what Asui said on the bus; their Quirks are so similar that it's possible that All Might's taken a liking to them."

Somewhere nearby, Todoroki overheard the two talking about Izuku, Jotaro, and All Might's little meetup.

"All Might... Izuku Midoriya..." he muttered. "And Jotaro Kujo..."

Todoroki turned to face the front of the line, keeping his thoughts in his mind.

'Something about him I keep seeing...'

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-(Musutafu: UA/Teacher's Lounge)-

"Seven hours?! Really?!" Izuku exclaimed in disbelief; it was much longer than All Might had aforementioned. "It's true?!"

"Yeah, that's about how long I can use my power now, thanks to Jotaro." He nodded to Jotaro in acknowledgment, pouring some tea into a cup. "That Nomu was a tough customer, huh?"

Jotaro shook his head in dissatisfaction; the man had been pushing himself for a long ass time, making whatever potential he had for full recovery impossible. "Be it as it may, even though you can stay in that muscle form of yours much longer, whatever power you might've had before has decreased exponentially."

He leaned forward to look at All Might right in his eyes. "I have no doubts - you've definitely become weaker than before."

"Sorry, he took a lot outta me-"

"Which means I recommend not using 'this' form," Jotaro stood up and pointed at All Might who was currently in his hero form. "Unless absolutely necessary!"

All Might, realizing what the kid was insinuating, immediately reverted back to his actual size; he still had a decent build since Jotaro's Quirk helped with muscle mass or whatever. He coughed a little before smiling at the bright side of things. "Thanks to you, I can hold up looking like All Might for a bit before reverting back to my weak form."

"Hm," Jotaro huffed, sitting back down. 'I guess Aizawa was right; his incompetence knows no bounds...'

All Might flexed his arm to closely see the muscle he gained after his stomach wound healed. "Being able to eat again and workout properly allows me to keep up in great shape!"

"Uhm..." Izuku started to speak up; he wanted to apologize for getting involved. "About that other thing you just said, about that Nomu... I'm sorry-"

Jotaro then smacked him at the back of the head, causing him to yelp in response. "Stop trying to apologize for everything; he made his choice, that's all there is."

"Ha ha!" All Might laughed loudly. "Don't worry; you don't need to apologize for anything!"

He sighed a little, slapping the side of his head lightly. "Man, we really are alike, you and me!" All Might then placed a cup of tea in front of Izuku. "Here, have some tea."

"Thanks..." he said, taking the cup of tea and sipping it slowly. "Tasty! Here have some!"

Izuku gave the cup to Jotaro who took a small swig of the tea. 'It's good...' he thought, placing it back on the table. "Thanks."

"Now, more importantly, about the sports festival." All Might began, pointing at Izuku. "You still can't fully regulate One For All yet, can you?"

"Uh-huh..." He nodded solemnly in agreement.

"What'll you do then?"

Izuku started thinking for a moment, trying to figure out a solution that can help fix his issue with One For All's toll on his body. "Hmm..."

"Wait- but there was that one time, right?" Jotaro remarked, causing Izuku and All Might to look at him with curiosity. "Remember? When you landed a smash on that brain villain to protect me."

"Oh, that's right!" He exclaimed. "There was no backlash!"

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that!" All Might said, turning to Izuku. "Okay, so what was different about that smash?"

"Well... we were facing real villains, and I didn't have much time to think... but maybe that's part of it since I knew this wasn't just more training" Izuku looked at his hand and clenched it into a fist. "It was my very first time, ever, that I used my power against a person..."

"Sounds like you succeeded in subconsciously putting on the brakes so you wouldn't have to kill anyone," All Might supposed. " But, hey! That's some kind of progress, at least!"

However, Izuku wasn't finished; he was still curious about something that happened on the day of the incident. "But..."

"Hm?" All Might raised an eyebrow. "Is there something else?"

"That was after... Jotaro appeared..."

All Might and Izuku looked at Jotaro, expecting him to give them an answer.

"Izuku, I dunno what happened either," He said truthfully. "It was just as strange to me as it is to you."

"Could you elaborate?" All Might asked.

"Well... it's like this; Izuku, Mineta, and Asui were in trouble, and I was the closest person nearby that could help them out." Jotaro explained. "You see, there was this guy with hands that covered his face, neck, and arms. I heard that he was the one you talked to during the finale of the battle, remember?"

All Might nodded, remembering the man. "I recall speaking to that individual..."

"That guy was about to kill Asui," Jotaro said as bluntly as possible, causing All Might to stand up from his chair in shock.

"WHAT?!" He yelled; All Might was very concerned over the well-being of his students, and hearing Jotaro's words just now shook him to his core. "HOW?!"

"His Quirk was able to essentially 'decay' anything that he touched physically with his bare hands," Jotaro explained. "He was inches away from Asui when this happened."

All Might growled a little; he hated hearing this news. "Go on..."

"I saw what he was planning to do and immediately rushed at him," He continued. "But there was no way I could've made it to stop him in time..."

All Might leaned in a little more. "Then what happened next...?"

"I don't know; everything just began to lose its natural colors, becoming grey, white, and black."

"Like one of those old-timey movies?" Izuku compared.

"I guess? But that's not really important," Jotaro resumed. "Once everything was colorless, I had realized that I was the only one able to move at all; obviously, the first thing I did was run toward the hand guy, pulling him away from Asui."

"Could you have unlocked some sort of super speed that allowed you to run as fast as the speed of light?" All Might supposed. "Maybe that's why everything lost its color!"

"I don't think that's the case..." Izuku said, cupping his chin. "JoJo said he was the only one who could move, which would imply that everyone else was-"

"-Frozen." He finished. "That's basically what happened since everything around me stopped moving, even including the wind..."

"The wind?" All Might questioned.

"I could see the wind and how it flowed like a strand of hair, and I could see the dust being kicked up from all the fighting," Jotaro described. "People were just unmoving, and when I approached Asui; I noticed that the man's hand was literally millimeters away from touching her face."

All Might doesn't know what to say; this ability being described was nothing he's ever seen or heard of before. "Is it possible that you remember what might've been done 'exactly' in order to do this?"

"Hmm... I think I do?" Jotaro said skeptically; he wasn't sure if he was even the one who did it. "But I'm sure it wasn't anything special."

"Can you just show us, please?!" Izuku pleaded, wanting to know more. 'I MUST WRITE THIS DOWN!!'

"Uh... I think it went like this?" Jotaro then pointed with two fingers at a wall. "Honestly, this is pretty much all I did."

"Doesn't seem like it's working... could there have been some sort of phrase that you said? Maybe a word?"

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"SOMETHING LIKE PLUS-"

"NOT THAT!!" Jotaro interrupted; he knew All Might was gonna return to his muscle form once he said those words. "I think you are right though, it was probably a single word..."

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"Oh yeah! That's right!"

"Huh? Do you remember, JoJo?" Izuku questioned.

"Yeah, I said 'Time'"

[Jotaro's Timestop Start - Part 4]

His Stand appeared from behind him, reflecting his master's point except with only one finger. Suddenly, an ear-piercing sound rang out - almost like a sped-up bass boost; it came from the central, vertical star on Star Platinum's metallic headband - more specifically - the small and simple clock face at its center. Everything began to stop, atom vibrations stop, movements stop, and even forces stopped - Jotaro was now the only one in the world who could move.

"Huh..."

|ONE SECOND|

Jotaro looked around, noticing that everything lost its color once again; his heart rate was steadily increasing. "It happened again...?!" he exclaimed, picking up the tea cup from the table.

|TWO SECONDS|

'This is crazy...' Jotaro remarked, letting go of the cup which now appeared to be stopped in midair; his heartbeat was getting even faster. 'CRAZY COOL!!'

|THREE SECONDS|

Jotaro walked slowly over to All Might and picked him with his Stand, leaving him in midair as well. 'Amazing...!'

|FOUR SECONDS|

Finally, at the last second he had left, he put laid Izuku on the table, right below the cup of tea; his heartbeat was getting extremely fast, and a distant 'click' could be heard speeding up as well.

"My heart's beating pretty fast right now... I think it's been at least four seconds, I better put everything back before-"

|FIVE SECONDS|

[Jotaro's Timestop Start - Part 4]

Everything began to resume again, and Jotaro hadn't put everything back in place.

"Oh shit-"

Izuku was now covered in tea while All Might had fallen into his chair with a great crash, breaking it completely.

"HUH?!" Izuku yelled. "MY SCHOOL CLOTHES!!"

All Might was laying on the floor, flabbergasted at what just happened to him. 'Why am I on the floor?!'

"How did I break the chair?!" he yelled, right before realizing only one could've done something like this. "KUJO!! DID YOU-"

"I DID!!" Jotaro shouted. "I DID THE THING!!"

"AMAZING!!" Izuku cried. "WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS AFTER SCHOOL!! I'LL GET MY NOTEBOOK AND-"

"-And nothing!" Jotaro interrupted, shutting him up by shoving a bagel in his mouth. "Do it during a study hall for chrissakes!"

Izuku muffled something along the lines of 'where'd you get another bagel from?!' All Might stood up and looked at Jotaro closely, shocked at what he had just experienced. "Young Kujo..." he muttered.

Jotaro and Izuku turned to hear what All Might was going to say. "Uh, yes-?"

"-YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!!" He shouted, buffing up to his muscular form. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT QUIRK ALLOWS YOU TO DO THIS, BUT IT WILL BE EXTREMELY USEFUL WHEN FIGHTING THE FORCES OF EVIL!!" For the next twenty minutes, All Might would keep praising Jotaro's newly awoken ability.

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After things had calmed down, All Might continued with his speech to Izuku about being his successor and such.

"To be frank, I don't have much time left as the world's Symbol of Peace..." All Might walked toward the window. "Soon, I'll have to put that title to bed."

"No way..." He said disheartened.

"Not only that, some villains out there are starting to notice my weakened state." All Might said, referencing what Shigaraki had told him when fighting the Nomu. "Therefore, someone has to step up and keep the people safe."

All Might then turned around and clenched his fist, staring at Izuku. "I gave you my power for one reason or another: to become the hero who takes my place!"

Izuku gets up from his seat; the two were about to have a master and apprentice moment. Jotaro, meanwhile, sat in his chair, spectating the whole interaction. 'This is getting pretty emotional.'

"Do you still feel the same way you did when we met, Izuku?! Do you still wanna be a hero?!" All Might questioned.

"Yes!"

"Excellent, then the time has come for you to prove it!" All Might was about to say something very important. "This sports festival: it's something that the pros‐ no, the entire country will be watching very closely!"

Izuku, after hearing this, gets a little less excited and a little more anxious. "Uh..."

"I WANT YOU TO THINK OF THIS SPORTS FESTIVAL AS YOUR DEBUT!!" All Might was getting a bit too fired up. "YOU ARE THE FLEDGING SYMBOL OF PEACE; THE NEXT GENERATION!! IZUKU MIDORIYA!! I WANT YOU TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO THE WORLD AND PROUDLY SAY, 'I AM HERE!'" he finished by buffing up to his muscular form.

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"Pretty awesome, right?"

Jotaro and Izuku only stared at All Might; he was literally telling his successor to do something outlandishly foolish - tell the world he was literally the next Symbol of Peace. 'I think he's gone mad...'

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"All Might..."

"Yes, Young Kujo?"

"Whatever 'proposal' or 'plan' you're thinking of is..." He said with his eyes squinting the entire time. "... Utterly stupid."

"EH?!" All Might interjected; he must've thought his idea was a good idea. "What do you mean?!"

"It's your catchphrase first of all..." He muttered pinching the bridge of his nose. "I just think it'll be disastrous..."

Izuku then slowly raised his hand. "Uhm... All Might?"

"Ah-! Yes, Young Midoriya?"

"Besides that... what can I do?" he said sheepishly. "If I were to guess, the competition would be against me..."

"Actually, that's not particularly true." All Might said reassuringly. "You know how the sports festival is set up, right?"

"I mean It's a little fuzzy, but I think I recall some things about the sports festival - like how students are separated by class year and curriculum, and then they have to fight each other to make it through the preliminaries." He explained. "Whoever makes it through the initial games will face off in the finals, it's basically a big round‐robin tournament..."

Jotaro had never heard such a weird phrase before. 'The hell's a 'round-robin?''

"THAT'S RIGHT!!" All Might suddenly pointed at Izuku with both hands to emphasize his accuracy. "That means you'll have plenty of opportunities to sell yourself!!"

"I guess...?"

"'I GUESS' HE SAYS?!" All Might instantly fell backward onto the floor; he couldn't believe Izuku's wimpy response.

"WHAA?! I'm sorry!" he apologized. "But... honestly, it's kind of hard to get excited about this after everything that just happened at the USJ... plus-"

"STOP TALKING!!" Jotaro yelled, immediately knowing what Izuku was about to do - an extensive analysis. 'I should've packed some deployable bagels for these damn occasions...'

"Ugh..." All Might groaned, he still was lying on the floor. "You two..."

"Oh, hey, are you okay?!" Izuku asked, remembering that All Might was still lying on the floor.

"Regardless, some heroes always aim for the top, while others happily settle." All Might simplified, looking at the Izuku once again. "The difference between those two mindsets greatly impacts how far you go in the real world."

All Might got up and looked at his pupil. "I understand how you feel, Young Midoriya, and I may even be projecting a bit of myself onto you."

'Unfortunately...' Jotaro sighed.

"However... I hope you haven't forgotten the emotions you felt back at the beach during our training."

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another chapter bites the dust

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